It was another busy time in the Seminole Ballroom on Thursday with two more flights of the $1,000,000 guarantee opening tournament and we awarded the second trophy of the series.
Event 3 was a $400 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tournament that required players to mix it up to build their stack. In the end, it was a bit of redemption for Barry Levy. He made the final table of last year’s RRPO H.O.R.S.E. tournament but had to settle for second place.
This year he closed it out for his fifth career H.O.R.S.E. and second such title here to go along with his 2011 Showdown win. He earned $8,425 with Charles Odenz taking $5,615 for his runner-up finish.
H.O.R.S.E. results:
1st: Barry Levy – $8,425 + RRPO Trophy
2nd: Charles Odenz – $5,615
3rd: Matthew Smith – $3,805
4th: Richard Shtrax – $2,675
5th: Kevin Love – $1,955
6th: Aaron Kupin – $1,485
7th: Bobby Leff – $1,180
8th: Roy Arkin – $975
9th: Craig Chait – $840
10th: Yuval Bronshtein – $840
11th: Carey Pickus – $765
Thursday also saw Event 1 hit the midpoint of the tournament. Flights C and D combined to add more than 850 entries and pushed the tournament total up to 1,593.
Flight C saw 65 players advance to Day 2 and Haing Thu took the overall lead as the only player so far over 400K. His 409,500 was good enough to take the top spot from Raminder Singh but it will be tough to hold with a huge weekend crowd expected.
The night flight put another 51 players into Day 2 and Perla Ojeda bagged the biggest in the late evening. The 363,500 stack she bagged up put her fifth overall and in great shape coming back.
Other notables advancing on Thursday included David Bradshaw, James Salmon, Stuart Paterson, Daniel Fuhs, Jeff Kessler, Cherri Beatty, Matthew Yorra, and Ido Ashkenazi.
- Haing Thu – 409,500
- Raminder Singh – 387,000
- Gilles Dalco – 381,500
- Alfredo Guevara – 379,000
- Perla Ojeda – 363,500
- Rafael Bababekov – 359,500
- David Bradshaw – 347,500
- Robert Grossman – 319,500
- Jora Beit – 295,000
- Denian Costa – 291,000
Images courtesy of Eric Harkins and Image Masters. If you would like to purchase any prints of your pictures, you can visit his booth in the hallway or visit the Image Masters website.