$150 Big Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$30,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1:  100/100

We are rolling out another one-day trophy event with a $150 Big Stack at 5 pm. The tournament features a $30,000 guaranteed prize pool and a nice pace to win some money.

Players start with 15K big stacks and all levels last 20 minutes. Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 10 at 8:25 pm. The tournament will move right along and we will hand out their LHPO trophy later this evening.

• $30,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
• Players begin with 15,000 in chips
• Levels last 20 minutes
• Late registration until start of Level 10 (8:25pm)
• This is a one-day tournament and plays until completion
• Event 3 Structure Sheet

$600 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 12:  1,000/2,000 and a 2,000 ante
Flight A Players Remaining:  165 of 606

The players return from break to begin Level 12, with increased blinds of 1,000-2,000 with a 2,000 ante.

A scan of the field during the break turned up only two players with at least 180K in chips, creating an unofficial leaderboard:

1.  Michel Simoneau  –  235,000  (118 bb)
2.  Dan Saffer  –  218,000  (109 bb)

With about 165 players remaining from a flight of 606, the average chip stack is around 73,500 (37 big blinds). Action will continue until there are 76 players remaining, and everyone who bags up chips for Day 2 will finish in the money.

2023 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 2
$400 H.O.R.S.E. (Re-Entry)
Entries:  109
Prize Pool:  $36,515
January 12, 2023

Registration closed for the LHPO $400 H.O.R.S.E. tournament with 109 entries representing the third biggest field for this tournament, behind only the 153 entries for the 2021 Showdown tournament and 115 for the 2021 RRPO series.

2021 Showdown – 153 entries
2021 RRPO – 115 entries
2023 LHPO  – 109 entries
2021 LHPO – 102 entries
2022 LHPO – 101 entries

They combined to create a prize pool worth $36,515 and the last 14 players will make the money. A min-cash is worth $875 while the $400 H.O.R.S.E. will earn $10,785 and the LHPO trophy.

1st: $10,785 + LHPO trophy
2nd: $6,755
3rd: $4,055
4th: $2,650
5th: $2,045
6th: $1,680
7th: $1,425
8th: $1,240
9th-10th: $1,095
11th-12th: $970
13th-14th: $875

$400 H.O.R.S.E. (Re-Entry)
Structure
Level 8: 800/1,600 Limits
Entries:  101

Time ran out to get in the Flight A of Event 1 and the clock is counting down to closing registration for the $400 H.O.R.S.E. tournament across the hall. It is already one of the bigger fields we’ve had for this tournament.

AJ Kelsall, winner of the $600 H.O.R.S.E. during the RRPO series, grabbed a seat and we also found Caleb Piderit and Willie Wiggins in the mixed game, something different from their normal two-card NLH tournaments.

$600 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 10:  600/1,200 and a 1,200 ante
Flight A Players Remaining:  261 of 606

Registration closed for Flight A of LHPO Event 1 with 606 entries putting $315,120 towards the $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool and five more flights to really build a big number.

Flight A will continue until 76 players remaining and they will advance to Day 2 on Sunday at 1 pm in the money.

$600 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 9:  500/1,000 and a 1,000 ante
Flight A Entries:  607

The second break came to an end with more than 600 entries on the board and tournament staff are running the number for the official count.

Phu Vo looks like the biggest stack in the room with 169,000 after eight levels. He is setting himself up for another big opening tournament run after banking $136,175 in Event 1 of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open a few months ago.

$600 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 8:  400/800 and a 800 ante
Flight A Entries:  578

Flight A moved into Level 8 and it’s the last chance for players to join this big opening field. There are 578 entries in the game so far and the total number will continue to grow over the last five flights.

A few more friendly faces found include Loni Hui, Matt Waxman, and Rob Brown.

$600 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 7:  300/600 and a 600 ante
Flight A Entries:  538

The Flight A field continues to build and we are seeing some top talent take a seat with a little over an hour remaining to register.

Some of them include 2022 Fun in the Sun Main Event champ Jake Schwartz, big-stacked Eric Piderit, and Nadya Magnus. She drew a tough table to start her day, sitting with nine-time Hollywood champ Raminder Singh on her right and Hard Rock Tampa all-time money leader T.K. Miles on her left.

$600 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  200/400 and a 400 ante
Flight A Entries:  500

With 500 entries in Flight A so far, this is already turning out to be a huge tournament. They will put nearly a third of the $1,000,000 in the prize pool in the first flight with five more to go.

We found some of our Tampa friends here on the first day of the series including James Calderaro and Jeremy Becker.

$600 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  200/300 and a 300 ante
Flight A Entries:  430

As the tournament was preparing for their first break, Jeff Kessler was sitting in the small blind when an early position player moved all in for 7,400. He called, the big blind folded, and Kessler was looking good.

Kessler:
Opponent:

Kessler was dominating and his queens held as the board ran out . He sent the player out and he improved his stack to 22,100.

On the very next hand, Carlos Bermudez opened and Kessler got his stack in the middle from the button. Kessler once again picked up queens but Bermudez was a massive leader with kings and sent the former RRPO Seniors champ out right before the break.

Carlos Bermudez – 59,300 (148 bb)