Event 3: Friendly Foes

7-Card Stud ($300 + $50)

Townsend & Reslock

Compared to the break neck speed of No Limit Texas Hold'em, 7 Card-Stud is a relaxing stroll on a Sunday afternoon. And two of the area best stud players, Chris Reslock & Charlie Townsend, are taking the walk side-by-side in Event 3.

"Only friends in this game," says Townsend (Dagsboro, DE), who's sitting to the right of Reslock. "No, definitely not a rivalry."

This after Townsend and Reslock played stud poker heads-up for nearly three hours until Townsend finally won a 2008 title. The nature of the game and capped betting limits dictates that two evenly matched players can't force the action like they can in no-limit poker.

Reslock (Atlantic City, NJ) is a talented poker player in all games, evidence by his $1.7 million in career earnings. But Stud is one of his favorites, along with Pot Limit Omaha (PLO),
and earned him a coveted WSOP bracelet in 2007.

"Stud is geometrically more complicated than hold'em," says Reslock, who has 21 career wins, including two at Borgata, both in PLO. "There's more hidden information that can be deduced and more available information that can be integrated," he says about the thinking aspects of playing stud.

Townsend, like Reslock, cashes regularly at Borgata to go along with his eight career poker titles, three in stud. But if he's going to add another, he'll have to get past Reslock to do it.