HOSE Recap

Borgata Summer Poker Open 2010
Event 15: $400 + $50 H.O.S.E.

The $400 buy-in H.O.S.E. mixed-game tournament drew a relatively small field of 41 players. The resulting prize pool of $16,400 would be distributed among the final five players.

It takes a different kind of player to play a mix of games that changes every eight hands. In this event, the rotation was Hold'em, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7-Card Stud, and Stud Eight-or-better. It also requires a different set of mathematical skills playing Limit games where the bets are fixed and you can't just shove all your chips in whenever you want.

There were not a lot of notable players in the field, but one such player who did not make the money was Adel Shakerian (Falls Church, VA). Adel won the Omaha Hi/Lo event during the Spring Borgata Poker Open in April 2010 ($13,489). He came close to a repeat victory in the same event two days ago, but had to settle for 6th place and $1,514. Today, he narrowly missed another cash, finishing 7th.

Kevin Smigel (Martinsville, NJ) has cashed in some No Limit Hold'em tournaments and some Stud Hi/Lo events, but this is his first reported cash in a mixed game event. He finished 5th today, earning $1,432.

Among the players who cashed today, Anthony "The Greek Jr" Snyder (Leonia, NJ) is by far the most accomplished. He has lifetime tournament earnings over $124,000. Although most of that money was won playing No Limit Hold'em, he has made final table appearances in both Omaha Hi/Lo and Stud Hi/Lo events. Today he finished 4th for $1,750.

The final three players battled for quite a while, each holding the chip lead at some point. Eventually, the ever-increasing limits took their toll and Jeffrey Wiemann (Allentown, PA) fell in third place. Jeffrey earned $2,386 for his efforts.

Heads-up play began with Vincent Basilicata (Queens, NY) holding almost a two-to-one chip lead over Dave Capell (Morganville, NJ). On the final hand, they were playing Omaha Hi/Lo and Dave got his last bet in on the turn holding a pair, a flush draw, a gutshot draw to a wheel and a low draw with counterfeit protection. Vincent held two pair. The river missed all of Dave's outs and despite playing a valiant game, he would have to settle for second place, for which he took home $3,977.

Vincent Basilicata earned $6,363 for first place, along with the beautiful crystal trophy. Vincent has some cashes to his credit in No Limit Hold'em, but this is his first reported cash in any other game.

He's been playing poker for about 15 years and says that Stud Hi/Lo is his favorite game. Despite this, Vincent took a beating in the 6k/12k Stud Hi/Lo round and was left with only 50,000 chips. When the game changed to Hold'em, he blinded down to only 15,000 before starting to claw his way back into the game. Before the game changed again, he was back to almost 100,000. Once he reclaimed the chip lead, it was his for good.