Alan "BodogAri" Engel placed third at the Borgata $500,000 Guaranteed poker tournament. (Bodog Beat Image)

The largest guaranteed poker tournament in Atlantic City history wrapped up last night at the Borgata and Bodog online poker player Alan "BodogAri" Engel finished in third place.

As we mentioned yesterday, the $2,150 buy-in No Limit Holdem tournament began on Sunday and offered a guaranteed a prize pool of $500,000. However, an amazing 775 players came out bumping the prize pool up over $1.5 million.

The details of the final table and what happened when and even who won how much are scarce and incomplete. The guys over at LivePokerRadio.com live-blogged as much as they could but switched to their radio gig when it got down to the final few players and we are not about to sit through a radio broadcast to try and figure out the big hands and who busted with what and how much they made for busting out when they did. If you want to do that, please feel free. Leave the details in the comments.

Anyway, what we were able to glean from different sources was the order of the top nine and what first place paid out. Here's what we got:

1. Schuyler Twaddle – $395,000
2. Weiwen Liang
3. Alan "BodogAri" Engel
4. Mark Reynolds
5. John Racener
6. Eric Seigel
7. Weiwen Liang
8. Richard Marshall
9. Larry Goldstein

These smaller tournaments are filling up the gaps in the poker tournament circuit schedule until the 2008 WSOP gets underway in just a few weeks (holy crap, it it really that time again already?). If you don't have a seat in the largest tournament series in the world, then head over to Bodog and check out the 2008 WSOP online poker qualifiers.

Charles Simmons writes poker news for the Bodog Beat.

Alan “Bodog Ari” Engel currently sits in fifth place heading into the Borgata Final Table. (Bodog Beat Image)

The final table of $2,000 Borgata Deep Stack tournament goes down today with Bodog’s own Bodog Ari sitting in fifth place with $1,809,000 in chips.

The tournament, which guaranteed a $500,000 prize pool, ended up with a gigantic field of 775 that generated a $1,550,000 prize pool. First place will receive $395,095.

The final table with players’ places and chip counts is as follows:

1. Matthew Milliken Madison, $3,578,000
2. Kambiz Behbahani, $2,773,000
3. Harry Frankel, $2,112,000
4. Mark Reynolds, $1,866,000
5. Alan Engel, $1,809,000
6. Hamid Michael Hakami, $1,745,000
7. Eric Siegel, $1,004,000
8. Mihail Stoykov, $935,000
9. Steve Ryan, $800,000
10. Jin Chung, $785,000

We don’t recognize any of the other names at final table except Eric Seigel who has had several decent cashes in live games but no final tables since his fifth place finish at the 2007 Borgata Poker Open for $35,550.

Play will resumed at 11:00 a.m. ET so stay tuned to Bodog Beat for more updates.

And if you’re looking to qualify for any major live tournament through online satellites, just check out Bodog’s Player’s Choice qualifiers.

Bodog online poker player Alan "BodogAri" Engel is one of the leaders after Day 1 of the WSOP Circuit event at Caesars Palace. (Bodog Beat Image)

Well, once again a major poker tournament dismissed the majority of its well-known poker pros early on in competition. What started out as a stacked field of 334 players at the WSOP Circuit event at Caesars Palace has been whittled down to just 54 and has lost a considerable amount of star power along the way.

Waving "adios" yesterday were Gavin Smith, Erick Lindgren, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Michael Mizrachi, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, the early-on chip leader Chad "lilholdem954″ Batista, Erik Seidel, David "The Dragon" Pham, Shannon Shorr, WPT Player of the Year Jonathan "FieryJustice" Little and so, so many more. Oh, what could have been.

Fortunately, there are still some noted poker players coming back later today, including some Bodog black and red in the form of Bodog online poker players Alan "BodogAri" Engel and Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo, both in the top 15. Joining them will be Mark "newhizzle" Newhouse, Nenad Medic, Bill Edler, Allen Cunningham and Alex Kravchenko.

The first-place prize has been announced and will fall just shy of the half-million mark at $499,162. The top 36 will receive a little something for their trouble and that money bubble will most likely burst in the first half of play today, which resumes in just a few hours. So, stay tune to the Beat for more updates from Ceasars Palace and the WSOP Circuit event.

Charles Simmons writes poker news for the Bodog Beat.