$5,250 SHRPO Championship (Single Re-Entry)
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  300/500 with a 500 ante
Flight B Entries:  351 (Total Entries: 747)

Randall Emmett raised UTG+1 to 2,000, a player called from middle position, John Richards called from the cutoff, Pasquale Caiazza called from the button, and James Romero reraised from the small blind to 12,000.

Emmett called, and everyone else folded.

The flop came , Romero bet 11,000, Emmett moved all in for about 12,000, and Romero snap-called with .

Emmett turned over (pair of deuces), and he needed to improve to stay alive.

The turn card was the , the river card is the , and the pocket tens held up for Romero to win the pot and eliminate Emmett.

James Romero  –  117,000  (234 bb)
Randall Emmett  –  Eliminated

That was Emmett’s first bullet, so he may re-enter at any point until registration closes around 9:00 pm.

$5,250 SHRPO Championship (Single Re-Entry)
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  300/500 with a 500 ante
Flight B Entries:  341 (Total Entries: 737)

Rainer Kempe was all in from the small blind for 9,100, Ido Ashkenazi was all in from middle position for 17,200, and John Dolan had them both covered from the hijack.

These were their cards, listed in descending order of chip counts:

John Dolan:  
Ido Ashkenazi:  
Rainer Kempe:  

The board came , and Kempe won the main pot with two pair, aces and eights, to triple up in chips. Dolan won the side pot with a pair of aces to eliminate Ashkenazi.

Rainer Kempe  –  28,300  (57 bb)
John Dolan  –  77,000  (154 bb)
Ido Ashkenazi  –  Eliminated

$5,250 SHRPO Championship (Single Re-Entry)
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  300/500 with a 500 ante
Flight B Entries:  330 (Total Entries: 726)

The players return from break to begin Level 5, with increased blinds of 300-500 and a big blind ante of 500. The tournament clock shows 330 entries here on Day 1B, and with approximately 265 remaining, the average chip stack is about 49,800 (100 big blinds).

A scan of the field during the break turned up nine players with at least 110K in chips, creating an unofficial leaderboard.

1.  Luis Zedan  –  149,400  (299 bb)
2.  Daniel Couzens  –  136,300  (273 bb)
3.  Richard Carr  –  135,900  (272 bb)
4.  Kevin Law  –  126,800  (254 bb)
5.  Alon Shahar  –  120,200  (240 bb)
6.  Olivier Busquet  –  114,000  (228 bb)
7.  Will Failla  –  113,100  (226 bb)
8.  Aidan Hynes  –  111,100  (222 bb)
9.  Daniel Wirgau  –  110,500  (221 bb)

$5,250 SHRPO Championship (Single Re-Entry)
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Flight B Entries:  314 (Total Entries: 710)

After a flop of , Jason Young got it all in with (pair of jacks, gutshot straight draw) against the (set of aces) of Justin Adams. Young needed to improve to stay alive.

The turn card was the , the river card was the , and Adams won the pot with a full house, aces full of jacks, to eliminate Young.

Justin Adams  –  100,000  (250 bb)
Jason Young  –  Eliminated

$5,250 SHRPO Championship (Single Re-Entry)
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Flight B Entries:  298 (Total Entries: 694)

Ed McPike was left with just 1,500 in chips after his last hand, and found himself in the big blind having to put up 400 for the ante.

James Baune limped under the gun for 400, the cutoff raised to 1,300, Jeannette Mendez called from the button, and Ed McPike called all in from the big blind for his last 1,100. Baune called the 1,300.

There was 5,000 in the main pot and another 600 in the side pot. Any further betting would go into the side pot.

The flop came , Baune checked, and the cutoff bet 2,000. Mendez called, and Baune folded.

The turn card was the , the cutoff checked, Mendez bet 6,000, and the cutoff folded. Mendez took the side pot worth 4,600.

The table was shocked to see McPike show for a flopped six-high straight, and Mendez turned over for a pair of aces with a five-high straight draw. Mendez was drawing dead for the main pot.

The meaningless river card was the , and McPike won the main pot with his six-high straight.

Ed McPike  –  5,000  (13 bb)
Jeannette Mendez  –  41,000  (103 bb)

$5,250 SHRPO Championship (Single Re-Entry)
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Flight B Entries:  292 (Total Entries: 688)

After a flop of , Ed McPike checked under the gun, Mike Hammer bet 10,000 from the hijack, and McPike called.

The turn card was the , McPike checked, Hammer bet 15,000, and McPike went into the tank and counted down his own stack — McPike had 16,500 left. After some more thought, he called, leaving himself just 1,500 in chips.

As the dealer was about to put out the river card, McPike turned his head away from the table and said something like, “I don’t think I want to see it.”

The dealer put out the .

McPike turned back around, saw the river card, and checked. Hammer put out a stack of chips to put McPike all in, and McPike quickly folded. Hammer let him off the hook by showing for a turned ace-high straight as he took the pot.

Mike Hammer  –  88,000  (220 bb)
Ed McPike  –  1,500  (4 bb)

After the hand, McPike mentioned that he had a straight draw and a flush draw, but neither draw could’ve beaten Hammer’s hand.

$5,250 SHRPO Championship (Single Re-Entry)
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3: 200/300 with a 300 ante
Flight B Entries: 284 (Total Entries: 680)

Anthony Dianaty was among the big stacks at the break and he might be the biggest of them all now. He was up to 76,000 after two levels but went higher with 105,000 as Level 3 comes to a close.

Dianaty is a regular in at our sister property in Tampa and has a handful of wins with some nice scores. His biggest cash came in 2014 when he finished runner-up in a $560 Deep Stack for more than $33,000.

$5,250 SHRPO Championship (Single Re-Entry)
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3: 200/300 with a 300 ante
Flight B Entries: 254 (Total Entries: 650)

Flight B players returned to their seats and everyone is chasing Purple Chip Bounty champ A.J. Gambino. He is stacked up to 98,000 to lead the field but Mario De La Puente is not far behind with 96,000.

De La Puente went on a nice heater to close out his spring and head into the summer. He final tabled our WPT Poker Showdown $360 tournament in April then went to our sister room in Tampa and won two tournaments during their WPTDeepStacks series. The second of the two wins gave him his biggest career cash, a $39,000 payday for capturing the $1,650 Mega Stack title.

Other notable big stacks include Kevin Lew (93,300). Corey Hochman (89,800), Craig Varnell (81,500), Matthew Zarcadoolas (80,000), Luis Zedan (79,000), Daniel Couzens (78,000), Anthony Dianaty (76,000), and Rainer Kempe (68,000).

$5,250 SHRPO Championship (Single Re-Entry)
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2: 100/200 with a 200 ante
Flight B Entries: 223 (Total Entries: 619)

Flight B entry number 223 hit the field before the first break to push the total count up to 619. That is good enough to push the prize pool over $3,000,000 with more than eight hours remaining to run it up.