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September 19th 2006
WPT Borgata Open: Jennifer Tilly out but Sklansky makes final table
The WPT Borgata Open has reached the final table stage and, sadly, without its most glamorous participant. Jennifer Tilly performed brilliantly to reach the end of Day Three in fourth place but wasn’t able to push her chip advantage on to the final table. She wasn’t the only one however, with only three of the top ten chip counts at the start of Day Four making the final six.
Tilly got off to a great start, adding over $300k to her chip stack within 15 minutes of the “shuffle up and deal” announcement. On a Q-J-2 flop Tilly and John Phan got all their chips in the middle; Phan showed pocket aces but Tilly turned over pocket twos for a flopped set, eliminating Phan in 26th place. Tilly continued to play well, and was unlucky to lose a $300k pot to Brock Parker when a nine on the turn gave him two pair against Tilly’s top pair better kicker.
That pot dented Tilly’s stack somewhat, but with 15 players left she was going strong when she ran headfirst into Mark Newhouse. In a strange hand Tilly raised to $60k preflop and was called by Newhouse. The flop came Kh-Jh-7d and Tilly bet $95k and was again called by Newhouse. The turn was the Qc and Tilly then fired out a $300k bet, only for Newhouse to move all-in over the top. Tilly spent several minutes considering her move, but eventually decided she had to make the call, turning over Qs-7s for two pair. Newhouse however had Ah-Td for the nut straight, and the Ac on the river helped neither player. Tilly received $52,380 for 15th.
It was not the first, nor would it be the last, fortunate hand that Mark Newhouse was involved in that day. The man who ended up with a huge chip lead by the close of play extricated himself from a number of sticky spots with a good run of cards, not least when he made a flush with pocket nines when all-in preflop against the pocket aces of Brock Parker. He was also fortunate to knock out Bill Blanda after committing almost $700,000 chips on a ten high flush draw. Blanda’s set of fives amounted to nothing when the 2 of diamonds on the turn completed Newhouse’s hand. Then with just 8 players remaining he added a considerable pile of chips to his stack when he caught Athanasio Diakos on a steal. The Day Three chip leader’s KT was no match for Newhouse’s pocket queens, and Newhouse ended the day with over $7 million in chips.
Newhouse was joined at the top of the pack by the two Chris’s: Bell and McCormack. Bell, the winner of the Trump Classic in 2005, had a storming day and would have been in second place but for a big late blow to his stack. The man who administered that blow and the man who was perhaps the story of the day was, of course, Chris McCormack.
McCormack began Day Four in 26th place out of 27 players. With just $180,000 in chips he needed help and early and it arrived in the shape of two bullets. Two bullets became four when all-in against Shane Smith’s KK and the quad aces helped propel McCormack to just over $300k. For his next big pot McCormack had to enlist the services of lady luck, as with all his chips in the middle on a board showing Q-6-5 his Q-J was a long way behind Ronnie Ebanks’ KK. A five on the turn meant he was down to just two outs, but the Qc rode in on the river to rescue him. After eliminating Bruce Yamron and Steve Leveson in 17th and 13th place respectively McCormack then had his biggest win of the night. With just seven players remaining McCormack called a $120k preflop raise by Chris Bell and saw a flop of Ks-Th-6d. He then checked-raised Bell’s $150k bet to $450k only for Bell to re-raise to $1.4 million. After McCormack made the call for his last $1.3 million Bell turned over K-T for top two pair, and a relieved Chris McCormack flipped up pocket sixes for bottom set. The Ad turn and 8h river helped neither player, and Chris McCormack had doubled up to over $3 million. Bell was down to $1.5 million.
Shortly after that hand Bell eliminated the shortstacked Louis Rosso when his Kh-Td overcame Rosso’s pocket nines and we were down to the final six. Play will resume tomorrow at 5pm EST with the following players:
Mark Newhouse $7,025,000
Chris McCormack $3,000,000
Chris Bell $1,200,000
Blaise Ingoglia $840,000
Anthony Argila $700,000
David Sklansky $665,000
Submitted: 19/09/2006 11:06:57
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