PPI Perspective

The buzz leading up to The 2012 Borgata Winter Poker Open (BWO) tournament series had poker players from around the world making their plans to attend these spectacular events. The series kicked off with the Deep Stack $500k Guarantee which attracted a record breaking 1,873 players and generated a prize pool of more than $900k. The following events continued the trend of huge fields and more players are pouring into the Borgata as the excitement builds for the $2 Million Guaranteed Championship Event.

The Borgata staff was prepared as usual for the massive fields and the Event Center has an energy level unlike any other poker venue. Throughout any given day of the series there are more than four events running simultaneously and the Borgata team, which includes the best tournament director, floor staff, dealers and cashiers, ensure that this event series is running like a well-oiled machine.

As always the Live Updates writers help keep friends, families, and fans of all participants well informed about everything going on here at Borgata. They have a knack of combining up to the minute updates on the tournaments while sharing the stories and experiences of the players. Having covered numerous Borgata Poker Open series over the years, this experienced Live Updates Team gives the tournaments another level of excitement beyond the felt.

PPI (Poker Players International), the most prolific poker representation and marketing agency, is well represented here at the 2012 BWO. Many of the PPI Players have had tremendous success during the first few events, including Will "The Thrill" Failla who won the record breaking Event 1 and collected more than $165k and the Borgata winners trophy to add to his collection of titles that includes $3+ million in career tournament earnings.

PPI Players went back-to-back with BWO titles as Jon Sorscher took down Event 2 and more than $46k. The success of PPI Players continued as Matt "Muffins" Mazzeo put up back-to-back final table appearances that included a 2nd place finish in Event 4. We anticipate many more fantastic results from this talented group of players that are represented by PPI.

Throughout the BWO we will follow the PPI Leaderboard Contest which will award the winner a VIP Borgata Prize Package. Here is Leaderboard standings through Monday, January 23:


1 - 376.500 | WILL FAILLA
2 - 272.425 | JONATHAN SORSCHER
3 - 247.180 | MATTHEW MAZZEO
4 - 194.838 | MICHAEL DENTALE
5 - 159.838 | LAURENCE GOLDSTEIN
6 - 145.580 | GEORGE MEDRANO
7 - 131.500 | MARGUERITE SPAGNUOLO
8 - 127.193 | JAMES STENELLA
9 - 124.900 | VINEET PAHUJA
10 - 101.850 | DAVID INSELBERG



11 - 96.900 | RYAN ERIQUEZZO
12 - 96.025 | SHEREE BYKOFSKY
13 - 82.938 | JOSHUA BRIKIS
14 - 79.100 | MICHAEL SICA
15 - 68.600 | GORDON ENG
16 - 68.025 | DAVID ZEITLIN
17 - 61.125 | JONATHAN WERZ
18 - 55.800 | ANDREW KLOC
19 - 55.525 | CHARLES MARCHESE
20 - 48.800 | ROBERT HWANG
21 - 44.800 | JAMIE KERSTETTER
22 - 40.700 | KELLY ARMENTROUT
23 - 40.000 | JAMES SALTERS
24 - 38.800 | MICHAEL CASTALDO
25 - 34.225 | ROSLYN QUARTO
26 - 31.200 | KAREN PEREZ
27 - 30.000 | FRANK CIERI
28 - 29.825 | CARLOS COLON
29 - 28.300 | ELIZABETH GREY-PARDO
30 - 28.300 | JASON YOUNG
31 - 28.025 | ASHIRA LAVINE
32 - 26.800 | MICHAEL BORCHETTA
33 - 21.875 | CHRIS RESLOCK
34 - 17.500 | ANTHONY CAMPAGNA
35 - 17.500 | ALEXANDER CUKAR
36 - 17.500 | ADAM GERBER
37 - 17.500 | LISA PICKELL
38 - 17.300 | CONCETTA RINALDI
39 - 10.000 | JEFFREY VANCHIRO
40 - 7.800 | BRENT KELLER

Eric Siegel 

Co-Founder PPI 

Director of Marketing and Player Development