Players who chose to enter this year's Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship Event expecting a small, soft field found themselves rudely awakened on Sunday, after getting a look at the record crowd already in attendance for just the first of two scheduled Day 1s.

By Monday afternoon, 1,017 players had entered this year's $3,200 buy-in Winter Poker Open (WPO), officially smashing the $2,000,000 guaranteed prize pool by more than a million dollars. Thanks to such a large starting field, 100 players will be able to cash in the WPO main event, with the eventual winner earning an impressive top prize worth $658,405.

Despite the smaller buy-in, the 2009 Borgata Winter Poker Open still managed to attract some of the top tournament pros on the circuit including Kathy Liebert, Kevin Saul, Steve Dannenmann, Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy, Hevad Khan, Bill Gazes, Eric Lynch, Eugene Todd "Bro", Will "the Thrill" Failla, Ted Forrest and Allen "The Chainsaw" Kessler.

Currently beginning Day 3, the WPO is already down to 175 players and should crack the money bubble early on today. Players still in the event include David Baker, Bill Edler, John Spadavecchia, Todd Terry, Ryan Karp and chip leader Frank Flowers.

Story by Mark Anderson