Report: Borgata Poker Open Event 1 Suspended Due to Counterfeit Chips
Pretty wild news coming out of Atlantic City, where the first event of the Borgata Winter Poker Open was suspended on Friday due to possible counterfeit chips. Borgata and New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement officials are on the scene according to Borgata Senior Vice President of Operations Joe Lupo and PokerNews. The chips with a value of 5,000 were reportedly at issue, although PokerNews and Borgata did not report as such, and one Twitter poster shared an image of them (pictured).
Lupo added, “We have reason to believe the tournament was compromised. There’s nothing more important than ensuring the integrity of the tournament. All other tournaments are moving forward with full confidence.” The tournament was a $2 million guaranteed Big Stack No Limit Hold’em event. There were 27 people remaining when play was stopped.
According to Borgata officials, Event #1 is suspended until at least Noon Eastern Time on Saturday. All other Borgata Winter Poker Open events will run as planned.
Twitter was ablaze with discussion about the suspension and a few more details emerged. Poker player Roman Valerstein commented on Twitter, “Commission suspending the first event for 24 hrs to investigate the counterfeit chip issue.” When asked if he thought entrants would be refunded, he responded, “I’d be very surprised if it ended with people getting refunds, would be a nightmare scenario for Borgata and not really fair.”
Daniel Bugzon, who was one of the 27 players remaining, joked on Twitter, “Hope the gaming commission doesn’t link the chip scandal to me doing a little better than a min-cash for once.” Longtime PocketFiver Ari Engel added, “Reports out of Borgata saying a ton of fake chips have made their way into play in the 560/2m.”
Responding to Engel’s Tweet, Anthony Erekat, who was playing in the first event at Borgata, Tweeted on Friday, “I’m disgusted because I mentioned a few times yesterday that something wasn’t right… I mentioned it to a few players they said no way. I said something seems off with a few other players.”
Jesse Martin shared the potential bright side: “One good thing about this counterfeit chip controversy at Borgata is that maybe it will push the industry toward improving chip technology.”
First place was scheduled to make $372,000, while everyone remaining was guaranteed at least $8,100. The top 450 people made the money and Allard Broedelet led the final 27 with 10.3 million in chips. There were 4,800 entrants. Gaming officials were reportedly looking over surveillance tapes to determine the source of the counterfeit chips.
The WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open begins on January 26. It’s a $3,500 buy-in event with two starting days. Visit PocketFives’ New Jersey poker community for the latest.
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