All posts by AlCantHang

Event 9 Day 1C: Ashkenazi Sends One Out

$570 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Level 7: 250/500 with a 75 Ante
Flight 1C Entries: 444

Ido Ashkenazi (Queens, NY)
Ido Ashkenazi (Queens, NY)

Ido Ashkenazi did not have a big stack at the first break but he’s quickly moving in the right direction. He was under 10,000 after two hours but built it up to 40,000 when he mixed it up with a player to his left.

They put the chips in the middle with Ashkenazi holding the best of it wit AcAs against AdQc but he had a small sweat after the QhTd4c flop. His aces held to move him near 80,000 midway through the day.

Ashkenazi captured a Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown trophy, winning the $570 Double Black Chip Bounty tournament after beating Will “The Thrill” Failla heads up.

Event 9 Day 1C: Liebert Joins Huge Field

$570 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Level 6: 200/300 with a 50 Ante
Flight 1C Entries: 415

Kathy Liebert (Las Vegas, NV)
Kathy Liebert (Las Vegas, NV)

Flight C crossed over 380 entrants shortly after the first break to become the biggest starting session of Event 9 and they crossed 400 in no time. The tournament is more than halfway to the $1 million guaranteed prize pool with bigger action to come.

Kathy Liebert is participating in some Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown action for the first time this series. As one of the most successful poker players in the world (male or female), she adds a big element to the tournament. Liebert has more than $6 million in career earnings, over two dozen tournament victories, and a WSOP bracelet in the 2004 $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout. Her biggest cash was a cool $1 million during the 2002 Party Poker Million Cruise.

Event 9 Day 1C: Santoni Owns the Big Stack

$570 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Level 5: 150/300 with a 50 Ante
Flight 1C Entries: 365

Luis Santoni (Aguada, FL)
Luis Santoni (Aguada, FL)

We found some big stacks at the first break in tournaments this series, but popular local Luis Santoni might have topped them all. He started the day with a 20,000 starting stack like everyone else then sextupled that stack (look it up) to 125,000 in two hours. Santoni is the only player holding a full barrel of 5K chips.

Table 27 is going to have a rough time today. Santoni is sitting in the middle of a four-player lineup that includes Sheddy Siddiqui, Joe Reddick, and Greg Marcus.

Ramon Munez is a distant second with 68,000 and we’ll keep an eye to see who can catch Santoni, the 1995 Legends of Poker Champion.

Top stacks and notables:

Luis Santoni – 125,000 (417 bb)
Ramon Munez – 68,000 (227 bb)
Dan Griggs – 62,600 (209 bb)
John Pappas – 60,025 (200 bb)
Marco Chan – 53,925 (180 bb)
Sheddy Siddiqui – 35,975 (120 bb)
Tony March – 28,150 (94 bb)
Nancy Birnbaum – 25,625 (85 bb)
Jeff Kessler – 25,075 (84 bb)
Andre Crooks – 23,150 (77 bb)
Howard Mash – 23,125 (77 bb)
Mike Beasley – 22,550 (75 bb)
Wally Maddah – 21,275 (71 bb)
John Holley – 20,000 (67 bb)
Greg Marcus – 19,075 (64 bb)
Joe Reddick – 17,050 (57 bb)
John Depersio – 16,675 (56 bb)
Abbey Daniels – 15,425 (51 bb)
Jason Gooch – 14,200 (47 bb)
Chad Eveslage – 13,625 (45 bb)

Event 9 Day 1C: More Than 300 on Break

$570 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 Ante
Flight 1C Entries: 320

Seminole Hard Rock Tampa ambassador Wally Maddah in before the first break
Seminole Hard Rock Tampa ambassador Wally Maddah in before the first break

Players are heading off on their first break of the day with more than 300 entrants in the game and more than two hours to register.

We’ll take a quick walk through the big field to track down our big stack and interesting names.

Event 9 Day 1C: Leveling Up

$570 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 Ante
Flight 1C Entries: 285

Andre Crooks (Lake Worth, FL)
Andre Crooks (Lake Worth, FL)

The cascading, exponential effects of a big-field re-entry tournament are showing themselves this afternoon. Players are firing back into the $1 Million Guarantee at the same time new players are making their way for their first buy-in.

Flight C saw 60 new entrants, two per minute, over the last level and we should hit 300 entrants before the first break of the day.

Andre Crooks is here in early action and can add to his big list of Seminole Hard Rock Poker results. His two biggest scores came here with a third place finish during last year’s WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship and a runner-up finish in the $1,100 tournament two years earlier.

Event 9 Day 1C: Two Hundred and Climbing

$570 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Level 3: 75/150 with a 25 Ante
Flight 1C Entries: 225

Jeff Kessler (Plantation, FL)
Jeff Kessler (Plantation, FL)

Flight C reached 225 entrants before the clock hit noon and we are looking to make this one the biggest flight of the tournament so far. The magic number is 380 to surpass the entrant count from yesterday afternoon and it’s looking good.

Jeff Kessler is one of our morning entrants and coming off a chopped up victory a few weeks ago. He already owned a Seniors Event trophy from the 2013 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” series and came close to winning another at a recent WSOP Circuit event with a fifth place finish, though he tells us he technically won since he had the biggest stack when a deal was stroke.

Event 9 Day 1C: Mashing Early

$570 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Level 2: 50/100
Flight 1C Entries: 180

Howard Mash (Coral Springs, FL)
Howard Mash (Coral Springs, FL)

It’s another fast, early pace for a morning flight and a little twitch in the matrix. The morning/afternoon sessions were traditionally the smallest of the multi-day flights but we’ve been trending the other way this series. Most players used to like sleeping in but now they’re rising and shining.

Either way, guarantees are getting crushed.

We found Howard Mash in today’s field at the start, the man who went two-for-two in September. He was getting some Coco Poker Open action in September when he won the Heads Up tournament on the 27th, then turned around and won the $130 No Limit Hold’em event on the 28th.

Event 9 Day 1C: Third Chance at the $1 Million

$570 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Level 1: 25/50

The 2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown is rolling into the second weekend of the series and today’s main schedule features nothing but players aiming to get a piece of a $1 million prize pool.

The next two flights of Event 9 run today as the $570 buy-in tournament climbs closer to reaching that $1 million guaranteed prize pool. Yesterday saw 713 combined entrants take their shot with 129 advancing to play Day 2 on Sunday. Joshua Hood holds a big lead over the field but there are four more flights of players trying to catch him.

Entrants begin with 20,000 starting stacks and play 30-minute levels throughout the day. The registration desk is open for Flight C until the start of Level 9 at 3:30pm and unlimited re-entries are available during that time. Play will conclude at the end of Level 14 and anyone still with chips will bag them up for a Sunday Day 2 return.

Early-start players are in their seats and about to get underway.

Combined chip counts through Flight B

  • $1,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
  • Players begin with 20,000 in chips and 30-minute levels
  • Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
  • Day 1 will end after Level 14 or Tournament Director discretion
  • Event 9 Structure Sheet

Event 9: Combined Chip Counts Through Flight B

$570 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry

The two flights of the $1 Million Guarantee Event 9 drew 713 entrants with 129 advancing to Day 2 on Sunday.

FlightsTotal EntriesAdvanced
Flight A – Thursday, 11AM37971
Flight B – Thursday, 6PM33458
Flight C – Friday, 11AMTBDTBD
Flight D – Friday, 6PMTBDTBD
Flight E – Saturday, 11AMTBDTBD
Flight F – Saturday, 6PMTBDTBD
Running Total713129
RankFirst NameLast NameCount
1JoshuaHood389,500
2JimmyKim251,000
3JoeMarchese225,500
4ItzhakDickstein225,000
5DannyNguyen222,500
6TimothyFarrenkopf222,500
7CarlMartel210,500
8DerekEcenarro210,000
9RobBrown204,000
10RaminderSingh203,500
11A.J.Kelsall200,500
12DongshenLin196,000
13MatthewWinslow188,000
14JamesSalmon188,000
15ZackGoodman186,000
16DarenStabinski181,500
17PeterStriano181,500
18OktayAltinbas180,000
19SamZalmanov176,500
20YitzhakQuinn171,000
21NicholasVisconti170,500
22KevinOdonnell170,000
23AaronMermestein168,500
24BobNielsen168,000
25CaseyCarroll166,500
26RonitChamani165,500
27MichaelNewman161,000
28JermaineGerlin160,500
29GregLehn154,500
30EvanBraunstein152,500
31KarlManouchakian152,000
32JoeEbanks150,500
33TannerMillen146,500
34LongTran143,500
35DAvidShaw143,000
36MichaelAmato141,500
37ZackWilson141,500
38ScottWyler139,500
39GregBaird139,000
40JonathanGrasso139,000
41JohannCastrillon133,500
42ZacharyMullennit132,000
43LeonardBenitez131,000
44ToddBreyfogle130,000
45ArielRosello130,000
46EliBuhadahah129,000
47KazuOshima128,500
48LarryKusch126,500
49SaschaWalter126,500
50MichaelWetcher125,500
51KennethWatson125,500
52FrancisAnderson125,500
53AnthonyValiente122,000
54HansWinzeler120,500
55MarkSmyriski118,000
56DAvidDiBernardi113,000
57CraigBagn110,000
58MichaelKane109,000
59MarkWahba108,500
60VinnyHa107,500
61JasonWandling104,000
62JohnMagnetta103,500
63DanWeitzenkorn102,000
64HyndiKhomutetsky101,000
65IraSchwartz100,500
66BrianPhillis97,500
67ChrisBlik97,000
68PaulNunez97,000
69StevenBennett96,000
70MatthewVetstein96,000
71KobiRibak96,000
72CarloRidriguez95,500
73GregOstrander94,500
74GuiSocarras93,500
75MukulPahuja93,500
76MatthewGraham92,500
77MatthewElsby89,500
78TimKegel86,000
79JohnTempleton86,000
80PinchesChakchakov84,500
81DerekAlley84,000
82LazaroHernandez83,000
83JohnnyCasquilla81,000
84DarrenDeLucia80,500
85JoseSilverman78,500
86AaronKorff78,500
87JanineGelb78,000
88JasonLindsley77,500
89AlbertDestrade76,500
90JonathanGaviao76,000
91FranckVon Matt75,000
92JerryWong71,500
93ErikChristensen70,000
94BradleyRhodes69,000
95JulioSanchez69,000
96MarkCostello66,500
97DavidDiaz66,500
98SantanaNoronha66,000
99YvonneMcQuillan66,000
100JohnnyLayne65,000
101StevePollack62,500
102RonHirsch61,000
103WendyFreedman57,000
104LeonardClavel56,000
105JeffreyCohen54,000
106JoseSerratos53,000
107MattBond53,000
108PaulaAlibrandi53,000
109SethGilson52,500
110JoseDelaid52,000
111AndrewGordon50,500
112JohnDolan50,000
113JamesScott49,500
114KenBruno48,500
115JosephCaiello47,000
116ZackFish46,000
117JoseParra43,500
118AndrewGlauberg42,000
119JonathanBrody41,500
120RyanDunn41,000
121BrandonMiller39,500
122SebastianKos39,000
123HunterCichy37,500
124JeffreyTrudeau Jr33,500
125DavidGantz33,000
126KevinChan32,500
127SheldonGross27,500
128StanleyLee26,000
129MichaelRizzuto20,500

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Day 9 Schedule

Main Event Schedule

11AM: Event 9 Day 1C – $570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)

  • $1,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
  • Players begin with 20,000 in chips and 30-minute levels
  • Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
  • Day 1 will end after Level 14 or Tournament Director discretion
  • Event 9 Structure Sheet

6PM: Event 9 Day 1D – $570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)

  • $1,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
  • Players begin with 20,000 in chips and 30-minute levels
  • Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
  • Day 1 will end after Level 14 or Tournament Director discretion
  • Event 9 Structure Sheet

Secondary and Satellite Schedule

9AM: Event 55 – $140 Event 9 Turbo Satellite (1-in-5)

  • 2 seats guaranteed into $1 Million GTD Event 9
  • Players begin with 7,500 in chips and 15-minute levels
  • Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
  • Satellite will be held in the The Poker Room
  • This is a one-day tournament and plays until completion
  • Event 55 Structure Sheet

3PM: Event 56 – $250 Multi Satellite into (2) $570 Events and WPT Final Satellite (1-in-10)

  • 2 packages guaranteed worth $2,190 (two $570 entries and $1,050 WPT Final Satellite)
  • Players begin with 7,500 in chips and 20-minute levels
  • Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
  • This is a one-day tournament and plays until completion
  • Event 56 Structure Sheet

8PM: Event 57 – $390 Championship Turbo Satellite (1-in-10)

  • 2 seats guaranteed into the $2 Million GTD WPT Showdown Championship
  • Players begin with 7,500 in chips and 15-minute levels
  • Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
  • This is a one-day tournament and plays until completion
  • Event 57 Structure Sheet