$360 Ultimate Re-Entry No Limit Hold’em
Level 11: 800/1,600 with a 300 ante
Flight A Entries: 502

Flight A officially beat its count from the inaugural event and they have plenty of time to push it higher. The pace of re-entry has slowed and we don’t expect to see a lot more with Flight B starting at the top of the hour.

Marsha Wolak is still around with us today and the former SHRP champ is grinding her way towards the money. She might have a Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown from the Seniors event in 2015 but she’s best known as the 2011 World Series of Poker Ladies Champion.

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry No Limit Hold’em
Level 10: 600/1,200 with a 200 ante
Flight A Entries: 495

Flight A is only a handful of entries away from besting last year’s count with more than hour to get there. Now it’s only a matter of how much bigger it will be.

We mentioned the unique format of this Ultimate Re-Entry event earlier; players can bag as many time as they can and receive a $2,500 payout for their smaller bag(s) if they advance more than one.

We had a few players accomplish that feat last year with Gregory Marcus leading the way by advancing four stacks out of eight flights. Ellen Lambeth was far behind him as she advanced three stacks to earn $5,000 before playing a hand on Day 2. She finished in 176th place to take home another $6,100 with her biggest stack.

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry No Limit Hold’em
Level 9: 500/1,000 with a 100 ante
Flight A Entries: 480

Players are back in their seats after the second break of the day and the field is only 20 entries away from topping last year’s count. It looks like 500 is close to a lock and we’ll see how big they can build it up.

SHRP regular Devon Shalmi is among the first flight crowd while aiming for his third SHRP trophy. He earned them both in 2015 with the first coming during the $350 Deep Stack event during the Coco Poker Spring Series for $42,000 followed by a $350 Pot Limit Omaha title at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open.

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry No Limit Hold’em
Level 8: 400/800 with a 75 ante
Flight A Entries: 460

Fight A is getting closer to its second break of the day, time for another breather while the tournament staff color off the green quarter chips.

Robert Campbell was a late entrant to the game and sports a nice pedigree, though most of his accomplishments came in the four-card game. He has a dozen tournament victories to his credit with all but one coming in some variant of Omaha/8. Campbell’s most noteworthy title came in 2009 when he won his only WSOP Circuit ring. That was a series that saw him finish first, second, and third in less than a week. Campbell’s biggest score came with a 30th place finish in the 2014 WSOP Main Event.

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry No Limit Hold’em
Level 7: 300/600 with a 50 ante
Flight A Entries: 436

We’re seeing more of our familiar SHRP faces show up as the afternoon wears on and the field got a little tougher when former WSOP National Champion Loni Harwood took a seat in the game. She’s among the ever-growing group of players pushing us close to the next milestone.

Harwood jumped among the top players in the game and every poker fan knew who she was after the 2013 World Series of Poker. That year she cashed six times with three final tables and earned her first career WSOP bracelet. But Harwood was already a known quantity by most poker players before she set foot in the Rio that summer. She was the owner two WSOP Circuit rings from 2012 and was regularly competing at a high level.

Not to settle with her 2013 score, Harwood won the WSOP National Championship in 2015 for her fourth six-digit score among her $1.9 million in career earnings.

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry No Limit Hold’em
Level 6: 200/400 with a 50 ante
Flight A Entries: 415

We’re watching the number climb on the tournament information board and it crossed over 400 entries to keep it on a faster pace than last year’s flight. That one drew 500 entries so we have a good chance to top it.

Rafael Reis knows a little something about conquering huge-field events. Last year’s Ultimate Re-Entry set the record for biggest tournament field in Florida poker history with 4,075 entries and that record only held for ten months. It was surpassed by the opening event of the 2016 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” in November.

That tournament drew 5,018 entries to create a prize pool over $1.5 million for a $360 buy-in tournament and putting up another big number. After six long days of grinding, Reis took home his second RRPO title in a five-way deal that saw him pocket more than $150,000. Another deep run and Reis will move over $500,000 in career earnings.

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry No Limit Hold’em
Level 5: 150/300 with a 25 ante
Flight A Entries: 387

Flight A players returned from their first break of the day as the number count clicks closer to 400 entries and the likelihood that last year’s 500-entry opening flight will be surpassed.

NYC’s Justin Kadet is the early leader after the first break but he’s followed closely by Hagai Stein, David Gelley, and Henri Azoulay. Players are moving a quick pace in the first flight with plenty of time to re-enter if they lose their stack.

Top stacks and notables:

Justin Kadet – 60,000 (200 bb)
Hagai Stein – 57,500 (192 bb)
David Gelley – 56,200 (187 bb)
Henri Azoulay – 55,000 (183 bb)
Conley Howard – 53,000 (177 bb)
Bryan Wellman – 51,200 (171 bb)
Tim Kegel – 30,250 (101 bb)
Zoltan Czinkota – 25,000 (83 bb)
Loni Harwood – 23,000 (77 bb)
Rafael Reis – 22,500 (75 bb)
Dimitry Agrachov – 17,850 (60 bb)
Marsha Wolak – 13,600 (45 bb)
Charlemagne Benjamin – 12,025 (40 bb)
Ido Ashkenazi – 11,900 (40 bb)
Evan Teitelbaum – 11,900 (40 bb)

The 2017 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open is underway and the WPTDeepStacks Main Event is right around the corner. Last year’s tournament drew the biggest crowd in the tour’s history and we expect another big turnout this year.

The $1,100 buy-in tournament has a $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool, three starting days with the first on January 19, and a live-streamed final table. We are running 18 satellites between now and then for those looking to get into the game for a discount. The satellites have 91 combined seats guaranteed with 49 of them split between four satellites on January 18. All but one satellite feature a $140 buy-in with 1-in-10 entrants earning a seat in the big game and the $250 buy-in satellite on January 18 has five seats guaranteed with 1-in-5 booking their way in.

Below you’ll find the complete list (with links to the structure sheets) for the 18 opportunities to join in the $1,000,000 Guarantee WPTDeepStacks event for a fraction of the buy-in.

Jan 12, 8pm – $140 Main Event Turbo Satellite with 2 seats GTD
Jan 13, 8pm – $140 Main Event Turbo Satellite with 2 seats GTD
Jan 14, 8pm – $140 Main Event Turbo Satellite with 2 seats GTD
Jan 15, 8pm – $140 Main Event Turbo Satellite with 2 seats GTD
Jan 16, 8pm – $140 Main Event Turbo Satellite with 2 seats GTD
Jan 17, 8pm – $140 Main Event Turbo Satellite with 2 seats GTD
Jan 18, 9am – $140 Main Event Turbo Satellite with 2 seats GTD
Jan 18, 11am – $140 Main Event Satellite with 30 seats GTD
Jan 18, 3pm – $250 Main Event Satellite with 5 seats GTD
Jan 18, 6pm – $140 Main Event Satellite with 10 seats GTD
Jan 18, 8pm – $140 Main Event Turbo Satellite with 2 seats GTD
Jan 19, 9am – $140 Main Event Turbo Satellite with 2 seats GTD
Jan 19, 3pm – $140 Main Event Turbo Satellite w/ 10 seats GTD
Jan 19, 8pm – $140 Main Event Turbo Satellite with 2 seats GTD
Jan 20, 9am – $140 Main Event Turbo Satellite with 2 seats GTD
Jan 20, 3pm – $140 Main Event Satellite with 10 seats GTD
Jan 20, 8pm – $140 Main Event Turbo Satellite with 2 seats GTD
Jan 21, 9am – $140 Main Event Turbo Satellite with 2 seats GTD

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry No Limit Hold’em
Level 4: 100/200
Flight A Entries: 309

The opening flight of the Ultimate Re-Entry continues to climb and they topped 300 entries before the end of Level 3. It’s an unofficial race to see if today’s field can top last year’s opening flight of 500 entries.

Charlemagne Benjamin is another regular back with us today and shooting for his second LHPO title (and third SHRP trophy). He topped the field last January in the $130 buy-in tournament, his second career title to go along with his 2014 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” win. Benjamin went over the $100K mark in career earning in December when he finished in third place in Event 1 of the Fun in the Sun series.

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry No Limit Hold’em
Level 3: 75/150
Flight A Entries: 261

Some of our regular SHRP players are here early and mixing it up with more than 260 in the game so far. We found two alongside each other at the front of the room after Larry Klur and Daren Stabsinski drew neighboring seats.

Klur has over $500,000 in career tournament earnings including a tenth place finish in the 2013 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship and a fourth place result at a Foxwoods WPT televised final table.

Stabinski has eight career tournament victories with seven of them coming here. He owns a LHPO trophy from 2013 and his most recent title came with an Event 5 win during the 2016 Fun in the Sun series to close out his 2016 in style.