Poker Pro Gavin Griffin Leads WPT Borgata Poker Classic

Although no longer frosted pink, poker pro Gavin Griffin is dominating the field at the WPT Borgata Poker Classic. (Bodog Beat Image)

Reigning EPT Grand Final champion and he of the pink hair Gavin Griffin went about collecting the chips of the less fortunate and surged to the lead during Day 2 of the WPT Borgata Poker Classic. Griffin began the day as just one of the 313 players trying to inch closer to the money bubble, sitting smack in the middle of the field with an average stack. However, by using the skill that became evident at the EPT Grand Final in Monaco last year, he climbed his way up as several of the day's early leaders saw their stacks crumble.

Poker pro Joe Sebok started the day near the top and looked to keep himself up there by picking up pots and increasing his lead, but the poker gods turned against him later in the day and he would eventually hit the rail with 30 minutes left in the last level. The same was also true for John "Razor" Phan, who was actually higher on the leaderboard at the start than Sebok, but wouldn't even make the dinner break.

Other notable bustouts included JC Tran, Alex Jacob, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and Team Bodog members David Williams, Josh Arieh and Smith Collins, who ran an A-Q into an A-K to end his day.

OK, so what we've avoided trying to say for the last couple of paragraphs is that the remaining 54-player field is pretty stacked. However, as we have come to find out, this means nothing. Dare we say that this has the potential to be a great final table? Does even thinking about it jinx it?

Anyway, outside of Griffin, you have online poker phenoms Noah "fourUhaters" Schwartz, Jared "TheWacoKidd" Hamby and Justin "zeejustin" Bonomo in the top 10, along with 2007 WSOP Main Event final tablist Lee Watkinson.

Further on down there's Vanessa Rousso, Dale Pinchot, John Juanda, Roy Winston, Isabelle Mercier, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Freddy Deeb, Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy, Jeff Madsen and Tuan Le all ready to take as big of a chunk of the prizepool as possible.

Here's to hoping Day 3 play is getting underway in, like, five minutes and will see the 54 pared down to 27. There are live updates over at PokerListings.com and chip counts available at CardPlayer.com.