Despite the tournament no longer being a sanctioned World Poker Tour (WPT) event, the Borgata Winter Poker Open will nevertheless host a $3,200 buy-in Main Event with a $2 million guaranteed prize pool in 2009, casino officials announced this week. Known as the Borgata Poker Classic when it was part of the WPT, the Winter Poker Open now consists of 16 events. The action begins on January 13th from the Borgata, which is located in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The Main Event kicks off on January 25th and will feature two starting days. Players will receive 50,000 chips and the tournament runs for five days in total. There are actually two additional events which take place after the Main Event begins. Here is a schedule for the 2009 Borgata Winter Poker Open. All times are Eastern:

Event #1: Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em
Starting Days on Tuesday, January 13th and Wednesday, January 14th at 11:00am
$350 + $50 buy-in

Event #2: No Limit Hold’em
Thursday, January 15th at 11:00am
$500 + $60 buy-in

Event #3: No Limit Hold’em
Friday, January 16th at 11:00am
$750 + $60 buy-in

Event #4: No Limit Hold’em
Saturday, January 17th at 11:00am
$1,000 + $90 buy-in

Event #5: Pot Limit Omaha High
Saturday, January 17th at 1:00pm
$350 + $50 buy-in

Event #6: Ladies No Limit Hold’em
Sunday, January 18th at 11:00am
$260 + $40 buy-in

Event #7: Limit Hold’em
Sunday, January 18th at 12:00pm
$260 + $40 buy-in

Event #8: No Limit Hold’em
Monday, January 19th at 11:00am
$350 + $50 buy-in

Event #9: Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em
Starting Days on Tuesday, January 20th and Wednesday, January 21st at 11:00am
$500 + $60 buy-in

Event #10: Seven Card Stud
Tuesday, January 20th at 1:00pm
$260 + $40 buy-in

Event #11: No Limit Hold’em
Thursday, January 22nd at 11:00am
$2,000 + $150 buy-in

Event #12: Seniors No Limit Hold’em
Thursday, January 22nd at 12:00pm
$350 + $50 buy-in

Event #13: HOSE
Friday, January 23rd at 11:00am
$2,000 + $150 buy-in

Event #14: Main Event $2 Million Guaranteed
Starting Days on Sunday, January 25th and Monday, January 26th at 11:00am
$3,000 + $200 buy-in

Event #15: No Limit Hold’em
Monday, January 26th at 2:00pm
$500 + $60 buy-in

Event #16: No Limit Hold’em
Tuesday, January 27th at 3:00pm
$350 + $50 buy-in

The Borgata has made every effort to accommodate a broad range of bankrolls. In addition, it has included Ladies-only and Seniors’ events as well as HOSE, Omaha, and Stud tournaments. Similar to other tournament series, the Borgata will start the festivities off with an affordable high-octane deep-stack event. Ray Stefanelli, Director of Marketing for the Borgata, told Poker News Daily that the spectrum of tournaments offered will be a draw for players: “From a standpoint of offering variety, if you do the same thing over and over, it becomes mundane. However, a large prize pool and large field tournament is also attractive to people and is a big draw.”

The 2008 installment of the Borgata Winter Open, a World Poker Tour event, was won by Gavin Griffin. He became the only poker player ever to take down titles on each of the three major tours. He won the European Poker Tour’s end of season Monte Carlo Grand Final in 2007 and also won a Pot Limit Hold’em event during the 2004 World Series of Poker. In the WSOP tournament, he bested a talented final table that also included Ram Vaswani and Ultimate Bet personality Phil Hellmuth, who holds the record for number of bracelets won with 11.

In 2007, two-time WSOP bracelet winner John Hennigan claimed the title in the New Jersey casino. Hennigan also won the Ante Up for Africa charity poker tournament, a non-bracelet event, during the 2008 WSOP. He has over $830,000 in career WSOP earnings.

Attendance from the 2007 to 2008 Winter Poker Opens declined from 571 to 507 players, or 11%. The Borgata Poker Open, a WPT-sanctioned tournament that takes place at the casino every September, attracted 516 entrants in 2008, down from 560 in 2007.

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