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September 19th 2006
WPT Borgata Open: Jennifer Tilly dominates
With 27 players left there is still an awful long way to go, but (whisper it) Jennifer Tilly, the Hollywood movie star and girlfriend of Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, is potentially on the verge of a seminal moment in her poker career.
Jennifer has of course already won a WSOP bracelet (in the 2005 Ladies NL Hold’em event) and is no novice on the tables, but she will be fully aware that a poker success is judged only by results in mixed field competitions, and they don’t come much bigger than a WPT main-event.
It has been a great three days poker for the Bullets Over Broadway actress, as she has motored her way into fourth place with a significant $874,000 in chips. She has long outlasted her more experienced other half as well as 518 other hopefuls. If she can last another two days she will change her poker profile forever.
If truth be told Jennifer Tilly’s presence in the latter stages of this tournament has added some much needed glamour to a field shorn of many of the WPT’s biggest stars. Of those missing Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Joe Hachem, Mike Matusow, Kenna James, Marcel Luske, John Gale, and Andy Black have been in action in the EPT Barcelona Open while Johnny Chan, David Williams, Jeff Madsen, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot and Jamie Gold are reportedly in action in the TCI invitational. All in all it left the Borgata Open with a rather star-less line-up.
Having said that there were still some big names in the field, and indeed there still are. Seven places below Tilly the cerebral David Sklansky is lurking in 11th with $462,000 in chips, while in 19th place the Robin Hood of tournament poker, Barry Greenstein, is also in with a shout.
But heading into the penultimate day with a considerable chip lead is Athanasio Diakos who, with $1,555,000 chips has a $455,000 lead over second placed William Blanda. Diakos will be hopeful he can push on for the $1.519 million first prize, but as history has shown, the merciless blind structures at the end of WPT tournaments rarely allow for such a smooth transition from chip leader to tournament winner. There will be twists and turns round the corner, of that you can be sure.
The top ten chip counts going into Day Four are as follows:
1 Athanasio Diakos $1,555,000
2 William Blanda $1,100,000
3 Mark Newhouse $1,004,000
4 Jennifer Tilly $874,000
5 Anthony Argila $803,000
6 John Parker $787,000
7 Louis Russo $756,000
8 Chris Bell $696,000
9 Shawn Chaconas $546,000
10 Mark Zulkiewicz $492,000
Submitted: 19/09/2006 11:35:56
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