Vanessa Selbst Returns, Sits Near the Top of WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship as 24 Remain
The WPT Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Championship has seen its third day come to an end. When the dust had settled, it was Kevin Albers leading the final 24 with a stack of 4,340,000. Albers was on a steady climb throughout the better part of Day 3 and rocketed to the top during the latter stages of the night.
Sitting in second place is Dave Farah who ended the day with 4,135,000 in chips. Farah recorded his most significant career cash in January of this year, in the Borgata, during the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open $3,500 Championship when he finished runner-up for an immense $485,611 payday.
WPT Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Championship Big Names in Contention
A few more big stacks to end the night are Victor Ramdin (3,740,000), Uke Dauti (3,305,000), and David Prociak (3,280,000). Prociak hovered just above average until the last hand of the night when he made a huge call with his pocket nines against Scott Baumstein, who four-bet shoved with nine-eight. Prociak catapulted to near the top while Baumstein ended the night as the shortest stack.
Another familiar face to find a Day 3 birth is Vanessa Selbst (lead photo) who will be entering Day 4 sixth on the leader board with her 3,090,000 stack. Selbst has almost $12 million in live career earnings, all of which dating from 2017 and before. The Brooklyn, NY native stopped playing professionally in 2017 to pursue a job and overall more stable life. “You have no job security, no health insurance, you’re traveling constantly," she told the Times at the time.
The venue is close to home for Selbst, and she found some free time to take a shot that shot could end up being the third WPT final table of her career. She has two WPT final table appearances for $917,103 in earnings with her biggest cash coming in the Borgata for $492,569 when she finished runner-up to Anthony Zinno during the 2013 Borgata Poker Open.
There is another notable Borgata WPT title winner in the field, and that player is Aaron Mermelstein. He'll be starting the third day on the shorter side of things with 590,000 in chips. Mermelstein is an accomplished pro with his biggest cash coming in 2015 during the WPT Borgata Winter Open $3,500 Championship for an enormous $712,305 score. Mermelstein may be coming into Day 4 as one of the shorter stacks but has proven before that he can maneuver a short-stack into a deep run. Look for the Philadelphia native to spin up his chip count on Day 4 and add another significant score to his impressive resume.
A total of 145 started Day 3, all of which were in the money and guaranteed at least a min-cash of $5,797. Many well-known players made the money but failed to reach the fourth day including Mike McGuinness (25th - $18,288), Aaron Massey (28th - $18,288), Jonathan Little (36th - $15,527), Ian O'Hara (37th - $15,527), Asher Conniff (47th - $13,355), Tony Dunst (57th - $10,183), and John McGuinness (63rd - $10,183).
Day 4 will resume on level 24 with the blinds at 15,000/30,000 and a big blind ante of 30,000. The clock will show 59:58 as that is where Day 3 ended and all levels afterward will be 90-minutes in length.
The fourth day will play down until just six remains, and those six will return to action on Day 5 for a live-streamed WPT final table. The final six will be guaranteed at least $130,672 for their efforts with $616,186 going to the eventual winner, along with a $15,000 seat to the WPT Tournament of Champions.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be bringing you all of the coverage as the tournament unfolds, so stay tuned! WPT Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Championship live updates can be found in the PokerNews Live Reporting section.
