$400 H.O.R.S.E. (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 19:  10,000/20,000 Limits
Players Remaining:  7 of 88

In Hold’em, Phil Hui got it all in from the button against Brandon Caputo (UTG) and Miami John Cernuto (big blind), who were playing for a side pot.

With the board showing on the turn, Cernuto checked, Caputo bet, and Cernuto folded.

Hui showed for the pair on the board with a king kicker, but Caputo turned over to clinch the pot with flopped quad aces. Hui was drawing dead.

The meaningless river card was the , and Hui was eliminated in 8th place.

Brandon Caputo  –  465,000  (23 BB)
Miami John Cernuto  –  45,000  (2 BB)
Phil Hui  –  Eliminated in 8th Place  ($1,020)

$400 H.O.R.S.E. (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 19:  10,000/20,000 Limits
Players Remaining:  8 of 88

The first hand of Level 19, the two short stacks got it all in against each other on third street in Stud. Phil Hui started the hand with 9K and held , while Matt Axelrod started the hand with 22K and held a much stronger .

The dealer dealt out the rest of their cards, and these were their final hands. (The order of the cards may be off a bit.)

Matt Axelrod:  
Phil Hui:  

Hui finished the hand with two pair, eights and sevens, to double up against Axelrod’s pair of aces.

Phil Hui  –  31,000  (1.5 BB)
Matt Axelrod  –  15,000  (1 BB)

The next hand (still in a Stud round), Hui got it all in on third street against Matt Vinke. Vinke hit a pair of threes on sixth street, and that’s as good as his hand got. Hui caught a pair of jacks to win the pot and double up to 77K.

Phil Hui  –  77,000  (3 BB)

The next hand (still in a Stud round), Axelrod got it all in with () against Miami John Cernuto’s () .

Miami John Cernuto:  ()
Matt Axelrod:  ()

Axelrod took the lead on fifth street with ace-king to Cernuto’s ace-queen, but seventh street gave both players a pair, with Cernuto’s aces beating Axelrod’s kings. Axelrod was eliminated in ninth place, earning $880.

Miami John Cernuto  –  93,000  (5 BB)
Matt Axelrod – Eliminated in 9th Place  ($880)

$400 H.O.R.S.E. (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 19:  10,000/20,000 Limits
Players Remaining:  9 of 88

Matt Axelrod has been steadily blinding down as the short stack, while Phil Hui has been losing some pots to lose his lead and steadily drop at a quicker pace.

Axelrod was down to just a few chips when Hui played the final hand of the Razz round to showdown against Brandon Caputo and lost. That left Hui as the short stack with just a single 1K chip — the smallest denomination in play.

Hui was forced all in on the next hand for the ante (in the first hand of a Stud round), and Axelrod had just enough chips to fold and play at least one more hand. Caputo isolated Hui, and here’s what they held in Stud:

Brandon Caputo:  ()
Phil Hui:  ()

Hui started out with the lead, but could he hold it to stay alive? These were their final hands:

Brandon Caputo:  () ()
Phil Hui:  () ()

Hui hit a set of deuces on sixth street, and Caputo was drawing dead. Hui won that pot to survive.

Phil Hui  –  9,000  (0.5 BB)
Brandon Caputo  –  385,000  (24 BB)

The next hand (second hand of Stud), Matt Axelrod was left with 1K after paying the ante, and he moved all in showing the . It ended up being a multi-way pot, with 22K available for Axelrod to win in the main pot. Everyone checked third street to see a free card:

Lucas Poelker:  ()
Miami John Cernuto:  ()
Matt Axelrod:  ()
Brandon Caputo:  ()

Poelker bets his ace-king, and Cernuto and Caputo both folded for Poelker to win the side pot. Axelrod and Poelker turned over their cards, and the dealer dealt out the rest of the hand for the main pot:

Lucas Poelker:  () ()
Matt Axelrod:  () ()

Poelker’s pair of tens was ahead of Axelrod’s pair of sevens, until Axelrod spiked trip sevens on seventh street to win the pot and get up to 22K.

That was the last hand of Level 18, and the players took a 15-minute break. These were the official chip counts at that point:

Seat 1.  Lucas Poelker  –  97,000  (5 BB)
Seat 2.  Miami John Cernuto  –  72,000  (4 BB)
Seat 3.  Matt Vinke  –  200,000  (10 BB)
Seat 4.  Matt Axelrod  –  22,000  (1 BB)
Seat 5.  Brandon Caputo  –  379,000  (19 BB)
Seat 6.  Wayne Brown  –  82,000  (4 BB)
Seat 7.  Peter Walsworth  –  93,000  (5 BB)
Seat 8.  Michael Rosenberg  –  103,000  (5 BB)
Seat 9.  Phil Hui  –  7,000  (1/3 BB)

$600 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 9:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Flight D Entries:  453 (Total Entries: 1,606)

Registration has closed, and Flight D attracted 453 entries to push the combined total for Event 1 up to 1,606. That leaves the field on 281 entries away from crossing the $1,000,000 prize pool with two flights remaining.

The prizepool should surpass the guarantee fairly early tomorrow afternoon, and everything after that will be icing on the prizepool cake.

Chip counts through Flight C

$400 H.O.R.S.E. (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 17:  6,000/12,000 Limits
Players Remaining:  9 of 88

Once the Money Bubble burst, the next two eliminations came quickly, and the final nine have drawn for random seats at the final table. Here are their new seating assignments and their updated chip counts, along with how many big bets (BB) each stack is worth:

Seat 1.  Lucas Poelker  –  89,000  (7 BB)
Seat 2.  Miami John Cernuto  –  111,000  (9 BB)
Seat 3.  Matt Vinke  –  99,000  (8 BB)
Seat 4.  Matt Axelrod  –  33,000  (3 BB)
Seat 5.  Brandon Caputo  –  125,000  (10 BB)
Seat 6.  Wayne Brown  –  78,000  (7 BB)
Seat 7.  Peter Walsworth  –  195,000  (16 BB)
Seat 8.  Michael Rosenberg  –  113,000  (9 BB)
Seat 9.  Phil Hui  –  224,000  (19 BB)

Phil Hui, who won the WSOP $50,000 Poker Players Championship this summer, enters the final table with the chip lead. Hui lives here in South Florida, and he already has four trophies from Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood.

Here are the remaining payouts at stake:

1st:  $8,825 + SHRPO Trophy
2nd:  $5,880
3rd:  $3,990
4th:  $2,805
5th:  $2,050
6th:  $1,555
7th:  $1,235
8th:  $1,020
9th:  $880

$400 H.O.R.S.E. (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 17:  6,000/12,000 Limits
Players Remaining:  12 of 88

There are 12 players remaining in Event 4, but only 11 get paid, and they’ve been playing hand-for-hand on the Money Bubble for a while now. They just returned from a break with the 500 chips colored up off the tables, and hand-for-hand continues with limits of 6,000-12,000. Both tables are currently playing Stud.

Here are a few of the players still in action on the Money Bubble, along with their approximate chip counts and the number of Big Bets their stacks are worth:

Pete Walsworth  –  165,000  (14 BB)
Phil Hui  –  90,000  (8 BB)
Miami John Cernuto  –  70,000  (6 BB)
Matt Axelrod  –  30,000  (3 BB)
David Prociak  –  22,000  (2 BB)

$600 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Flight D Entries:  375

The players return from break to begin Level 5, with increased blinds of 200-400 and a big blind ante of 400. With 375 entries so far here in Flight 1D, the tournament total is up to 1,528 and counting, with two more flights tomorrow.

A scan of the field during the break turned up four players with at least 70K in chips, creating an unofficial leaderboard:

T-1.  Raminder Singh  –  82,700  (207 bb)
T-1.  Michael Krill  –  82,700  (207 bb)
3.  Ari Gutman  –  73,200  (000 bb)
4.  Thomas Berryman  –  70,300  (000 bb)

$600 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  200/300 with a 300 ante
Flight D Entries:  337

A scan of the field in Flight D turned up a lot of familiar faces, like Frankie Flowers, Nipun Java, Jeff Trudeau, Mike Beasley, Dave Inselberg, John Holley, Scott Efron, Matt Zarcadoolas, and John Gorsuch, who won the WSOP Millionaire Maker for more than $1.3 million this summer.

There are also some notable players we’re seeing for the first time this series, including Sheddy Siddiqui, Brian Hastings, Ronit Chamani, and Jessica Dawley.

$600 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 15:  2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 ante
Players Remaining:  180 of 1,153

Flight A:  376 Entries; 59 Advanced
Flight B:  293 Entries; 42 Advanced
Flight C:  484 Entries; 79 Advanced
Flight D:  Underway
Flight E:  Saturday at 11am
Flight F:  Saturday at 6pm
Day 2:  Sunday at 1pm

$600 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 15:  2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 ante
Flight C Players Remaining:  79 of 484

Flight C comes to an end with 79 players remaining from a field of 484, and the chipleader is Howard Bregman, who bagged up 377,500 (94 big blinds).

The full list of official chip counts will be posted later tonight, but in the meantime, here is an unofficial look at the top of the leaderboard:

1.  Howard Bregman  –  377,500  (94 bb)
2.  Charles Odenz  –  341,000  (85 bb)
3.  Brett Bader  –  324,500  (81 bb)

Brett Bader is the reigning Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year, and he bagged up a big stack heading to Day 2 of this first event.

There will be a total of six starting flights for this event, and after the first three flights there are 180 survivors from a field of 1,153. The average chip stack of the survivors is about 128,000 (32 big blinds).