$350 Black Chip Bounty No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
End of Level 12: 600/1,200/200

While Event 1 was playing down into the money and beyond, the Black Chip Bounty tournament was moving right along and drew 190 entrants to the field.

That nearly doubled up the $30,000 guarantee and they were grinding away in the The Poker Room in Seminole Paradise. That ends after the current dinner break.

Tournament staff had players bag up their chips for a move back to the ballroom. The 46 remaining players will enjoy their 60-minute timeout and come back to the big room.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 23:  10,000/20,000/3,000 Ante

The field is down to about 120 players, with an average chip stack around 500,000 (25 big blinds). The players are in the money, all guaranteed at least $1,179, and the next pay jump is $1,269 for 110th place.

Chipleader Pedro Palacio’s table broke, and he was moved to seat 4 at Thomas Collazo’s table (Collazo is in seat 8). Palacio had a good lead on Collazo, until the following hand took place.

Collazo was in the big blind, and saw a flop of against the player on the button, who moved all in on the flop with (pair of queens). Collazo called with (pair of sevens).

The turn was the , giving the button a spade flush draw, but the river was the — Collazo won the pot with two pair, sevens and fives, to eliminate the button and cross the two-million mark in chips.

So now the two chipleaders are at the same table, with more than 2 million each.

Pedro Palacio  –  2,275,000  (113 bb)
Thomas Collazo  –  2,170,000  (108 bb)

They won’t be head-to-head much longer, as their table is coming up in the breaking order soon.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 22: 8,000/16,000/2,000 Ante

The field is down to 142 players, with an average stack around 425,000 (26 big blinds). The bustouts are coming quick and steady right now, sending players to the payout desk to collect their winnings.

We recently lost Marsha Wolak in 151st place. She got it all in preflop with 9-9 against another player’s A-J, and she was teased with a set on a board of 9-8-7-10-x, only to see her opponent turn a straight. a WSOP bracelet winner, Wolak will have to wait a while longer before winning her second Seminole Hard Rock trophy. (She won the Seniors Event during the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown this past April.)

The big stacks are getting bigger. Pedro Palacio has increased his lead over the field as he has nearly 2.2 million, and the second biggest stack appears to belong to Thomas Collazo, who has nearly 1.7 million.

Here’s a list of some of the biggest stacks, along with Chance Kornuth, who has been bouncing around the top half of the chip counts since last night — he can go from an average stack to the chip lead and back again rather quickly.

Pedro Palacio  –  2,180,000  (136 bb)
Thomas Collazo  –  1,680,000  (105 bb)
Joe Reddick  –  1,320,000  (82 bb)
Von Ward  –  1,175,000  (73 bb)
TJ Shulman  –  1,125,000  (70 bb)
David Jackson  –  985,000  (61 bb)
Chance Kornuth  –  635,000  (39 bb)

The field will take a 40-minute dinner break after Level 23, which should be around 7:25 pm.

2015 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ’n’ Roll Poker Open”
$350 Black Chip Bounty No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$30,000 Guarantee

November 22nd, 2015

Total Entries:  190
Total Prize Pool:  $38,000

1st: $11,400
2nd: $6,270
3rd: $3,610
4th: $3,040
5th: $2,280
6th: $1,900
7th: $1,520
8th: $1,140
9th: $855
10-12th: $760
13-15th: $665
16-18th: $570

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 21: 6,000/12,000/2,000 Ante

Von Ward is no longer our Event 1 leader but not because he lost his chips. Pedro Palacio continues to build his stack from the 211,000 he sat with at the start of the day.

“Big stack poker,” is how his tablemates are describing his move up the ladder. Palacio jumped over Ward and went on break with 1.5 million in his stack while Ward holds 1.1 million.

Joe Reddick might soon join them in the Million Chip club when with big castle of 900,000.

They will play three more 40-minute levels before taking their dinner break.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 20: 5,000/10,000/1,000 Ante

Juan Plaza Salva jumped into the lead at the first break but nothing has gone right since. His stack was chopped in half earlier, and it was cut once again by Jake Melen.

Salva was looking to rebound with his pocket aces against Melen’s and he was in great shape on the flop. Melen needed a lot of help for a double and the dealer did just that as the board completed four-flush club-happy to ship him the pot.

He’s now over 450,000 while Salva dropped under 100,000 with 180 players remaining.

Players are now on 15-minute break.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 20: 5,000/10,000/1,000 Ante

Von Ward first put the tournament in the money, then took the chip lead, and now is the first player in Event 1 to hold a seven-digit stack.

His table broke shortly after the bubble burst and he’s added even more chips from his new table. Ward now holds 1.1 million and comfortably grinding down everyone else.

We’ve dropped under 200 players remaining with half an hour until the next break. Those recently departed include Joe Gale, Dani Dayan, Raymond Ruszkowski, Gili Prizament, and Louis Leo IV. The rest of the players will be able to take a needed breather soon.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 19: 4,000/8,000/1,000 Ante

As you generally expect, it didn’t take long after the money bubble for players to form a line at the payout desk. Those who rode their short stack into the money put them in the middle with less risk.

We lost 90 players in the last half hour to back things up for processing. They are moving through quickly to get their slips before hitting the cage.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 19: 4,000/8,000/1,000 Ante

The field never slowed down after the break and play was paused 15 minutes into the level to start hand-for-hand action three away from the money.

We lost a player on the first hand, nothing special on the second, then three all-ins at different tables on the third. There was a double up in the first but two gone after that.

First up was Von Ward, ahead but racing his opponent with versus . The board ran out clean for Ward to send one out and leave them one from the money. It also vaulted Von into the lead with a  few chips over 800,000,

The final all-in saw Joe Reddick ahead in his race with against . He never had a sweat at the dealer spread to knock another out and put the field in the money on the third round of hand-for-hand action.

Everyone is guaranteed a min-cash worth $626 which is where Nick Baurichter finished. It was a tight race but he slid into the money with just 24,000 on the bubble.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 18: 3,000/6,000/1,000 Ante

Players are back in their seats and we found one among the many remaining who quietly ran up a stack. Juan Plaza Salva began the day with 100,000 for an average stack, now he sits above everyone else with 670,000. That’s a nice two-hour run.

Chance Kornuth is still “hanging around” in second place with 417,000 while former leader David Maddox holds 460,000 and Dwight Barclay is not far behind wit 441,000.

The number count has been adjusted and we are only 15 players away from the money bubble.