$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 4: 100/200

Players are on their first break of the day with 257 entrants showing on the tournament clock. Players still have nearly 90 minutes to get down to the ballroom to enter today’s flight or come over for the 6pm flight.

Before they went on break, Eric Brewster found a way to send two more out the door. He was sitting in a great spot with after the board. It turned into a three-way all-in hand after the turn against top two and the same flopped straight .

Brewster was freerolling any club to scoop, which he found on the river to KO two players and move over 60,000.

We’ll return with the first round of notable counts and track down our leader.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 4: 100/200

There’s been no early slow playing despite the deep starting stacks. We mentioned Ory Hen sending one out in the first level but there have been plenty of “seat open!” calls from around the room before the first break.

Mister Nigel Murray is one of those premature exits in 1A as he tries to catch Hen at the top of the POY leaderboard. Murray sits in second place in the standings but will have to fire off another bullet if he wants to add to his points in Event 1.

It’s unclear how it happened, but his previous seat has a new occupant.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 2: 50/100

Today’s field climbed over 200 players before the clock hit the noon time hour. The early Thursday flights are generally the smallest of the bunch so this bodes well at the start.

A few of the familiar faces among the bunch include Mike Beasley, Francis Margaglione, Nigel Murray, Eric Piderit, and Robert Campbell.

Campbell is back in a No Limit Hold’em tournament but his success has come mostly in Omaha/8 variants. The local pro had 11 titles to his credit coming into this spring’s Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown with each coming in the split pot game.

Campbell finally broke through in April to win his first No Limit Hold’em crown in the $200 Double Green Chip Bount event.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 2: 50/100

We were prepared this weekend to highlight the current Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year chase but found an early reason to showcase our front runner.

Ory Hen has a huge lead atop the leaderboard after winning Player of the Series for the Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open and Lucky Hearts Poker Open. He’s cashed 11 times in the four major series with eight of those going to a final table and one title.

Hen has jumped to the top of today’s counts early in 1A when he snapped off an opponent’s aces. He had the 9-seat all-in preflop needing a lot of help with and found a POY-friendly board to get a smile.

It was a quick exit for the unlucky aces while Hen moves over 40,000 for the early lead.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 1: 25/50

The biggest series on the Seminole Hard Rock Poker 2015 schedule is now underway in the ballroom with the start of Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Event 1.

We are starting off big with a $350 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament featuring a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool.  Event 1 sports six starting flights giving players plenty of opportunities to get in the game.

The first group of early risers grabbed their seats and sit down to 20,000 deep stacks with 30-minute levels throughout the day. They’ll take a break every four levels and survivors will bag up their chips at the end of Level 14 for Day 2 on Sunday. Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 9, approximately 3:30pm, with 1B set to go at 6pm.

It’s an exciting time to play poker at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. We’ll be here covering all the action from now until we find the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open champion on August 18.