$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 11: 600/1,200 with a 200 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 379
Players Remaining: 144

There’s plenty of hustle in the early flight and it’s already down to 144 players of the starting 379 entrants by Level 11. The number of survivors should be right in the neighbor of 60 moving forward to Day 2 on Sunday so there will be no slowdown.

It’s never too late for Seminole Hard Rock Poker team member Stewart Newman to get in the game. He was one of the later getting in today but he’s already grinding it up.

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 9: 400/800 with 100 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 379

If you’ve spent any time around major poker tournaments, you’re probably familiar with its soundtrack. There’s generally music playing softly through the speakers (typically rock music here at Seminole Hard Rock), the shouts of cocktail servers offering their wares, and periodic, “Seat open!” calls from the dealers. All of those sounds are mostly overshadowed by the constant, plasticky clatter of chips being shuffled by nearly everyone in the room.

At least one player is out to change that.

Attention #shrpo players: if you catch me shuffling chips at the table, mention this tweet and I will give you $20. #freeroll

— Darryll Fish (@DarryllFish) April 7, 2016

A quick chat with Fish revealed the motivation for the freeroll. “First of all, it’s obviously really bad for you hands,” he said. “But I’m also really focused on mindfulness lately. And everyone is so used to shuffling chips, that the act of not doing it is a much more mindful thing to do.”

Fish said he was considering trying this at the WSOP last year, but he waited until now to finally roll it out.

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 8: 300/600 with 75 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 379

Registration closed with a very healthy 379 entrants for the first flight of the $1 Million Guarantee. That puts us on a pace to blast over that money well before we shut the doors late on Saturday.

Darryll Fish was a late arrival but he made it in time to start his grind. The Seminole Hard Rock Poker team member has been on tear to start his year after he opened 2016 with a victory in the Aussie Millions Tournament of Championship.

If you missed your chance in Flight A, the next one kicks off at 6pm.

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 8: 300/600 with 75 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 370

Flight A is on its second break of the day with 370 entrants in the first run of the $1 Million Guarantee. We’ll pick up a few more in the next few moments before they restart for Level 9.

That will signal the closing of registration but there is another flight running at 6pm for those who overslept.

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 8: 300/600 with 75 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 365

Flight A has passed over 365 entrants and growing with 30 minutes left to register. The Thursday afternoon flight is generally the smallest of the six so this bodes well for crushing the $1 million guaranteed prize pool.

We tracked down last year’s $1 Million Guarantee winner Leonard Benitez early and we found another final table member. Three players cashed out of the tournament for six-digit payday, Sam Panzica was one them and he earned $109,000 for his third place finish.

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 6: 200/400 with 50 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 315

Flight A crossed over 300 entrants after the break and is building a nice afternoon field. We found Leonard Benitez in early action and he’s only player today who would be happy to repeat his result from this event last year.

Benitez made it through nearly 2,500 entrants in the $1 Million Guarantee event during the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, taking home over $113,000 after a final table deal with him holding the chip lead.

That was also the first recorded tournament cash for Benitez, not a bad way to start things off.

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 5: 150/300 with 50 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 300

Players have returned to the ballroom and everyone is chasing Hector Chevalier at the moment. He began his day with a 20,000 starting stack like everyone else but he’s managed to run it up to nearly 80,000 in the first two hours.

Chevalier’s biggest tournament score came in a $1 Million GTD event at the Borgata when he took home $93,000 for a third place finish. He’d probably like a repeat of that finish here this weekend.

Chevalier is followed closely by David Griggs with Brian Phillis and Larry Kusch rounding out the list of players over 60,000.

Top stacks and notable names:

Hector Chevalier – 79,950 (267 bb)
David Griggs – 76,600 (255 bb)
Brian Phillis – 63,250 (211 bb)
Larry Kusch – 60,325 (201 bb)
Will O’Connor – 52,300 (174 bb)
Roberly Felicio – 50,550 (169 bb)
Greg Levine – 49,750 (166 bb)
David Shaw – 47,725 (159 bb)
Ory Hen – 41,425 (138 bb)
Michael Chiappetta – 40,750 (136 bb)
Nigel Murray – 40,175 (134 bb)
Joe Ebanks – 25,050 (84 bb)
Kobi Ribak – 24,700 (82 bb)
Leonard Benitiez – 21,650 (72 bb)
Hunter Cichy – 19,650 (66 bb)
Stuart Paterson – 19,400 (65 bb)
Carter Gill – 19,075 (64 bb)
David Prociak – 12,325 (41 bb)
Erik Christensen – 10,875 (36 bb)

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 4: 100/200 with 25 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 240

Level 4 has come to an end and players in Flight A are leaving the ballroom on their first break. It’s a nice group so far and players still have more than two hours to head down to the registration desk for some action.

We’ll search the room for our early chip leaders and see who’s jumped in recently.

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 4: 100/200 with 25 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 225

Rafael Reis has some nice runs  in past $570 buy-in Seminole Hard Rock Poker tournaments. If recent history is any indicator, he’ll probably hit big in another one this year.

Reis picked up his first SHR Poker trophy in 2014 during the $570 Deep Stack at the Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” for $91,000. He followed that up with a final table appearance in this tournament last year during the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. That sixth place finish earned him another $87,000 for a $570 entrance price.

Reis is back today among the 200+ entrants in the early flight. It is a nice pace to begin the $1 Million GTD event.

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 2: 50/100
Flight 1A Entries: 145

Flight A continued to climb over the first levels and more players are coming out after putting a little breakfast in their bellies. The entrant count should continue to move higher at a brisk pace until registration closes in three hours.

There are few “soft” tables in a $1 Million Guarantee tournament but we found one that is particularly tough for first flight, first level.

Ory Hen is the reigning Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year after picking up the honors for the 2015 season. He had an incredible run and earned some nice bonus prizes for the feat.

David Prociak is sitting to Hen’s right and he is the current leader in the 2016 POY race ahead of Florida pro Timothy “TK” Miles. Prociak earned his leaderboard points courtesy of a second place finish in the Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” Championship and another runner-up result in the Seminole Immokalee Poker Challenge Main Event.

Because Table 12 wasn’t tough enough with those two at one end, the rest of the players also have to deal with WSOP Circuit winner John Depersio and 2015 November Niner Neil Blumenfield.