$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 7: 400/800 with a 800 ante
Total Entrants:  405

Level 6 comes to an end, and the players take a 75-minute dinner break. Action is scheduled to resume around 7:45 pm.

Registration is open until the start of Level 9, around 10:00 pm, and players are allowed two entries into the tournament. Players can enter twice in one day, or once per starting flight.

Action is scheduled to continue tonight until the end of Level 10, around 12:00 midnight.

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 6: 300/600 with a 600 ante
Total Entrants: 403

On a board reading   it checked to Scott Blumstein who bet 12,000 into a pot of around 20,000. James Romero called out of the big blind, as did Faraz Jaka from middle position.

All three players checked the on the river. Jaka turned over for the winning full house. His opponents mucked.

Faraz Jaka –  180,000
James Romero – 39,000
Scott Blumstein – 38,000

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 6: 300/600 with a 60 ante
Total Entrants:  400

With the board showing on the turn, the player in the hijack was all in for about 38,000 with for an ace-high straight.

But he was drawing dead to Jake Schindler, who flopped a full house with .

The meaningless river card was the , and Schindler won the pot with his full house to eliminate his opponent and reach 160K in chips.

Here are some updated chip counts from the field as the field hits the 400-entry mark:

Joseph Cheong  –  220,000  (367 bb)
Jake Schindler  –  160,000  (267 bb)
Longsheng Tan  –  148,000  (247 bb)
Dustin Lee  –  147,000  (245 bb)
Kyle Keranen  –  123,000  (205 bb)
Matt Glantz  –  120,000  (200 bb)
Justin Ligeri  –  115,500  (193 bb)
Ido Ashekenazi  –  115,000  (192 bb)
Alan Schein  –  112,000  (187 bb)
Kurt Lichtman  –  110,500  (184 bb)
Harrison Gimbel  –  107,000  (178 bb)
David Nathaniel  –  105,000  (175 bb)
Matthew Leecy  –  95,000  (158 bb)
Jared Griener  –  72,000  (120 bb)
Nick Schulman  –  71,500  (119 bb)
Bob Bounahra  –  62,000  (103 bb)
Lexy Gavin  –  60,000  (100 bb)
Randall Fernandez  –  48,000  (80 bb)
D.J. Alexander  –  47,500  (79 bb)
Nadya Magnus  –  44,000  (73 bb)
Noah Schwartz  –  42,000  (70 bb)
Ben Yu  –  42,000  (70 bb)
Darren Elias  –  39,000  (65 bb)
Corey Burbick  –  39,000  (65 bb)
Chance Kornuth  –  38,000  (63 bb)
Ankush Mandavia  –  31,500  (53 bb)
Eric Afriat  –  21,000  (35 bb)

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 6: 300/600 with a 600 ante
Total Entrants: 400

There was about 13,000 in the pot on the turn with the board reading .

Jonathan Little checked from the small blind and Imar Soika bet 5,000 from the cutoff. Little check-raised to an amount that was enough to put Soika all in. Soika quickly called.

Soika showed and was in the lead against Little’s .

Little turned a bunch of equity with a gutshot and a flush draw, but the river was the and Soika doubled up with a set.

Imar Soika – 96,800
Jonathan Little – 12,500

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 6: 300/600 with a 600 ante
Total Entrants: 400

On a flop of Ryan Riess checked out of the small blind, John Andress checked from the big blind and Shaun Deeb bet 2,500.

Riess check-raised to 7,200 and Andress called. Deeb made it 26,000, Riess got out of the way and Andress shoved for 79,300.

Deeb thought about it before deciding to call. Andress turned over for a flopped full house and needed to hold against Deeb’s trip nines.

The turn and river came clean for Andress as he scored a big double up.

John Andress – 174,000
Shaun Deeb – 25,000
Ryan Riess – 22,000

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5: 300/500 with a 500 ante
Total Entrants: 399

After a series of raises Noah Schwartz moved all in from late position for 23,800 and got called by the button.

Schwartz turned over and was in great shape against his opponent’s .

The board came and Schwartz wound up with a set of aces to avoid elimination.

Noah Schwartz – 50,000

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5: 300/500 with a 500 ante
Total Entrants: 392

With two limpers ahead of him Zach Donovan made it 2,500 from the button. Ian O’Hara shoved for 22,000 and Donovan called.

O’Hara tabled and needed to get lucky against Donovan’s .

The board came and Donovan’s pocket queens held to eliminate O’Hara.

Zach Donovan – 50,000

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5: 300/500 with a 500 ante
Total Entrants: 388

Joseph Cheong is lapping the field and it’s not even close at this point. The former November Niner is leading with 245,000 and David Nathaniel is his closest competitor with less than half of that amount.

Besides Cheong, we have ten players over 100,000 with two more hours before the dinner break and more than six hours from shutting down registration for Day 1A.

The next ten chasing Cheong:

David Nathaniel – 120,000
Matthew Leecy – 115,000
Ido Ashkenazi – 114,500
Kyle Keranen – 113,300
Longsheng Tan – 113,000
Alan Schein – 112,300
Harrison Gimbel – 110,500
Justin Ligeri – 109,100
Dustin Lee – 102,000
Kurt Lichtman – 100,000

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4: 200/400 with a 400 ante
Total Entrants: 374

On a flop of with around 8,000 in the pot, Stoyan Obreshkov checked from early position and Harrison Gimbel bet 3,600.

The button called and Obreshkov raised to 16,000. Gimbel shoved having both of his opponents covered. The button got out of the way and Obreshkov called all in.

It’s a cooler situation as Obreshkov tabled for a set of sevens against Gimbel’s set of nines.

The board came , , clean for Gimbel and Obreshkov was eliminated.

Harrison Gimbel – 120,000

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4: 200/400 with a 400 ante
Total Entrants: 374

Yes, there are big names all over the place in the new Hard Rock Event Center. You can’t turn your head without eyeing up a WSOP bracelet winner or WPT Champions Club member.

One table seems to have a bit of overkill going on and any new player might just sit out a few hands. Darryll Fish, Andre Akkari, Aaron Mermelstein, and Matt Stout occupy the three through six seats at the table with millions in earnings and accolades.

But the other spots are held by big-stacked Derek Sudell and Alex Rocha with John “Muscles” Gordon getting in the mix in the last few minutes.

They are loose, laughing, and having a great time and any could be in contention for the title.