Rock ‘N’ Roll

Main Event Day 1 Recap

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

At the conclusion of registration for Event 1, we had a total of 482 entrants creating a prize pool that smashed the $500,000 Guarantee at $723,000. First place will get not one, but two trophies, to go with their $145,321 prize money. We had 117 players make it through to Day 2. Those hopefuls will return at 1 p.m. and fight it out to make it down to 54 players, which is when they will make the money. The chip leader is Serge Coles with 249.5K and local regular Nigel Murray is right behind him with 249K. Closing out the top three is hot as fire Cong Pham with 240.8K. Darryl Fish also makes an entrance in the top 10… in 7th place with 188.6K. The full top ten is as follows:

 

PlaceNameChip Count
1Serge Coles249,500
2Nigel Murray249,000
3Long Pham240,800
4John Pizano238,200
5Kevin Froemmiar233,300
6Mark Gaudino193,300
7Darryll Fish188,600
8Luke Graham167,400
9Shea Smith159,500
10Marcus Harris144,300

There are numerous notable players still in contention including Chino Rheem, Michael Mizrachi, Matthew Waxman, and Tony Cousineau. Here are some of the notables and their stacks heading into Day 2:

Abbey Daniels 119,500
Steve Karp 103,400
David Diaz 89,200
Matthew Waxman 81,400
Chino Rheem 79,100
Micheal Mizrachi 71,700
Tony Cousineau 47,200
Stuart Paterson 20,600

And we have some players that have been grinding the Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” going for a huge score. In addition to Murray, there are players like Don Todd who is 2nd currently in the Leaderboard Promotion and others like Allan Bieler and Elliott Zaydman who could move to the top with a win.

It’s going to be an exciting day 2 and we’ll be here to cover all the action.

WPT Regional Trophy
WPT Regional Trophy

Main Event Day 1B: All Bagged Up

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds: 500/1K/100 ante

We have concluded play for the day and the unofficial number of players making it through to Day 2 action is 69, making the total number of players returning 117. With only 54 spots getting paid that means over half of those returning will come up short of making any money. The Day 1B chip leader is Cong Pham with 240.8K. He is followed closely by John Pizano with 238.2 K. Not too far back is Darryl Fish with 188K. We’ll have the full chip counts and Day 2 seating assignments posted as soon as they become available.

Main Event Day 1B: 30 Minutes Left In The Day

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds: 500/1K/100 ante

We have half an hour left in the last level of the day. 81 players are left and the average chip stack is 67K. Cong Pham is leading the way after winning a bit pot that put him up to close to 250K in chips. We’ll have end of day chip counts shortly after play concludes for the evening.

Main Event Day 1B: Action Hand

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds: 400/800/100 ante

There are 90 players remaining with 20 minutes remaining in Level 9. Notable players and their approximate chip stacks:

Chino Rheem 135K
Cong Pham 135K
Daryll Fish 125K
Matthew Waxman 85K
Ronnie Bardah 40K

At one table, there was an action packed hand that went down like this:

A woman in early position from Seat 5, raised to 2200. Seat 8 called. Seat 1 from the button called. Seat 2 from the small blind called. Seat 3 from the big blind made it 6800 to go. Seat 5, 8 and 1 all called. Seat 2 decided to move all in. Seat 3 moved all in. The other three decided they’d seen enough and folded. Seat 2 had AhQh and was behind the AsKc of Seat 3. The board would run out Td7s4d4h3s and Seat 3 would not only get 24.4K from Seat 2 but also 20.4K from the other three players who had each stuck in 6.8K.

AK vs AQ 001
Action!

Main Event Day 1B: King Cong In The House

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds: 300/600/75 ante

There are 117 players remaining, meaning everyone is now upstairs.

“King” Cong Pham, a Naples, Florida resident is playing here at the Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship event today. Cong has been on an incredible run this year. He started it off with a 28th place finish in the $10,000,000 Guaranteed Event here in August for $46,540. He followed that up three weeks later with a 3rd place at the WPT Borgata Poker Open for $301,225. A month later he was winning a HPT event in Jacksonville for $104,033 and followed that up last week with a 21st place finish for $10,264 at the WPT Jacksonville tournament. For those keeping score at home that’s $462,063 in just over three months. He’ll be trying to add some more to that total over the next few days.

Cong Pham - On A Roll
Cong Pham – On A Roll

Main Event Day 1B: Back From Dinner

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds: 250/500/75 ante

We’re back from dinner break and there is some poker playing going on but most everyone is talking about the incredible ending to the Alabama-Auburn game. The whole poker room was buzzing after the miraculous Auburn win, with a bunch of “Oh My God’s” and “Wow’s” permeating the room.

 

Main Event Day 1B: Twitter Updates

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds: 200/400/50 ante

Some Twitter updates from players playing in the Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship Event.

 

Main Event Day 1B: Dinner Break

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds: 200/400/50 ante

Players are now on a one hour dinner break. There are 144 players remaining. Among the notables still in the field are Matthew Waxman, Ronnie Bardah, Darryl Fish and Chino Rheem who somehow snuck into the back corner and evaded our eyes until moments ago.

Here is one of the trophies they are playing for:

WPT Regional Trophy
WPT Regional Trophy