Day 1a of the Season XV WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open $3,500 Championship came to an end on Sunday night with about 200 survivors from a field of 379 entries, and WPT Champions Club member Olivier Busquet (pictured) led the pack with 185,000 (231 big blinds).
“My day was really smooth, to be honest,” Busquet said after play wrapped up for the night. “I started off getting aces to kings. And then I actually got aces to the same player that had kings, and he tried to run a really big bluff on me in a three-bet pot, and I made a difficult call and ended up being right. I flopped a set in a multi-way pot that worked out well.”
Busquet, who boasts nine career WPT cashes entering this event, won the Season VIII WPT Borgata POker Open $3,500 Championship on 2009 for $925,514 — the Fall’s version of this tournament. There, Busquet topped a field of 1,018 entries to capture the title.
“In general, my table was playing relatively loose and aggressive, and I made enough big hands overall to just keep creeping up and building,” Busquet added about his starting day. “I just didn’t really get coolered in any reverse spots, so I never had any big moves down. It was one of the more ideal kind of days that you could have.”
The full list of official chip counts won’t be released by the casino until Monday morning, but here is an unofficial leaderboard for the end of Day 1a:
1. Olivier Busquet – 185,000 (231 bb)
2. Joel Gola – 177,800 (222 bb)
3. Frank Calderone – 175,700 (220 bb)
4. Michael Hahn – 162,000 (203 bb)
5. Stephen Deutsch – 160,100 (200 bb)
6. Lily Kiletto – 150,500 (188 bb)
7. Billy Horan – 145,100 (181 bb)
8. Adam Geyer – 142,800 (179 bb)
9. Tyler Kenney – 141,000 (176 bb)
10. Cliff Goldkind – 131,600 (165 bb)
Tyler Kenney, who finished the day with 141,000 in chips and was towards the top of the surviving pack, scored a huge pot in the final level of the day when he won a three-way all-in clash.
Kenney had the 
against the 
of Ray Qartomy and the 
of another player. Kenney had both of his opponents covered, and the 
board kept his queens in the lead to bust both of them.
Day 1b will begin Monday at 11 a.m. ET, and registration will remain open with unlimited re-entries until the beginning of Level 11 (2:15 p.m. ET on Tuesday). Return to WPT.com for continued coverage of the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open $3,500 Championship.