Poker
| On 2 years ago

High-Stakes Poker Tourneys Set To Return To The Borgata

Big time poker is returning to the Borgata as the hotel and BetMGM present the aptly named “The Return: A Borgata Championship Event” that is being held over a seven-day period inside the poker room starting on Jan. 2.

The big battle will be the Championship Tournament, which will begin on Jan. 4 and feature a $5,300 buy-in. The tourney will feature a guaranteed prize pool of $3 million with the field competing for the $1 million top prize. The final table will be on Sunday, Jan. 8.

“The return of championship poker to Borgata is a long time coming,” Vincent Alonge Jr., Borgata’s director of poker operations, said in a press release announcing the event. “Borgata is the premier gaming destination on the East Coast, which includes best-in-class poker tournaments.” 

BetMGM will offer an array of online qualifiers, with Borgata Poker hosting multiple in-person qualifiers leading up to “The Return,” including a $540+$60 Big Stack No Limit Hold’Em tournament on Tuesday, Jan. 3. For details on this and other events leading up to “The Return,” players can check out the BetMGM poker platform.  

“BetMGM recognizes the strong legacy of tournaments at Borgata and is thrilled to collaborate with the team to bring online qualifiers to ‘The Return,’” Luke Staudenmaier, the director of poker for BetMGM, said in the release. “In the upcoming months, we look forward to offering online poker players various ways to qualify for this momentous event which will kick off 2023 with a bang!”

Borgata will host two additional guaranteed events from Jan. 6-8: a $1,000 Borgata Bounty Event and a $10,000 Super Survivor Event. 

Additionally, on Jan. 2, Borgata will host its first-ever Mystery Bounty event with $1,000,000 in guaranteed bounties. Mystery Bounty events allow players to win big by drawing a Mystery Bounty envelope with a top prize of $250,000. Instead of a standard bounty, players draw Mystery Bounties immediately after eliminating another player.

Early tournament registration for the Championship Event and the Mystery Bounty event opens on Dec. 1 through the BetMGM poker app. In-person sign-ups for all events will begin on Jan. 1 inside the Borgata poker room.

Photo: Shutterstock

Jeff Edelstein

Jeff is a veteran journalist, working as a columnist for The Trentonian newspaper in Trenton, NJ for a number of years. He's also an avid sports bettor and DFS player. He can be reached at jedelstein@bettercollective.com.