admin 3/29/2022
Nick Salimbene Poker
If the World Poker Tour has a tournamentwith a monstrous field, you can usually figure that it is the Borgata inAtlantic City that is responsible (the other is the Seminole Hard Rock inFlorida). The 2019 WPT Borgata Poker Open has proven to be another sizeablefield as, after Day 3, the 1156 entry field has been whittled down to the final24. There’s another surprise for poker fans as the “retired” Vanessa Selbst,who took time away from her job as a hedge fund manager, is looking to run downchip leader Kevin Albers.
- Rocco Giugliano open-shoved for 540k and got called by Nick Salimbene (Brick, NJ). Rocco's A7 off was dominated by Nick's A9 suited. The board came Q J 3 9 T and Nick took the pot. Rocco Giugliano finished in 17th place ($3,666).
- Official chip counts from the end of Day 2AB of the World Series of Poker 2018 Main Event. Nick DiVella: 292,600: Aymon Hata. Nicholas Salimbene: 52,900.
- Nick Salimbene (Brick, NJ) has emerged as the Chipleader. The recent college graduate is looking for a new career and stumbled upon tournament poker along the way. With tournament poker skills and a degree from William Patterson University, the future looks bright for the New Jersey native.
- Gaurav Raina - Nicholas Salimbene poker player profile. Get latest information, winnings and gallery.
145 Players Stared Day 3 Action…
Everyone was guaranteed a minimum cash($5797) at the start of the day, but the 145 players that were left wanted muchmore than that. Former WPT champion Jonathan Jaffe was leading the way when thecards went into the air on Wednesday, followed closely by another WPT Champions’Club member in Victor Ramdin. There were a litany of top pros trying to claimthis WPT championship, as Jean “Prince” Gaspard, Justin Liberto, Jonathan Little,Andy Frankenberger, Asher Conniff, and WPT color commentator Tony Dunst all hadchip stacks at the start of the action.
$2,500+$200 BSPO Championship NLH Re-Entry $1,000,000 Guaranteed Level 26: Blinds 25,000/50,000/50,000 BB Ante Total Entries: 519 Players Remaining: 6 Average Stack: 3,460,000 Nick Salimbene is next-to-last in chips, starting the day with 1,835,000, or about 37 big blinds. Still plenty of ammo with which to work. He started Day 2 near the top of the.
Jaffe would fall from the lead very early onWednesday after an intriguing battle. After a 10♠ 8♠ 8♦ flop, Jaffe checked hisoption from the small blind and Bill Jennings, in the big, showed no interestin checking himself. The third party in the hand, Jason Wade, DID want to playas he shoved a 20K bet to the center. Jaffe only called the action, butJennings check-raised Wade’s original bet, which was enough to get rid of Wade.
Jaffe either didn’t believe him or likedhis chances as he now re-raised Jennings’ bet, forcing Jennings all in for hislast 295K. When the cards came up, the hands basically played themselves.
Jaffe: K♠ 7♠ (King high flush draw)
Jennings: 8♣ 7♣ (flopped trips)
A King on the turn improved Jaffe, but notin the way he needed. Needing one of the remaining nine spades in the deck,Jaffe instead saw a red trey come on the river, shipping a monster stack ofchips (660K) to Jennings as Jaffe fell from the lead. Jaffe would never recoverfrom this setback, eventually finishing in 72nd place in thetournament.
Selbst Climbs Quickly, Finishes Strong
Selbst, who “retired” from poker and hasn’tcashed in a tournament since 2017, started out the day as one of the shorterstacks in the room. Sitting on a stack of 318K at the start of Day 3 play,Selbst found herself on an even shorter stack after Vladimir Peck doubled upthrough her. She wouldn’t let that minor setback get to her, however, as shesteadily climbed the ranks through the remainder of Wednesday’s action.
The pivotal hand for Selbst was againstAaron Mermelstein and Nicholas Salimbene. After a bet from Mermelstein and callsfrom Peck and Salimbene, Selbst powered out a three-bet of 200K that Mermelsteinand Salimbene called. A Q-8-7 flop greeted the trio and both Selbst andMermelstein checked their options. Salimbene pushed out a 450K bet, oddly leaving80K behind, but Selbst wasn’t stunned. She check-raised all in and, afterMermelstein finally believed her and folded, Salimbene released his final 80Kinto the pot ant the cards were turned up:
Selbst: A-Q off suit
Salimbene: K-Q off suit
Both had top pair, but Selbst hadSalimbene outpipped. The only card in the deck that would give Salimbene anoutright win was a King, which didn’t come on the turn deuce or the river six.As Salimbene packed up his bags in 39th place ($15,527), Selbststacked up her 2.4 million chips and cruised to the end of the night.
1. Kevin Albers, 4.34 million
2. Dave Farah, 4.135 million
3. Victor Ramdin, 3.74 million
4. Uke Dauti, 3.305 million
5. David Prociak, 3.28 million
6. Vanessa Selbst, 3.09 million
7. Nick Pupillo, 2.75 million
8. Donald Maloney, 2.505 million
9. Tyler Phillips, 2.04 million
10. Timothy Little, 1.945 million
Others with a shot at this WPT title including WPT Champions’ Club member Mike Linster, Ryan Olisar, Liberto and Ryan D’Angelo. Those that will have their work cut out for them include short stacks Mermelstein and Scott Baumstein.
The final 24 will reconvene at noon at the Borgata to play down to the six-handed WPT final table. That action will be livestreamed on Friday afternoon, with the eventual champion taking home a seat in the 2020 WPT Tournament of Champions and a $616,186 payday.
$400+$50 Almighty Stack NLH
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Structure Sheet
Level 11: Blinds 1,200/2,500/2,500 BB Ante
Flights A-C Entries: 1,379
10D Entries: 959
Nick Salimbene Poker Games
Nick Salimbene has been a staple of the tournaments here at Borgata, dating back to 2011. The New Jersey native more than doubled his lifetime earnings at last summer’s World Series of Poker. He got heads-up for a bracelet in the $1,000 Double stack NLH event, but had to settle for second place. The $397,908 prize money he earned was a nice consolation prize.
This is the first we’ve seen of Nick this series, but he cashed in last November’s Fall Poker Open Kick-Off.