$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 3:  75/150/25 Ante

The players return from break to begin Level 3, with increased blinds of 75-150 and a 25 ante. The tournament clock shows 308 entries so far, and registration remains open until the end of the dinner break (about 8:00 pm).

There will be a 90-minute dinner break after Level 6 (about 6:30 pm), and action is scheduled to continue until the end of Level 10 (about 12:15 am).

Here is the first unofficial leaderboard of the day, with every player who had more than 70,000 at the break:

1.  David Farber  –  82,050  (547 bb)
2.  Eyal Revah  –  77,225  (514 bb)
3.  Nick Yunis  –  74,925  (500 bb)

And here are some of the notables further back in the pack:

Pedro Palacio  –  68,300  (455 bb)
Jose Salazar  –  66,125  (441 bb)
Jose Lopez  –  65,025  (434 bb)
Ty Akbasli  –  62,800  (419 bb)
Ian Searing  –  61,500  (410 bb)
Gerald Aiello  –  60,925  (406 bb)
Neil Blumenfield  –  54,150  (361 bb)
Will Failla  –  39,850  (266 bb)
Ralph Massey  –  39,650  (264 bb)
Matt Glantz  –  38,975  (260 bb)
Harrison Gimbel  –  38,800  (259 bb)
John Dolan  –  36,550  (244 bb)
Phil Laak  –  33,350  (222 bb)
Ryan Van Sanford  –  32,275  (215 bb)
Noah Schwartz  –  31,700  (211 bb)
Michelle Shah  –  31,125  (208 bb)
Vinny Pahuja  –  30,175  (201 bb)
Matt Stout  –  30,075  (201 bb)
John Racener  –  29,125  (194 bb)
Jennifer Tilly  –  25,350  (169 bb)
Sheddy Siddiqui  –  25,200  (168 bb)
Joe Kuether  –  20,925  (140 bb)
Ari Engel  –  20,575  (137 bb)

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 10:  500/1,000/100 Ante

In one of the final hands of the night, a player moved all in after four players saw a flop of . Everyone folded except for Fabrizio Gonzalez, who called with for an overpair. The short stack turned over for a pair of fours, and he needed to improve to stay alive.

The turn was the , the river was the , and the pocket nines held up for Gonzalez to win the pot and knock out the short stack and secure the Day 1A chip lead.

Fabrizio Gonzalez  –  285,000  (285 bb)

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 9:  400/800/100 Ante

Earlier today, Season XI WPT Player of the Year Matt Salsberg tweeted that the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino was “the best poker venue in the country.”

Now, Season VIII WPT Player of the Year Faraz Jaka is weighing in with a similar sentiment:

In Hollywood, FL for @shrpo 2-Mil guaranteed. Love that I have an excuse to be here 3 times a year. Best place to play poker in the US imo

— Faraz Jaka (@FarazJaka) November 28, 2015

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 9:  400/800/100 Ante

In the second-to-last hand of the last level, Patrick Eskandar got it all in preflop for 8,675 with against the of Ricky Perez, who barely had him covered.

The board came , and the pocket kings held up for Eskandar to win the pot and double up in chips.

Patrick Eskandar  –  19,000  (24 bb)
Ricky Perez  –  425  (<1 bb)

Another player at the table pointed at Perez and said, “Watch this guy, because he’s going to make a big comeback.”

The next hand (the last hand of Level 8), Kamran Siddiqui raised under the gun to 1,400, the UTG+1 player called, and Perez called all in for 350. Eskandar called 1,400 from the cutoff, and the small blind called as well. In addition to the main pot worth 2,775, there was a side pot worth 4,200.

The flop came , and all four active players checked. The turn was the , the small blind checked, and Siddiqui bet 2,000. The UTG+1 player folded, Eskandar called, and the small blind folded.

The river card was the , putting a full house (aces full of nines) on the board. Siddiqui bet 4,000, and Eskandar tanked for a while before he called. Siddiqui turned over for a full house, aces full of kings, and Eskandar mucked.

Perez hadn’t looked at his hand yet, because he was so short he was shoving with any two cards. He needed an ace or pocket nines to stay alive, and he turned over — . Perez won the main pot to more than sixtuple up (6.5x) from 425 to 2,775.

Kamran Siddiqui  –  45,000  (56 bb)
Ricky Perez  –  2,775  (3.5 bb)

Update: While Perez made it to the break with hopes of continuing his comeback, he was unfortunately eliminated in the first hand of Level 9.

Ricky Perez  –  Eliminated

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 9:  400/800/100 Ante

Here is the unofficial leaderboard from the break, with everybody we could find with at least 170,000 in chips:

1.  Dan Ishaki  –  221,900  (277 bb)
2.  William Parker  –  209,800  (262 bb)
3.  Robert Zlatkiss  –  190,400  (238 bb)
4.  Fabrizio Gonzalez  –  179,000  (224 bb)
5.  Yves Fequlere  –  172,300  (215 bb)

With about 180 players remaining from a Day 1A field of 334, the average chip stack is about 55,700 (70 big blinds).

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 8:  300/600/75 Ante

Justin Zaki is in the field today after recently signing on as a player ambassador for the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa.

Zaki burst onto the scene in 2011 at the first major tournament to be held in the state of Florida — the inaugural WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown, finishing 3rd at that televised final table to win $415,680.

Zaki made it a habit of cashing in high-profile WPT events in his home state of Florida, cashing in five of the first six WPTs held here (83%), and eight of the first 12 (67%). Zaki won his first Seminole Hard Rock title this summer in Tampa, winning Event 1 of the Summer Deep Stack Poker Series for $51,782.

Justin Zaki  –  20,000  (33 bb)

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 8:  300/600/75 Ante

Hunter Cichy raised under the gun, Barry Hutter moved all in for a little more than 8,000 from middle position, one of the blinds called, and Cichy moved all in over the top for about 23,000. The player in the blind folded.

Hutter turned over , but he’d need to improve to stay alive against the of Cichy.

The board came , and the pocket aces held up for Cichy to win the pot and eliminate Hutter from Day 1A.

Hunter Cichy  –  43,000  (72 bb)
Barry Hutter  –  Eliminated

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 8:  300/600/75 Ante

Level 7 comes to an end, and Level 8 begins with increased blinds of 300-600 and a 75 ante. With about 200 players remaining from a field of 334, the average chip stack is about 50,000 (83 big blinds).

Action will continue tonight until the end of Level 10 (around 12:15 am).

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 7: 250/500/75 Ante

We just got the word that today’s field is officially 334 entries, putting the tournament ahead of the pace needed to meet the guaranteed prizepool of $2 million.

A total of 625 entries is needed for the guarantee, which means tomorrow’s Day 1B field only needs 291 entries to meet it.

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 7:  250/500/75 Ante

Mohsin Charania was one of the final players to register for Day 1A, entering during the dinner break to take his seat at the start of Level 7.

Less than 20 minutes later, he was chipleader with about 190,000 in chips.

As you can see by the tweet below, Charania was up near 100,000 before he had even played a full orbit. Then this happened:

Andy Andrejevic raised under the gun to 1,300, another player called, and Charania reraised from the button to 4,700. The big blind reraised to 13,700, and Andrejevic and the other player folded. Charania reraised to about 35,000, and the big blind six-bet all in for nearly 90,000.

Charania snap-called with , and the big blind turned over .

The board came , and the pocket aces held up for Charania to win the pot and eliminate the big blind from Day 1A.

As you can see from the photo, Charania didn’t even bother to stack up his chips right away, focused instead on his laptop computer.

Mohsin Charania  –  190,000  (380 bb)

Jumped into the @shrpo 3500 after dinner break at bb 600. I haven’t played 1 orbit yet but I have 100k from 30k starting #shrpo

— Mohsin Charania (@chicagocards1) November 28, 2015