Laz Hernandez Leads $3 Million Guaranteed WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship Day 1a
After nearly two weeks of relatively anonymous fields dotted by the occasional well-known pro, a slew of notable names and faces descended on the Borgata for the $3 Million Guaranteed WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship. Ironically, at the end of Day 1a, it's one of the anonymous faces who bagged up a massive chip lead.
Laz Hernandez, who has one recorded cash for $1,536, bagged 258,175, more than 70,000 clear of second-place stack John Racener (186,250). Rounding out the top five were Calvin Lee (169,050), Randy Pfeifer (150,100), and George Lampert (146,000). Other notables bagging solid stacks include Matt Brady (145,200), Steve Levy (144,250), Bob Panitch (140,000), Jordan Cristos (125,000), and Noah Schwartz (124,325).
Hernandez, who was reportedly down to about 3,000 early, won two huge hands to vault to the top of the counts, and he seemed to only keep climbing from there.
Notable players not bagging stacks for the day included Vanessa Selbst, Jonathan Little, Cliff Josephy, Chino Rheem, Men Nguyen, Kevin Eyster, and Roland Israelashvili.