$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 1: 25/50
Flight B Entrants: 184
With nearly 200 entries only 10 minutes into kickoff, Flight B of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open $360 buy-in, $1,000,000 guarantee is following in the footsteps of Flight A. As a matter of fact, it’s slightly ahead of pace of its 11am predecessor which went on to draw a stout field of 403 entries.
$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 13: 1,000/2,000 with a 300 Ante
Flight A Players Remaining: 99 of 403
The last downstairs table broke after the final break and they’ve lost another one upstairs since then to get the field under 100 for the first time since before the start of play.
A little over 30 minutes remain in the day and anyone with chips after Level 14 will have a few days off before Day 2 rolls around on Sunday afternoon.
$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 1: 25/50
The second flight of Event 1 kicks off at the top of the hour when we get our ballroom action underway for the first time this series. The opening flight drew a very nice 403 entrants in the Poker Room this morning and we expect another nice group this evening.
Event 1 has a $360 buy-in with a huge $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. This is the second of eight starting flights which run from now until Saturday evening.
Each entrant will sit down to a 20,000 starting stack and they will play 30-minute levels throughout the day. Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 9 around 10:30pm. Action will continue through 14 full levels and anyone with chips remaining will put them in a bag for a Sunday Day 2 return.
They will kick things off at 6pm and attempt to join the Flight A crown for some Sunday poker.
$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 12: 800/1,600 with a 200 Ante
Flight A Players Remaining: 117 of 403
Only two tables remain downstairs as they move through Level 12 and those won’t last long. We’ll soon have everyone upstairs and aiming for a chip bag.
Paul Balzano has been quietly making his way through the day and he’s one deep run from a milestone. With more than $900,000 in career earnings, he could hit seven-figures with a final table appearance. Balzano is no stranger to SHRP success with five of his eight tournament titles coming here. He won a $150 Deepstacks event a few weeks ago and followed that up with a televised WPT final table appearance.
$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 11: 600/1,200 with a 200 Ante
Flight A Players Remaining: 126 of 403
Flight A players are on their final break of the day, a quick 10-minute respite from play with only a little more work to get done. They’ll return and play three more levels before bagging up.
There are still a few tables in action downstairs but they should break quickly to join as one upstairs.
$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 10: 500/1,000 with a 100 Ante
Flight A Players Remaining: 189 of 403
We mentioned Neil Blumenfield earlier as one of our regular November Nine players here on a regular basis and we found another a few minutes later when Chino Rheem grabbed a seat in the game.
In 2008, he had to “settle” for seventh place in the WSOP Main Event but he was able to finish off three other big events. Rheem already owned two World Poker Tour titles when he entered the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $10,000 Finale this spring and was the last player standing to earn his third.
$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 9: 400/800 with a 100 Ante
Flight A Players Remaining: 207 of 403
Registration closed on the opening flight of Event 1 and they indeed pushed the count over 400 before action resumed. The official number is 403 for a very nice start to the series.
If you missed out on your shot today, Flight B kicks off at 6pm in the ballroom with late registration and unlimited re-entries until 10:30pm.
$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
End of Level 8: 300/600 with a 75 Ante
Flight A Entrants: 394
Players are on their second break of the day as the quarter chips come out of play. That leaves only 15 minutes left for players to make their way to the poker room for some Flight A action.
The entrant count is only a half dozen away from hitting 400 and there is a chance it gets there.
$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 7: 250/500 with a 75 Ante
Flight A Entrants: 380
Charlemagne Benjamin is one of a handful of players in today’s field who already owns a Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” title and he’s looking to add another this year. He earned his first tournament victory in the 2014 version of this series and added another trophy this past April during the Seminol
$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 6: 200/400 with a 50 Ante
Flight A Entrants: 370
The registration line has slowed down the pace a little to catch up with the open seats. The number continues to move towards 400 which would set a very nice pace for the remaining seven flights.
We found Ory Hen tucked in his seat at a back table and the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year is having a good time grinding up his stack. Hen has over $1 million in career earnings with his biggest cash coming when he earned more than $120,000 for a June 2015 win in our $1,650 Deepstacks event.