@RyanRiess1 you better reg for tonight kid. We grind. Hova can wait.

— Cord Garcia (@CordGarcia) August 16, 2013

There are now five players remaining in Event 8 ($240 Omaha 8 or Better), and the key hand was a three-way preflop all-in situation.

Marla Crumpler was the short stack and all in from the big blind, against Jonathan Gallin in middle position and Zhen Cai on the button. Here were their cards:

Zhen Cai:
Jonathan Gallin:
Marla Crumpler:

Gallin had the best hand preflop, with A-K on the high side, A-2 on the low side, and a suited king.

But the board came , and Cai paired his seven on the flop to win the high side of both the main pot and the side pot. Cai and Gallin both chopped the low side with A-2, and Crumpler was eliminated in eighth place.

Gallin took a hit in the hand, getting quartered against Cai, and he was eliminated in seventh place a few minutes later.

As this post was being written, Robert Wachtel was eliminated in sixth place. And that’s where the field currently stands.

Here are updated chip counts for the final five players, with the blinds at 5,000-10,000, and the limits at 10,000-20,000:

Seat 1.  Bob Leff  –  85,000  (4 BB)
Seat 5.  Cory Blum  –  225,000  (11 BB)
Seat 6.  Zhen Cai  –  210,000  (10 BB)
Seat 7.  Aaron Salamon  –  170,000  (8 BB)
Seat 9.  Daniel Genachte  –  127,000  (6 BB)

6th:  Robert Wachtel  –  $1,103
7th:  Jonathan Gallin  –  $893
8th:  Marla Crumpler  –  $683
9th:  Ronald Brooks  –  $473

The Day 1C field of Event 7 ($560 NLHE w/ $1 Million Guarantee) has dropped down to 207 players with about four hours left to play in this flight. The average chip stack is about 58,800 (49 big blinds).

Event 9 ($150 No-Limit Hold’em w/ Bounties) got underway at 1:00 pm, and attracted a field of 159 players. From the $150 buy-in, $70 goes into the main prizepool, and $50 goes into the bounty prizepool. Every time a player scores a knockout and busts a player, he or she receives $50.

There are currently 44 players remaining, and the average stack is about 21,700 (36 big blinds). The main prizepool has just been released for Event 9:

1st:  $3,559
2nd:  $2,059
3rd:  $1,336
4th:  $918
5th:  $707
6th:  $551
7th:  $434
8th:  $323
9th:  $223
10th-12th:  $184
13th-15th:  $156

After the elimination of Daniel Yanofski in 11th place in Event 8 ($240 Omaha 8 or Better), the final ten players combined to a single table.

It didn’t take long before Debbie Mitchell got her short stack all in with against Zhen Cai’s .

The board came , and Cai won the pot by flopping two pair and rivering kings full of threes. Mitchell was eliminated in 10th place.

At that point, the official final table of nine players was set. Here are the updated chip counts with the blinds at 3,000-6,000, and the limits at 6,000-12,000.

Seat 1.  Bob Leff  –  125,000  (10 BB)
Seat 2.  Jonathan Gallin  –  26,000  (2 BB)
Seat 3.  Ronald Brooks  –  75,000  (6 BB)
Seat 4.  Robert Wachtel  –  98,000  (8 BB)
Seat 5.  Cory Blum  –  91,000  (7 BB)
Seat 6.  Zhen Cai  –  189,000  (15 BB)
Seat 7.  Aaron Salamon  –  81,000  (6 BB)
Seat 8.  Marla Crumpler  –  85,000  (7 BB)
Seat 9.  Daniel Genachte  –  61,000  (5 BB)

10th:  Debbie Mitchell  –  $368
11th:  Daniel Yanofski  –  $368

There’s an interesting side note regarding Debbie Mitchell and Marla Crumpler.

As they combined to a 10-handed final table, Mitchell let us know that in 2008, she and Crumpler both made the final table of the 2008 WSOP $1,000 Ladies Event. That year, Mitchell busted sixth to earn $47,106, and Crumpler followed her in fifth place to earn $60,101.

The Money Bubble didn’t last long in Event 8 ($240 Omaha 8 or Better), and the unfortunate Bubble Girl was Gail Cohen, who finished 13th.

The remaining 12 players are guaranteed at least $368.

Tom Nasuti was eliminated shortly after the bubble burst, before we could take an updated chip count. Level 18 just began with increased blinds of 2,500-5,000, and limits of 5,000-10,000. (The numbers in parentheses represent the number of big bets in each stack.)

1.  Cory Blum  –  170,000  (17 BB)
2.  Marla Crumpler  –  121,000  (12 BB)
3.  Robert Wachtel  –  107,000  (10 BB)
4.  Ronald Brooks  –  72,000  (7 BB)
5.  Jonathan Gallin  –  70,000  (7 BB)
6.  Debbie Mitchell  –  63,000  (6 BB)
7.  Bob Leff  –  52,000  (5 BB)
8.  Zhen Cai  –  44,000  (4 BB)
9.  Aaron Salamon  –  42,000  (4 BB)
10.  Daniel Genachte  –  40,000  (4 BB)
11.  Daniel Yanofski  –  21,000  (2 BB)

12th:  Tom Nasuti  –  $368

As soon as one more player is eliminated, they will combine to a single final table and play down to a winner.

The final 18 players in Event 8 ($240 Omaha 8 or Better) returned to action at 1:00 pm. There were 105 entrants in this event, and the final 12 will finish in the money. Here’s how they started the day:

BB = Big Bets

TABLE 1
Seat 1.  Aaron Salamon  –  67,600  (14 BB)
Seat 2.  Arnold Cohen  –  31,400  (6 BB)
Seat 3.  Gail Cohen  –  18,400  (3 BB)
Seat 4.  Zhen Cai  –  77,400  (16 BB)
Seat 5.  Cory Blum  –  122,900  (25 BB)
Seat 6.  Daniel Yanofski  –  59,000  (12 BB)
Seat 7.  Robert Wachtel  –  73,300  (15 BB)
Seat 8.  Jonathan Gallin  –  16,500  (3 BB)
Seat 9.  Luis Santoni  –  30,900  (6 BB)

TABLE 2
Seat 1.  Marla Crumpler  –  22,000  (4 BB)
Seat 2.  Georges Boyadjian  –  30,600  (6 BB)
Seat 3.  Harris Goodman  –  10,200  (2 BB)
Seat 4.  Tom Nasuti  –  53,000  (11 BB)
Seat 5.  Ronald Brooks  –  66,200  (13 BB)
Seat 6.  Debbie Mitchell  –  33,400  (6 BB)
Seat 7.  Derek McClinton  –  3,600  (0.75 BB)
Seat 8.  Daniel Genachte  –  40,900  (8 BB)
Seat 9.  Bob Leff  –  82,700  (17 BB)

And the prizepool they’re playing for:

1st:  $6,926
2nd:  $3,990
3rd:  $2,625
4th:  $1,785
5th:  $1,418
6th:  $1,103
7th:  $893
8th:  $683
9th:  $473
10th:  $368
11th:  $368
12th:  $368

In the first level of the day, two players were eliminated — short stacks Harris Goodman and Derek McClinton.

In the second level, two more players were eliminated — Georges Boyadjian and Luis Santoni.

There are now 14 players remaining, and as soon as one more bustout occurs, they will begin hand-for-hand play on the Money Bubble.

There will be six starting flights in Event 7 ($560 NLHE w/ $1 Million Guarantee), and registration is now closed for half of them.

In the two starting flights yesterday, there were 180 survivors from a combined field of 867 entrants. The Day 1C field adds another 486 entrants to that to make it 1,352 entrants and counting.

Once again, it looks like the guarantee ($1 million) will be easily met.

Once again, there are a lot of top professional players in the mix, including WPT champions Noah Schwartz, Tommy Vedes, Tony Ruberto, and Chino Rheem, along with recent WSOP bracelet winner Loni Harwood.

Other notables in the field include Zo Karim, Tim Fiorvanti, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Brian Hawkins, Tom Nguyen, Nancy Todd, Abbey Daniels, Dana Kellstrom, Joseph Gibbons, David Jackson, Barry Hutter, Hans Winzeler, and Zachary Kessler.

Flight 1D of this event will begin at 7:00 pm this evening, and players are free to enter as many flights as they’d like, though they can only carry forward one chip stack to Day 2.

Welcome to the second starting day (and the third starting flight) for Event 7 ($560 No-Limit Hold’em Deep Stack w/ $1 Million Guarantee)!

There were two starting flights yesterday, with 381 entrants for Flight 1A and 485 entrants for Flight 1B, creating a temporary total of 866 entrants. There will be two more starting flights today, one at 11:00 am (already underway), and another at 7:00 pm.

Registration remains open until the end of the first break, which should be around 1:15 pm.

There were a total of 180 survivors yesterday who made it to Day 2, and the largest chip count belonged to Darren Rabinowitz (344,400). So that’s the mark to beat.

Two other events will be underway later today at 1:00 pm, including the final 18 players from Event 8 ($240 Omaha 8 or Better) playing down to a winner.

If you’re interested in playing something smaller than the $560 buy-in, then 1:00 pm is also the start time for Event 9 ($150 No-Limit Hold’em w/ Double Green Chip Bounty).

As always, we will be providing coverage of these events here in the live updates to keep you apprised of everything that’s going on during the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open.

Shortly after 4:00 am, the final six players agreed to a six-way chop for the trophy.

After playing for a while with seven players, L.J. Sande got it all in preflop with against Ory Hen’s .

The board came , and the A-Q held up for Hen to win the pot and eliminate Sande in seventh place.

L.J. Sande  –  Out in 7th Place  ($8,610)

At that point, the final six players started discussing a deal, and counted down their chip stacks. About five minutes later, they came to an agreement to chop the tournament six ways.

Here were their chip counts, with blinds at 60,000-120,000 and a 20,000 ante:

Brett Bader  –  12,780,000  (106 bb)
David Jackson  –  6,760,000  (56 bb)
Daniel Wellborn  –  6,225,000  (51 bb)
Moe Heider  –  3,455,000  (28 bb)
John Carl Vinsant  –  3,415,000  (28 bb)
Ory Hen  –  3,400,000  (28 bb)

And here’s the way they chopped the prizepool:

1st:  Brett Bader  –  $49,626
2nd:  David Jackson  –  $31,577
3rd:  Daniel Wellborn  –  $29,973
4th:  Moe Heider  –  $21,668
5th:  John Carl Vinsant  –  $21,548
6th:  Ory Hen  –  $21,503

Brett Bader had a massive chip lead when they stopped, so he was awarded the trophy and the title. Congratulations to Brett Bader!

Thursday’s action kicked off with the start of Event 7 ($560 No-Limit Hold’em DeepStack). Two of the six starting flights are in the books, drawing 381 and 485 entires, respectively. After 14 half-hour levels, 78 players survived Day 1A and 102 bagged chips at the conclusion of Day 1B. On top of the chip counts is Darren Rabinowitz with 344,400.

Here are the top 10 chip counts:

1. Darren Rabinowitz – 344,400
2. Kane Kalas – 296,600
3. Sterling Savill – 293,300
4. Jarod Ludemann – 286,800
5. Mark S. Edwards – 281,000
6. Jose Parra – 274,700
7. Jesse Petrakis – 270,400
8. Joseph Hebda – 259,700
9. Carlos Ponce – 258,300
10. Justin Zaki – 257,300

Here are the remaining Day 1 flights:

Friday August 16: Day 1C – 11 a.m.
Friday August 16: Day 1D – 7 p.m.
Saturday August 17: Day 1E – 11 a.m.
Saturday August 17: Day 1F – 7 p.m.