$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 10: 500/1,000/100 Ante

Tables are breaking quickly but Seminole Hard Rock Poker ambassador Sheddy Siddiqui is cruising right along in the middle of the room.

He’s looking for a solid series to finish out a great year that saw him post the single biggest cash of his career. Siddiqui has earned more than $1 million in poker tournaments and a nice chunk of that came this summer when he finished 5th out of 7,275 players in the WSOP Millionaire Maker massive event.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 9: 400/800/100 Ante

They’ve shut the door on new entries into flight 1A and players combined to build up a very nice number. The first flight drew 363 after all the accounting was complete to burst out of the gate. We are going to have a big prize pool for the opening event.

Tournament staff will begin breaking tables as players are eliminated for good from the flight and we’ll see our 1A leaders emerge.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 8: 300/600/75 Ante

Players are on their second break of the day and registration will close for this flight when they return. If players bust after that point, they will have to wait for one of the remaining five flights to try again.

There are 360 entrants showing on the clock with a few more expected to jump in the game.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 6: 200/400/50 Ante

One of the more accomplished Seminole Hard Rock Poker regulars took a seat before the first break. Chance Kornuth is usually found grinding the high-limit cash games out in the poker room but he will occasionally take a seat in the big tournaments.

Despite being a cash game pro, Kornuth has run his career tournament to nearly $2.5 million. A number that will probably be topped if he wins this one. His résumé shows seven tournament wins including a Pot Limit Omaha WSOP bracelet in 2010.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 5: 150/300/25 Ante

It wasn’t too tough to find the biggest stack in the room during the break.

Peter Chin is sitting at one of the edge tables in the 5-seat, threatening players on either side and he chip towers were easily spotted. His 84,175 stack eclipsed those closest to him with five other players topping the 50,000 mark.

Chin has past success here including two titles during the 2013 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open.

Top and notables stacks:

Peter Chin – 84,175 (281 bb)
Hung Le – 54,550 (182 bb)
Farzan Nasserzadeh – 53,850 (180 bb)
Jonathan Marlow – 53,600 (179 bb)
Muzaffer Yesilce – 53,275 (178 bb)
Luis Cristobol – 52,125 (174 bb)
Ido Ashkenazi – 47,175 (157 bb)
Scott Tye – 46,050 (154 bb)
Elliott Zaydman – 38,050 (127 bb)
Steven Bennett – 34,550 (115 bb)
Raymond Ruszkowski – 22,975 (77 bb)
Ory Hen – 21,500 (72 bb)
Erik Christensen – 20,675 (69 bb)
Kim Stone – 15,625 (52 bb)
Scott Efron – 11,500 (38 bb)

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

Players are on their first break of the flight and we’ll be able to get a good look at some of the big stacks while they take a breather.

The entrant count will climb over 300 shortly after they return putting Event 1 on a pace to easily top the $500,000 guarantee. We’ll track down our early leaders and find out who had a nice run over the first four levels.

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

Among the many poker players we see in our events throughout the year, Ory Hen had the best year of them all. He came into the 2014 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” with a statement and rode it all the way to become the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year.

An impressive feat and it all began with a title in this same event last November. Hen outlasted 2,130 other entrants in last year’s Event 1 to take home over $65,000 of the $639,300 prize pool.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 3: 75/150

Flight 1A jumped over the 200 entrant mark before they moved into the noon hour and 230 are in the game midway through Level 3. A nice way to kick things off on a weekday morning and it bodes well for the rest of the starting flights.

Jeff Kessler was unable to run up his first bullet after his bad beat but took another seat in the game. Other regulars in early action include Jorge Gomez, Steven Bennett, Scott Efron, and Raymond Ruszkowski.

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

We generally don’t see anyone getting too frisky early in these big events but a former Seminole Hard Rock Poker champ didn’t waste anytime.

Jeff Kessler is back with us this series and took his seat as a late registrant. He went big on his first hand after mixing it up with against an aggressive opponent. The chips went in the middle after the flop and Kessler was looking good for the insta-double against .

The turn was harmless but the river was unkind. He was left with a short stack but still grinding away. Kessler has two titles to his name including the Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” Seniors title in 2013.

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

The ballroom has been quiet long enough and it’s time to fire up the next major Seminole Hard Rock Poker series. Now it’s time to close out 2015 with the Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open”.

The series will run 14 main tournaments along with a full slate of secondary events and satellites. Everything will build up to the Championship event on November 28 with a $2 Million guaranteed prize pool.

That game is more than a week away and there are some big events leading towards it starting with today’s opening flight of Event 1. Each series kicks off with a huge, multi-day tournament and this time is no different. Event 1 has a $350 buy-in and the prize pool is guaranteed to be at least $500,000 when all is done.

The tournament has six flights with 11am and 6pm starting times over the next three days. Everyone who bags chips at the end of Day 1 will move on to Sunday action with some nice money on the line.

Event 1 players begin with 20,000 stacks and grind 30-minute levels throughout the day. Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 9, approximately 3:30pm. They will continue to play down until the end of Level 14 when the survivors will be set for Sunday.

Players are starting to take their seats and should be underway at the top of the hour.