$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 2: 50/100
Flight B Entries: 214

Anthony March has been on a poker heater lately and the big winner is the Pay it Backward Foundation. March, a CEO, carded a deep run at the Aussie Millions and then headed Stateside where he finished seventh in the Seminole Immokalee Poker Challenge Main Event for $8,000. True to his word, March donated his profits to charity.

March is back on the felt here in Flight B of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown opener and looks to earn some additional cash for the less fortunate.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
End of Level 14: 1,200/2,400 with a 400 ante
Flight A Players Remaining: 80 of 424

With ten minutes remaining in the day, tournament staff paused the clock and announced four more hands before bagging up.

When it was done, SHRP regular George Dolofan put the biggest stack in a bag and his 260,500 leads the way. Also advancing to Day 2 were Jacquelyn Scott (213,000), David Wolfe (197,000), Elliott Zaydman (126,500), and SHRP team member Jessica Dawley (71,500).

Complete chip counts will be posted as soon as they are official.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 2: 50/100
Flight B Entries: 159

After a modest start, the field has more than doubled in the first level of the night. The clock reads 159 entries at the beginning of Level 2 putting the combined count at just under 600.

Among those in the early Flight B action are Seminole Hard Rock Tampa ambassador Wally Maddah. Maddah, a fixture at any Seminole Hard Rock Poker series, made the trek across the state and plans to spend the next three weeks with us here in South Florida.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 14: 1,200/2,400 with a 400 ante
Flight A Players Remaining: 90 of 424

Flight A players are in the last level of their day with ten tables running and stacks moving up including SHRP regular Elliott Zaydman closing on 200,000.

They’ll play through this level and those with chips will bag them up for a return on Sunday for Day 2.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 12: 800/1,600 with a 200 ante
Flight A Players Remaining: 126 of 424

The Flight A field continues to shrink at a steady pace but we still have more than 120 around with a few more levels to go.

Asher Conniff, Jon Borenstein, and Marsha Wolak are a few who will have to take a shot in a later flight but Jessica Dawley, Nancy Thomas, and 2015 WSOP Ladies Champion Jacquelyn Scott (pictured above) are still grinding away in the ballroom.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 11: 600/1,200 with a 200 ante
Flight A Players Remaining: 144 of 424

Players are well into the 11th level of the day and they will soon be on their final break of the day. Less than 150 players remain of the starting 424 entries including SHRP regular Francis Margaglione.

Margaglione already own two SHRP titles, two from the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open series and one from the “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open”. That last one saw him outlast nearly 1,500 other entries in the $150 multi-day event to take the title.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 10: 500/1,000 with a 100 ante
Flight A Players Remaining: 206 of 424

The books are closed on Flight A and the official number of entries stands at 424 after all the accounting is complete. That makes this flight better than 50 entries higher than last year and we expect bigger fields to come.

One of the last entries this afternoon was Seminole Hard Rock team member Jessica Dawley. The laid-back pro has booked more than $400,000 in career earnings including her biggest right here during the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” with a sixth place finish in the Championship for a cool $110,000.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 9: 400/800 with a 100 ante
Flight A Entries: 420

Registration closed on the opening flight of Event 1 and it drew a big crowd. Unofficially, the count stands at 420 as the big brains do the final accounting but it’s already over Flight A of this tournament last year. Event 1 Flight A drew 370 entries in the 2016 opener on the way to a $800,000 prize pool. A very good sign that we’ll go even bigger this year.

Former WPT World Champion Asher Conniff was a late entrant and he’s peacefully grinding in the former seat of Lou Stadler. He was already well known around the Northeast poker crowd before he stormed onto the world stage in 2015. Conniff won the huge first event during the 2015 Borgata Spring Poker Open for $200,000 and finished off the series by winning the last-ever WPT World Championship for another $973,000 and change.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 8: 300/600 with a 75 ante
Flight A Entries: 386

The entrant count is racing towards 400 and they’ve already surpassed the number from last year’s opening flight that set them on the path to a $800,000 prize pool.

Level 8 is underway and the last chance for players to jump in this flight. But they still have five more shots with the next flight running at 6pm this evening.

We located our first member of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker team getting in the action. WPT Season XII Player of the Year Mukul Pahuja joined the fun this afternoon and is down to the serious business of winning a title. Pahuja won his WPT honors with a year that included nearly $1.5 million earnings in WPT events alone with five cashes and three final tables.