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The World Poker Tour made its latest stop in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where 460 players arrived at the ballroom in the Borgata Casino for the WPT Borgata Poker Open. After the first of two Day 1 starting flights, the field of 460 was reduced to 245. Abe Korotki currently leads with just over 260k chips. He received an early prize of $5,000 simply for leading the first day.

Korotki has a long list of live tournament cashes on his resume, including a win at the WSOP Circuit Atlantic City ($433k), another win at the $2k Borgata Summer Open NLHE event ($122k), and various other cashes that bring his career earnings to over $700k. The prize pool at the 2011 WPT Borgata Poker Open will not be finalized until all registrants have bought into Day 1b.

A number of noted poker professionals will be joining Korotki on Tuesday’s Day 2, including Christian Harder, Ebony Kenney, Kenney Nguyen, Cornel Cimpan, Roy Winston, Vanessa Selbst and Will “The Thrill” Failla. Failla’s most recent win came just a few weeks ago, when he took the title in the WPT Legends of Poker Main Event along with $758k.

A long list of high stakes grinders weren’t so fortunate on Day 1a. Among those to hit the rail early were Andy Frankenberger, Ali Eslami, Eugene Todd, Gavin Smith, Dan Shak, Hasan Habib and Dwyte Pilgrim. Pilgrim won the WPT Borgata Poker Open in 2010, so it’s likely that he’ll pay the buy-in once again on Day 1b. Allen Bari, Brent Hanks and Dan O’Brien are also expected to re-enter the tournament after facing early elimination.

Tournament organizers are expecting the overall field to surpass 1,000 players, a goal that seems highly reasonable given the double-entry nature of the event. Stay tuned as coverage continues throughout the week.