WPT Director of Global Tour Management Sam Carioti kicked off Flight C of the WPTDeepStacks opener moments ago alongside Tournament Director Tony Burns and Royal Flush Girl Andrea Johnson.
The $1 Million Guarantee WPTDeepStacks event is playing on the front end of the 2018 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open schedule this year but that hasn’t slowed down the crowd. The tournament drew 778 entries through the first two flights and now it’s time for the last one to kick off.
The big opening event needs only 253 entries today to make the seven-digit mark and we expect to get there early. They’ll continue to build the prize pool with one of the biggest fields the WPTDeepStack tour will see this year.
We have 142 players who have already booked their way into Day 2 on Sunday and everyone is chasing Maksim Rozenfeld’s 402,000 stack at the top of the chip counts after two flights.
Each player will sit down to a 25,000 starting stack and the tournament plays 40-minute levels throughout. Late registration is available until the start of Level 10 at 6:30 pm after the dinner break and they are restricted to one re-entry if they bust out today. Flight C will continue to play down through 15 levels and all survivors will join up tomorrow for Day 2.
Action gets started at the top of the hour and we will continue to bring all the action along the way.
$1,100 WPTDeepStacks NLH (Single Re-Entry) $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Returning to Level 16: 1,500/3,000 with a 500 ante Players Remaining: 142 of 778
Flight A: 369 Entries, 68 Advanced Flight B: 409 Entries, 74 Advanced Flight C: Saturday at 11am Day 2: Sunday at Noon
$1,100 WPTDeepStacks NLH (Single Re-Entry) $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure End of Level 15: 1,200/2,400 with a 400 ante Flight B Players Remaining: 74 of 409
Play has come to an end for the second flight of the $1 Million Guarantee WPTDeepStacks event and we have a new leader. Maksim Rozenfeld was off the radar for most of the day but he got our attention with his big castle before too long.
He bagged up 402,000 to take the overall lead with 74 players advancing to Day 2, joining the 68 from Flight A. Also advancing we Loni Harwood, Sam Panzica, Tim Reilly, Stuart Paterson, and Darren Rabinowitz.
A combined 142 are moving on to Day 2 with one more big flight to go on Saturday.
Full chip counts will be published as soon as they are available.
2018 Lucky Hearts Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Event 3 $300 Seniors 50+ No Limit Hold’em Entries: 162 Prize Pool: $41,310 January 12, 2018
The WPTDeepStacks event drew a huge field in the ballroom but that didn’t stop our older players from piling into the meeting room to create a great field of their own. The Seniors Event drew 162 entries and produced a tough final table that saw SHRP regular Ira Schwartz walk away with the trophy.
Those 162 entries more than doubled the turnout in this event during last year’s Lucky Hearts Poker Open. They combined to create a prize pool over $40,000 with 21 players taking home some cash when they were through.
The stacks were deep and they had plenty of time to make their moves. The knockouts were slow in coming until they reached the money bubble after the dinner break. Then it only took one round of hand-for-hand action to burst the bubble and begin the process of paying out the prize pool.
Once they reached the final table ten, tournament staff moved them into the ballroom to play it out.
That table included players with several major SHRP series titles including Haim Toorgeman, Tim Kegel, and 2015 SHRP Player of the Year Ory Hen. John Gordon owns a WSOP Circuit ring and Brad “The Kid” Bargman was happy to be the youngest at the final table at the sprite age of 50 years old.
They were also a group of friends that enjoyed their time playing against each other and the final table had a nice rail cheering them along.
Carlos Cuevas began the final table with the shortest stack and he was unable to run up his five big blinds to exit in tenth place. Kegel followed in ninth place followed by Oscar Trestini in eighth. Fariborz Zojaji and John Gordon gave it a good fight but they hit the payout desk to leave only five left for the title.
Schwartz began the final table with the chip lead and was still out front when the five remaining players decided to chop up the remaining prize pool. Schwartz took the title and trophy as the chip leader and they all had a good laugh when the tournament was complete.
“I’m glad they decided to chop,” Schwartz laughed. “I’m so tired that I think I started seeing double at the end.”
Tournament Director Tony Burns came over to congratulate our Seniors Event champ and noted the Schwartz is one of the nicest players we see on a regular basis.
Congrats to Ira and good luck during the rest of the series.
Seniors Event results:
1st: Ira Schwartz – $6,624 + Trophy* 2nd: Brad Bargman – $6,570* 3rd: Sandy Tabin – $5,625* 4th: Ory Hen – $5,255* 5th: Haim Toorgeman – $2,910* 6th: John Gordon – $1,650 7th: Fariborz Zojaji – $1,429 8th: Oscar Trestini – $1,260 9th: Tim Kegel – $1,098 10th: Carlos Cuevas – $950 11th: Harry Eisenberg – $950 12th: Larry Paden – $950 13th: Sherriee Williams – $806 14th: Dean Rutledge – $806 15th: Robert Holcepl – $806 16th: Ronald Magers – $669 17th: Stephen Leahy – $669 18th: Juri Zaprudnov – $669 19th: Arlene Vazquez – $538 20th: Dennis Koltun – $538 21st: Gary Blais – $538 * – denotes a five-way deal
$1,100 WPTDeepStacks NLH (Single Re-Entry) $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 14: 1,000/2,000 with a 300 ante Flight B Players Remaining: 99 of 409
Flight B has reached the last level of the day as the field drops under 100 players remaining. They’ll finish up this up and those with chips will bag up for Day 2 on Sunday.
Craig Witz is doing well tonight and he’s on a freeroll. He told us he was a stunt double, most notably for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and he was put into the WPTDeepStacks event by his talent agency. Witz is hovering around 200,000 so he’s looking good for a Day 2 return.
$1,100 WPTDeepStacks NLH (Single Re-Entry) $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 14: 1,000/2,000 with a 300 ante Flight B Players Remaining: 117 of 409
We heard a ruckus from one of the tables in the front of the ballroom and we found a three-way all in pot with similar stacks. Jack Shea was all in for 27,300 with the best hand holding against Paul Balzano’s and another player’s .
Balzano was in a tough spot with one of his queens out of the deck but Shea took a commanding lead on the flop. There were two baby gutshot draw out there but Shea dodged the turn and river for the triple.
One player was eliminated and Balzano was left with a single 100 ante chip in the big blind. One player raised to isolate and Balzano was actually ahead with against for the tiny quintuple-up.
Balzano hit the flop but his opponent picked up an open-ended straight draw on the turn. The table was having a good laugh and they had a mini-explosion when the river finished the straight to send Balzano out.
$300 Seniors 50+ No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Level 18: 2,500/5,000 with a 500 ante | Payouts Players Remaining: 10 of 162
The huge Seniors field took its time but they finally made it down to a final table. The ten remaining players moved across the hall from the meeting room and are set to play down to the Seniors event champ.
The final table is packed with a lot of talent including regular Haim Toorgeman, Oscar Trestini, Ira Schwartz, Tim Kegel, and 2015 SHRP Player of the Year Ory Hen.