Defending Champion James Lauer Leads After Opening Flights of Borgata Deep Stack Kick Off

The first two starting flights of the $600 Deep Stack Kick Off ($1,000,000 Guaranteed) are in the books at the Borgata Summer Poker Open powered by BetMGM Poker, and there's a familiar face sitting atop the chip counts.

Defending champion James Lauer has picked up right where he left off last summer, bagging a tournament-leading 1,140,000 chips after cruising through Day 1a. Lauer spent much of the day among the leaders before finishing well clear of the rest of the field as he looks to make another deep run in the event that produced the biggest score of his career 12 months ago.

Lauer wasn't the only player to build a mountain of chips on Day 1a. Leo Saiag finished second in the flight with 758,000, while Scott Lesh rounded out the top three with 625,000.

The opening flight attracted 378 entries, with 48 players reaching the money and locking up a $1,200 min-cash. By night's end, just 31 players remained to advance to Day 2.

Joining Lauer among the Day 1a survivors are James Lillis (563,000), Brandon Mueller (449,000) and Bijay Lama (222,000), who burst the money bubble by eliminating Hector Santucci in a flip to guarantee the remaining players a payday.

Day 1b drew another healthy crowd, with 189 entries taking their shot at the seven-figure guaranteed prize pool. Robert Elias emerged as the chip leader after bagging 955,000, narrowly ahead of Steven Petitte, who finished with 930,000. Omar Taveras completed the podium with 468,000.

A total of 24 players cashed in Day 1b, with 16 players surviving to bag chips for Sunday's Day 2.

Day 1ab Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Chip Count	Flight
1	James Lauer	1,140,000	A
2	Robert Elias	955,000	B
3	Steven Petitte	930,000	B
4	Leo Saiag	758,000	A
5	Scott Lesh	625,000	A
6	Scott Trivolis	599,000	A
7	James Lillis	563,000	A
8	Alexander Murphy	506,000	A
9	Andrew Torrico	480,000	A
10	Matthew Iles	476,000	A
11	Omar Taveras	468,000	B
12	Nathaniel Lindquist	466,000	B
13	Derek Childress	456,000	A
14	Brandon Mueller	449,000	A
15	Eli Hersh	446,000	B
16	Marc Rabin	439,000	A
17	Han Oh	427,000	A
18	Sanjeev Datta	373,000	B
19	Carmine Tirone	367,000	B
20	Jason Min	366,000	A
21	Francis Gottron	344,000	A
22	George Small Jr	336,000	A
23	Bartlomie Glab	316,000	A
24	Edward Sullivan	292,000	A
25	Mordechai Goldner	290,000	A
26	Inhyo Joo	290,000	A
27	Jose Jaramillo	278,000	A
28	Jamie Carmen	277,000	A
29	Mark Stover	276,000	A
30	Norman Rogers	262,000	B
31	David Levy	243,000	B
32	Matthew Faust	241,000	B
33	William Shaw	234,000	B
34	Bijay Lama	222,000	A
35	John Miranda	166,000	B
36	Demetrios Frangias	162,000	B
37	Timothy Latouch	160,000	A
38	Wesley Clark	156,000	B
39	Eric Valerio	139,000	A
40	Todd Mungin	137,000	A
41	George St. Lawrence	130,000	A
42	Michael Matrone	129,000	A
43	Youngmin Han	127,000	A
44	Genaro Ticona	120,000	B
45	Quan Quach	116,000	A
46	Mark Donly	110,000	A
47	Christopher Weekes	82,000	B

Tags: Bijay Lama Brandon Mueller Hector Santucci James Lauer James Lillis Leo Saiag Omar Taveras Robert Elias Scott Lesh Steven Petitte