$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 2: 75/150
Players are off on their first break of the day with 224 entrants showing on the board. They’ll take a 15-minute breather while we get our first idea of the early front runners.
$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 2: 75/150
Players will soon head off on their first break of the day as one of the best players in the game jumps in.
Jason Mercier has proven his skills at the poker table over the years and continues to impress. He sports three WSOP bracelets and an EPT title along with almost $16 million in career earnings. Good enough to put him atop the all-time money list for Florida poker players.
$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 2: 75/150
The field continues to fill in with locals and pros but Natasha Barbour has a little bonus help at her table. Not that she needs it.
The Seminole Hard Rock Tampa ambassador has over $600,000 in career tournament earnings including a runner-up finish in a WSOP $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event this summer and 12th place finish int he 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship.
$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 2: 75/150
We mentioned Ory Hen was looking for back-to-back titles but Matt Affleck is here looking for his second consecutive Seminole Hard Rock Poker Championship.
The last time we saw Affleck in South Florida, he was busy winning the 2015 Coco Poker Open a few minutes north of here for $264,000. That win also put him in the lead for the 2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year, but there’s a long ways to go. He jumped the red-eye across the country to make him our long distance grinder.
We hit the 200 entrant mark and it continues to climb as we approach the first break of the day.
Red eye flight to Miami for @shrpo Rock and Roll main event tomorrow. $3500 $2milllion tomorrow. They awarded 58 seats to the main today
— Matthew Affleck (@mcmattopoker) November 27, 2015
$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 2: 75/150
While we are seeing a lot of big names get in the Championship today, we still have a lot of our regulars mixing it up. Ory Hen fits in both categories.
The reigning Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year is looking to pick up back-to-back titles in the series to finish off a great 2015. He earned another trophy late Wednesday evening as the top player in Event 5 after an eight-way deal.
He’s among nearly 200 entrants so far as we move deeper into the afternoon.
$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 1: 50/100
Before Jonathan Duhamel was the WSOP Main Event Champion, he was a November Niner.
A nice upgrade in titles.
Neil Blumenfield tried to do the same when he was among the final nine players in this year’s WSOP Main Event. He fell short in third place but he had a great run to keep everyone entertained. Blumenfield continued his hot summer with deep runs in the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship, the Coco Poker Open, and HPT Reno final table.
The tournament board shows 180 entrants in the game as they near the end of the first level. Duhamel is one of those needing to register again, his seat was devoid of chips at the bottom of the hour.
$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 1: 50/100
We have our first WSOP Main Event winner in the house as Jonathan Duhamel takes an early seat in the game among the 150 in early action.
The 2010 champ has become a regular fixture over our last few series and he’s back for more. Duhamel’s first WSOP bracelet came with that Main Event win but he followed up with two more this year. He won the $111,111 High Roller for One Drop during the summer series and the High Roller bracelet during the WSOP Europe series.
$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 1: 50/100
It’s not very often you catch a major pot in the opening hands of a big tournament but we caught Dmitry Agrachov certainly grabbing the early chip lead.
We heard the all-in announcement and quick call at Table 15 and saw Agrachov putting a cooler on an opponent. The chips went in the middle with the board reading 
and heard a mild expletive when Agrachov tabled 
for the set-over-set against 
.
No love on the turn or river to give Agrachov the full double and leaving his soon-to-be-gone opponent with just a few big blinds.
$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 1: 50/100
We are underway in the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” with Tournament Director Tony Burns doing the shuffle-and-deal honors to get things moving.
We have a few big names in the game at the start while others are taking their time getting to the table.
$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 1: 50/100
The 2015 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” is set to start the second week and it’s time for the big one. The $3,500 buy-in Championship event is setting up in the ballroom as staff get things ready to go.
The Championship features a $2,000,000 guaranteed prize pool with two starting flights and plenty of chances to get in the action. We expect players to arrive from around the country to join with our large group of local regulars to create a great field.
Players sit down to deep 30,000 stacks and hour-long levels during the starting flights. The registration desk will stay open until the start of Level 7, after the 90-minute dinner break around 8pm, so players can’t take their time getting to the ballroom or fire another bullet if they bust their stack.
The field will play four more levels after dinner and anyone left holding chips will bag them up shortly after midnight for a return on Sunday for Day 2.
It’s an important day in the ballroom and we will continue to follow the action from start to finish.