It was a great opening week for the 2016 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” with nine tournaments and big action. More than $3 million in prize money was awarded and half of that came in the record-breaking opening tournament.

Event 1 had eight starting flights for the $1 Million GTD tournament and players came en masse. The 5,018 starting entrants produced the biggest tournament field in Florida poker history and ran up the prize pool over $1.5 million. It took an extra day to determine the winner and it was SHRP regular Rafael Reis taking the title after a nine-way deal.

The other big event was the $50,000 High Roller that brought out some of the best poker players in the world including Jason Mercier, Erik Seidel, Chance Kornuth, and Jason Koon but it was online legend Ben Tollerene outlasting them to win nearly $460,000.

There will be a short break in the schedule for the Thanksgiving holiday but players will return on Friday to kick off the $2 Million GTD Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” Championship.

Former SHRP champ Marc Levy finished off the first week by taking home the Event 6 $250K GTD Event 6 trophy in the early morning hours.

It was a great first week of the series and we head into the RRPO Championship on Friday.

Here are your 2016 RRPO champions so far:

• Event 1 ($360 Deep Stack): Rafael Reis – $155,642
• Event 2 ($300 Omaha/8): Mike Deveronica – $4,606
• Event 3 ($300 Seniors 50+): Domenic Amore – $7,274
• Event 4 ($360 Pot Limit Omaha): Michael Newman – $7,740
• Event 5 ($300 Black Chip Bounty): Rob Cowen – $11,706
• Event 6 ($570 Deep Stack): Marc Levy – $49,910
• Event 7 ($360 Pot Limit Omaha/8): Brad Ruben – $5,814
• Event 8 ($360 Six-Max): Yousef Nassr – $4,717
• $50,000 High Roller: Ben Tollerene – $459,228