$100 + $25 No Limit Hold’Em Deep Stack

Blinds 1K/2K Ante 200

31 players remain with 5 minutes left in Level 13.

An early position player raised to 6300 and Max Jones called from late position. The big blind made it 22K to go and the original raiser folded. Jones raised his eyebrows, looking across the table at his foe. The shaved head, somewhat Patrik Antonius lookalike rested his head confidently on his hands. Peering through shades, he looked directly at Jones. After spending some time thinking about what to do, Jones grabbed a stack of 1K chips and made the call.

The flop came and the big blind moved all in for his last 45K. Jones glanced quickly at the flop and announced call. The hands:

Big Blind:  Jones:

Jones had flopped a set and would felt the big blind when the turn was the and river was . Walking away, I could hear the big blind telling his girlfriend “I was hoping he had Ace Queen.” Jones explained his though process pre-flop… “I was thinking about what he might have and decided that if no ace or king came on the flop that I was going to go all in. I’m not calling 22K to set mine.”

The pot puts Jones up to 215K which makes him the clear chip leader at this point with just over 30 minutes left to play.

$100 + $25 No Limit Hold’Em Deep Stack

Blinds 1K/2K Ante 200

Players have just returned from their last break of the night. There are 37 players remaining with one hour of poker left to be dealt. The current chip leader for this flight looks to have approximately 160K which is more than the 147K the Event 1-A chip leader had. Sitting right next to him is another player with 150K – it’ll be interesting to see if these two tangle in the next hour.

$100 + $25 No Limit Hold’Em Deep Stack

Blinds 600/1.2K Ante 200

There are 51 players remaining with 15 minutes left in Level 11.

We have a poker heckler on our hands here in The Poker Room at Seminole Hard Rock. A woman moved all in over the top of an older gentleman. A man watching from a nearby chair stood up and told him “You can’t call her. You know you’re beat.” He still called and turned over A-K. The woman turned over 9’s and flopped a set. “A K going home,” taunted the railbird. “A K going home. Calling with A K. Going home.”

A few tables over, a big pot went down when we had a raise to 2.5K and a re-raise to 7K. A player in late position thought the re-raise was a call and threw out 2.5K. The dealer informed him that it was a raise and he said that he couldn’t tell that the 5K chip wasn’t a 500 chip (they are eerily similar, especially from a distance). The floor was called over and he was told he could either forfeit the 2500 and fold his hand or make the call. He decided to make the call. A short stacked player moved all in for less and the original raiser folded.

The flop came . “I’m all in,” the pre-flop re-raiser announced. Just as quick, the player who made the pre-flop mistake said “I’m all in too. I flopped it” while turning over for a flopped straight. His opponent had flopped a monster as well with for a set. The short stack turned over giving him outs to a jack to survive. The turn was the keeping the straight in the lead. The river made it all meaningless as it was the putting a straight on the board and leading to a chopped pot. The player with A-Q let out a sigh of relief, as I’m sure the player with the set of 10’s did internally knowing that he wasn’t losing a large portion of his chips.

$100 + $25 No Limit Hold’Em Deep Stack

Blinds 500/1K Ante 100

With the flop showing , the pre-flop raiser led out for 2K. He was quickly raised to 8K by his lone opponent. The pre-flop raiser, a calm kid wearing a tan jacket with close cut brown hair, announced quietly with a movement of his chips into the middle that he was all in. He had his slightly older opponent, a somewhat serious gentleman wearing a grey with neon green striped warm up jacket and sunglasses, covered. It took about a minute before he decided that his was worth the call. The pre-flop raiser proudly turned over pocket aces, well in the lead, and looking to add a significant amount to his stack.

The turn had other thoughts though as it was the giving his opponent two pair. The river only added insult to injury… turning two pair into a full house. To his credit, the player with aces calmly shook it off and proceeded to double up twice on consecutive hands with pocket pairs.

$100 + $25 No Limit Hold’Em Deep Stack

Blinds 400/800 Ante 100

We have the chip counts from Event 1-A posted. You can view them here:

http://www.seminolehardrockpokeropen.com/rrpo-posts/rrpo-chips/event-1-day-1a-final-chip-counts/

There are 72 players remaining in Event 1-B. They have 20 minutes left in this level.

$100 + $25 No Limit Hold’Em Deep Stack

Blinds 300/600 Ante 75

All the players have moved upstairs. We have 90 players remaining and about 15 minutes left at this level before the 2nd break of the evening. We will be playing 14 levels tonight.

There are plenty of opportunities to take part in this event though. We have three more days with two flights each day. Not to mention that you can re-enter at any time prior to beginning of Level 5. If you weren’t able to make it down today, you should definitely join us over the next three days as the prize pool is going to be amazing.

$100 + $25 No Limit Hold’Em Deep Stack

Blinds 200/400 Ante 50

We’re only 3 hours in thus far and we’ve already lost nearly half the players as only 126 of the original 239 remain. It’s easy to see why when you see some of the hands that are taking place. At one table, kings bested queens for a 70K pot. Right in front of me, pocket 6’s cracked aces when quads were flopped and the aces could not get away from their hand. Short stacks are also putting in their chips, hoping to win a race, like one gentleman just did with pocket 8’s against A-J. The snowmen held and the short stack doubled up to just over the starting stack of 10K.

And just moments ago, on a flop, three players got all their chips in. A short stack had nothing but . The second shortest stack held for top pair. The biggest stack in the hand had flopped a set with pocket 8’s. The turn was the . The river was the giving the gentleman with a flush and the winning hand. “Flush?” the player who flopped the set said, a look of disbelief over his face. He slammed his headset down on the table. “F***ing unbelievable,” he muttered. He’s still glaring and muttering at his opponent nearly five minutes later.

$100 + $25 No Limit Hold’Em Deep Stack

Blinds 150/300 Ante 25

The players have just returned from a 15 minute break and registration is officially closed for this flight. We had an impressive 239 entrants, bringing the total through the first day to 427.

Taking a look at various stacks throughout the room, it looks like our chip leader currently has approximately 75K in chips. That’s a pretty good haul for two hours of play considering they started with 10K in chips. They’ll probably be out in less than an hour though if they play like most first few levels big stacks do.

$100 + $25 No Limit Hold’Em Deep Stack

Blinds 100/200

A common theme among poker players, especially the young generation, is to wear hoodies. You might think in South Florida that might be different but as you walk through The Poker Room at Seminole Hard Rock, there are countless players dressed as if it is the middle of winter in Minnesota – some are even blowing on their hands. Maybe it helps them focus more?

We have 15 minutes left in level 4 and registration will close at the end of this level. We have exceeded the number of entrants from this morning’s flight as the number currently showing on the tournament clock is 219. We’ll get you the final numbers shortly.