$400 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 15: 2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 ante Players Remaining: 665 of 4,699
Nearly 100 players hit the rail in the first 30 minutes of the day but Gilles Dalco is not one of them. While others drop, he moved his stack up to 581,500 and looks like the new Event 1 leader. Dalco began with the eighth-best stack and moving higher.
Two other notables cruising through Day 2 are two former champions of this event.
Rafael Reis won this tournament in 2016 when the 5,018 entries created the biggest field in Florida state history. He’s grinding it out today but comfortable with 201,000.
Trung Pham won RRPO Event 1 a little more recently; he is the defending champ after taking home the trophy last year. He is also in the safe zone with 180,000.
$400 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 15: 2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 ante Players Remaining: 709 of 4,699
Michael Tait had a big stack several times during his opening flight but was stuck with a short stack coming back to Day 2. He took a shot early and moved all in for 36,500 from the hijack to get a call from Shay Montes on the button.
Tait: Montes:
Tait got his chips in good then faded the over card and spades on the run out for his much needed double.
Michael Tait – 83,000 (21 bb) Shay Montes – 99,000 (25 bb)
$400 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 15: 2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 ante Players Remaining: 721 of 4,699
At the top of the hour, tournament staff put cards back in the air for Day 2 of RRPO Event 1. Players (most of them at least) returned to the Seminole Ballroom where they will continue their journey to a big title.
Blinds are at 2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 big blind ante and the average stack is 130,500 (33 big blinds).
$400 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 15: 2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 ante Players Remaining: 721 of 4,699
We are closing out the weekend after running through eight starting flights of RRPO Event 1. It was a massive turnout, especially the huge Saturday crowd, and they combined to put 4,699 entries into the tournament.
Only 721 of them were able to survivor and advance to Day 2 this afternoon. Mustafa Lobut bagged in the last flight of the tournament and his 475,500 was good enough to take the overall lead coming back to the Seminole Ballroom followed by Cristine Drake with 473,500.
Other notables returning today include Robert Mizrachi, Mark Dube, Raminder Singh, Nigel Murray, Joel Harwood, Sean Shah, Victor Figueroa, Wally Maddah, Vitor Coelho, and others among the talent group.
Blind levels move up to 40 minutes each until they reach the final table when they increase to 60. The money bubble should hit around the time of the first break with 470 getting paid.
Cards go back in the air at noon and we will have all the action.
If you missed out on Day 2 of the RRPO opening event, have no fear. We have something for you today. Some Deep Stack action on a Sunday afternoon. Event 7 is a $400 Deep Stack NLH tournament with a $50,000 guaranteed prize pool and one-day structure.
Players will start with a 20,000 stack and all levels last 30 minutes. Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 9 at 3:30 pm and there is a dinner break scheduled at 5 pm. When they return from their 40 minutes away from the action, they will return and continue playing until we have an Event 7 champ.
Cards fly at 11 am and we will hit the highlights along the way.
$50,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Players begin with 20,000 in chips and 30-minute levels
Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
This is a one-day tournament and plays until completion
2019 Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Event 6 $400 Big O (Re-Entry) Entries: 78 Prize Pool: $26,520 November 23, 2019
Gavin Smith recently moved from Portland, Oregon, where Omaha-8 is plentiful, down to Florida, where PLO and Omaha high are more popular. So when Smith saw the Big O tournament on the Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open schedule, he knew he had to play it. Twelve hours later, just a few minutes before midnight, he won it.
“It feels good,” said Smith after his victory. “I have a lot of friends that are winning these trophies, so it feels good to finally be among them.”
“There’s a lot of Omaha high down here,” said Smith about the Florida poker scene, “but there’s not a lot of eight-or-better. And that’s all I’ve been playing in Portland for the last ten years. I’ve never really played high-only; it’s always been eight-or-better. So I feel like I have a slight advantage over the average player down here.”
Smith learned a lot from the Omaha 8 games he played in Oregon. “The group that I play with in Portland includes several mixed-game players and a couple of bracelet winners, and we were fortunate that they taught us as well. It was very helpful.”
At this final table, Smith was wary of Gabriel Ramos, who has already won three Omaha trophies here at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood this year, plus two more in 2018. And when Ramos had the chip lead at this final table, he seemed headed for his sixth Seminole Hard Rock Omaha trophy.
“[Ramos] was so aggressive that I didn’t have to do anything,” said Smith. “He was the chipleader for a while before me, so everybody was focused on him, which was really nice. I just waited for hands, hoped they held up, and got paid on them.”
But a five on the river gave Smith a wheel to scoop the entire pot and double up into a huge chip lead, giving him more chips than the other four players combined. As for Ramos, he was knocked down below 20 big blinds and never recovered, eventually finishing fourth.
Now that he’s living in Florida, Smith is getting used to a different poker atmosphere.
“In Portland, there are a lot of local clubs, and they’re fantastic, but every casino down here has a minimum of 30 tables. The poker rooms are huge, which is great. There’s always variety.”
Final Results:
1st: Gavin Smith – $8,125 + RRPO Trophy 2nd: David Jacobs – $5,420 3rd: Nisim Cohen – $3,610 4th: Gabriel Ramos – $2,510 5th: Scott Franck – $1,820 6th: Marc Rabuse – $1,385 7th: Natan Wager – $1,100 8th: Edmond Tonnellier – $920 9th: Barry Levy – $815 10th: Charles Simon – $815
$400 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 15: 2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 ante Flight H Players Remaining: 137 of 907
The final starting flight for Event 1 has come to an end with 137 survivors from a field of 907, and the chipleader is Mustafa Lobut, who bagged up the overall chip lead from all eight flights with 475,500 (119 big blinds).
The full list of official chip counts will be posted later tonight, but in the meantime, here’s a look at the top of the Flight H leaderboard:
1. Mustafa Lobut – 475,500 (119 bb) 2. Ben Boston – 400,000 (100 bb) 3. Anton Serkov – 362,000 (91 bb)
Stay tuned for the Day 2 seat draw, which will be posted later tonight.