$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Level 7: 250/500/50 Ante
With this many people in the ballroom, now up to 650 entrants in Level 7, it sometimes gets a little loud. Especially if you load up a table full guys having fun.
Table 22 is one of those and their names have been redacted to protect their anonymity. But they are having a blast.
It started early with one player getting a massage and calling over as many massage therapists as he could find. Before long, six of the nine players at the table were splitting time between relaxing and laughing at anything mildly amusing.
$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Level 6: 200/400/50 Ante
South Florida is a destination location, a lot of people move here but they rarely move away. We have a recent transplant from the frigid Northeast in his first Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open action.
Jason Young spent most of his time playing in Atlantic City, where he amassed over $750,000 in career tournament earnings, before he went ahead and won a WSOP bracelet in 2008.
Young moved down here a few months ago but not before just missing a WSOP Circuit title with a runner-up finish in December. He hopped in today and part of the 600+ Flight 1E field.
$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Level 5: 150/300/25 Ante
Hundreds of players are still alive after the first break and we hit a new milestone when the 600th entrant joined the field. We’re running out of adjectives after huge, massive, monstrous are overused.
Gonzalo Talma pulled ahead of all those players to come back from break to a near 83,000-sized stack. He’s followed closely by Peter Chin while Juan Rodriguez, Eli Levy, Stefan Alvarez, Joel Brink, and Melissa Kaiser are all over the 60k mark.
Still plenty of time for players to catch Talma but he’s off to a nice start so far.
Top counts and notable stacks:
Gonzalo Talma – 82,950 (277 bb) Peter Chin – 81,000 (270 bb) Juan Rodriguez – 74,225 (247 bb) Eli Levy – 66,100 (220 bb) Stefan Alvarez – 64,675 (216 bb) Joel Brink – 63,025 (210 bb) Melissa Kaiser – 61,200 (204 bb) Ido Ashkenazi – 59,675 (199 bb) Tom Puccio – 55,575 (185 bb) Manfred Rosenow – 55,525 (185 bb) Michael Chiappetta – 37,450 (125 bb) Ory Hen – 30,100 (100 bb) David Inselberg – 21,375 (71 bb) Nancy Birnbaum – 18,500 (62 bb) “Miami John” Cernuto – 18,000 (60 bb)
$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Level 4: 100/200
Flight 1E players are off on their first break of the day and some of them realized they should leave a little early.
It will be a little crowded in the lobby.
Just under 550 entrants have joined the game over the first four levels with another two and half hours to late register or re-enter. It’s a loud, boisterous, fun-filled Saturday afternoon of poker in the ballroom.
We will attempt to track down the biggest stack in the room among those five hundred or so competitors over the break.
2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $250 Limit Omaha/8 (Re-Entry)
July 31, 2015
Total Entries: 101 Total Prize Pool: $21,210
Event 2 Champion John Reese
Recap: In a event where one player was looking for his 12th career mixed game title and another was trying to join his daughter in the winners circle, two players ended up being the spoilers dominating the final table with John Reese standing tall at the end.
The final table started off fast as Phillippe Gourreau was quickly eliminated in 10th followed by Chico Pho in 9th. Pho was knocked out on a rivered straight by Jeff Bunims who had stormed to the chip lead taking command of the table. And his lead grew even larger as he eliminated Robert Campbell in 8th with a pair of 2’s ending Campbell’s quest for fourth Seminole Hard Rock championship and an incredible 12th mixed title.
In the meantime, the news hit the table that Loni Harwood had won the WSOP National Championship which was very special to one player in particular. Her father, Joel Harwood, was at the final table and let out a scream of celebration when he saw the news getting the attention of the room and the congratulations from his table mates. Her win set up an incredibly rare possibility of a father/daughter duo winning major events on the same day if Joel could pull through.
But Jeff Bunims was having none of it. Bunims continued to play a wide open game and he and Alban Torres split a four-way pot which ended up sending Geoff Mikukla to the rail in 7th and then took out Ryan Leto in 6th. Bunims was now in a commanding position to put away the tournament but fate and John Reese had different ideas. A huge three-way pot saw Reese hit broadway against Bunims king-high straight scooping the pot and also sending Christian Ivens out in 5th place. Joel Harwood has also managed to chip up in the meantime and was in the mix for title as well. And with the elimination of Alban Torres in 4th, the final three were ready to battle it out.
John Reese hit a nut flush and scooped against Harwood setting up Harwood’s elimination shortly afterward in similar fashion ending Harwood’s quest to join his daughter in the winner’s circle but still ending up with a superb third place finish.
After the elimination of Harwood, Reese and Bunims had enough and decided to chop the remaining prize money leaving John Reese as the first champion of this year’s Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open.
Reese looked back on his game plan and how the final table played out. “Coming into a new table I didn’t know half the players at the table and I was a short stack at that point. So I just sat back and waited until I caught a hand and was just fortunate it started to roll at the end at the right time. It’s been a long time since I’ve played serious Omaha but going back twenty-five years ago I put myself through two years of college playing in Tampa at the Seminole in $40 Omaha tournaments so I’ve played a lot of Omaha and it was just nice to come in here and catch cards.”
And given his unique perspective on life and what he’s been through to have a moment like this victory was incredibly special to him. “Without getting emotional for what I’ve been through in the last seven years this was by far the biggest tournament that I’ve won. I’ve had serious health problems – three heart attacks and a sudden cardiac arrest and actually was dead for four and a half minutes two years ago. I’m happy to be here.”
Reese was also very generous in his praise for the Seminole Hard Rock-Hollywood team. “Look, it’s a class act. I’ve played a lot of poker and I love Hollywood. They do a great job here. I live in Ft. Myers and I come here and it’s mostly because of the people. They treat you right here. Everyone’s friendly and they take care of their customers.”
Congratulations to our Event 2 Champion – John Reese!
Results: 1st: John Reese (Ft. Myers, FL) – $5,076 2nd: Jeff Bunims (Loxahatchee, FL) – $5,075 3rd: Joel Harwood (Hallandale Beach, FL) – $2,687 4th: Alban Torres (Miami, FL) – $1,992 5th: Christian Ivens (Miami Beach, FL) – $1,493 6th: Ryan Leto (Tampa, FL) – $1,194 7th: Geoff Mikulka (St. Petersburg, FL) – $995 8th: Robert Campbell (Miami, FL) – $795 9th: Chico Pho (Memphis, TN) – $598 10th: Phillippe Goureau (Bal Harbour, FL) – $435
$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Level 3: 75/150
The ballroom is quickly filling as 1E passed into the afternoon hours while players keep piling in. The entrant count just went over 450 with a constantly moving line at the registration desk. We aren’t far from cracking 500 entrants before the first break.
A few more familiar faces popped up including David Inselberg, Adam Rouse, 2014 Coco Poker Open Heads up champ Antonio Campbell, and three-time WSOP Circuit winner Nancy Birnbaum.
$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Level 1: 25/50
It looked like today’s field would be the biggest flight of them all and that might work out. The entrant count shows 320 in the game midway through the first level and will grow until registration closes before Level 9.
A few local regulars are back in action including Alfonso Perez, Glenn Cressman, and Matt Waldron.
Ready to start 11am flight of $500k Guarantee at Hard Rock Hollywood. Ready for some #rungood#SHRPO
$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Level 1: 25/50
It’s time for the final opening flights of Event 1 with a huge prize pool already built. The tournament has a $500,000 prize pool that was nearly met last night. Just 96 players were needed in this morning’s flight to hit that number and 1E was over it before the start of play.
With two full flights to go, every entrant now is just pushing the prize pool further over $500,000 to create some big payouts late Sunday evening. So far, 1,571 entrants have put up their money with 295 of them sticking around to bag chips for Day 2.
They begin with 20,000 stacks and play 30-minute levels throughout the day. Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 9, approximately 3:30pm, and they will bag up after Level 14 for Day 2.
Players are in their seats, instructions have been given, and cards are in the air for Flight 1E.
