$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 25: 15,000/30,000 with a 5,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 103 of 5,018

Wally Maddah began the day with just 57,000 chips, one of the shortest stacks in the Day 2 starting field. He’s still in contention with just over 100 players left, though he hasn’t exactly had an easy day.

Maddah has been at or below 10 big blinds since the start, and he was under five bigs for a while earlier this level. The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Ambassador did find a double-up a moment ago, with his ace-ten holding against an opponent’s queen-jack to bump him back up to 10 big blinds once again.

The day-long struggle to stay afloat has been a mighty one for Maddah, but he’s still all smiles as he continues to grind away with a short stack.

Wally Maddah – 395,000 (10 bb)

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 25: 15,000/30,000 with a 5,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 110 of 5,018

Ted McNamara got himself all in for just less than 1,100,000 on a four-bet preflop shove, and he was racing for his tournament life as chip leader Barbaro Diaz called to put him at risk.

McNamara:
Diaz:

The board ran out , and McNamara won the race to double up. Diaz was flipping for a monster stack, but that loss sets him back into the pack a bit, overtaken by the aforementioned Damjan Radanov and McNamara, among others.

Ted McNamara – 2,200,000 (73 bb)
Barbaro Diaz – 2,050,000 (68 bb)

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 25: 15,000/30,000 with a 5,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 116 of 5,018

Barbaro Diaz has just crossed the 3,000,000-chip mark, retaking the overall chip lead. We mentioned Diaz before, but there’s a new challenger near the top of the leaderboard, too.

Damjan Radanov has nearly a full barrel of the new, red 100,000-denomination chips, and his stack of 2,700,000 appears to have him in second place overall. Radanov is a pro from Tennessee with nearly $400,000 in career tournament earnings, and he’s working on his first cash at Seminole Hard Rock this evening.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 25: 15,000/30,000 with a 5,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 125 of 5,018

@SHRTPoker @shrpo RRPO , down to 128 players ! pic.twitter.com/XxwN8kiCvt

— Karl Man (@KarlMano) November 21, 2016

That’s 1,708,000 by our count, putting Tampa’s Karl Manouchakian among the chip leaders as play resumes following the break.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
End of Level 24: 12,000/24,000 with a 4,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 125 of 5,018

Level 24 has concluded, and the field is on a 15-minute break. While they’re away, the orange 1,000-denomination chips are being colored up and raced off.

The board shows about 125 players remaining. Blinds will be 15,000/30,000 with a 5,000 ante to begin the next level, so the average stack will be about 27 big blinds.

Everyone left is now guaranteed to earn at least $1,806.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 23: 10,000/20,000 with a 3,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 162 of 5,018

A player in early position opened with a raise, and Michael Johnson three-bet to 150,000 in position. His opponent called.

The flop was . The raiser checked, Johnson announced, “Same bet,” for 150,000, and his opponent called. The turn was the , and it checked to Johnson again. He moved all in for about 1,100,000 effective, having his opponent slightly covered.

The gentleman who had been put to the decision stood up from his chair and stared down at the board for a long while, shaking his head slowly. After a long while, he asked everyone’s favorite question to ask in spots like this one: “Will you show if I fold?”

Johnson fumbled to pause the video playing on his tablet and slid one side of his headphones off his ear. “Huh?”

“Will you show if I fold?” his opponent repeated.

“Sure,” Johnson answered. “If you want me to.”

“I’m either a hero, or…” the opponent said, open-folding for a set of fours. Johnson honored his word and flashed as he stacked up the pot, letting out a bit of a wide-eyed look of relief as he did.

Johnson is the overall chip leader as he inches toward the two-million-chip mark.

Michael Johnson – 1,900,000 (95 bb)

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 23: 10,000/20,000 with a 3,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 185 of 5,018

Chino Rheem opened to 42,000 in early position, and Todd Zojaji three-bet to 105,000 two seats over. Rheem called the remainder.

The flop was . Rheem checked, and Zojaji moved all in for 332,000. Rheem plunked a stack of chips down onto his cards and leaned back in his chair, pondering the decision for several minutes as the two engaged in some back-and-forth banter.

“You got a pair?” Rheem asked. “I do too.”

“That’s cute,” Zojaji answered.

“If I’d known you were just going to rip…” Rheem trailed off.

After a moment of pause in the chat, Zojaji piped up again: “What you got?”

“You can’t ask that,” the dealer quickly interjected.

It didn’t stop Rheem from answering, though. “I was dealt a pair and I still got a pair,” he said. “What you got?”

“You can’t ask that,” the dealer stepped in once again.

Zojaji began to express some frustration with Rheem’s decision-making process and the pace of play, and Rheem eventually surrendered his cards into the muck. As the next hand was being dealt, the two were still sparring in a bit of good-natured chatter, during which Zojaji invited Rheem over to his house to “meet the wife, meet the kids, learn a lot of stuff…”

Todd Zojaji – 596,000 (30 bb)
Chino Rheem – 730,000 (37 bb)

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 23: 10,000/20,000 with a 3,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 197 of 5,018

The field is back from the dinner break and Event 1 is back in action. With 197 players remaining, everyone left is now guaranteed to earn at least $1,054.

Here’s the top of the leaderboard and the seven-figure club:

Michael Johnson – 1,665,000
Barbaro Diaz – 1,600,000
Rafael Reis – 1,490,000
Glen Cressman – 1,400,000
Luis Carmona – 1,356,000
Steven Cohen – 1,340,000
David Rauf – 1,300,000
Aleksandr Gorelik – 1,213,000
Giovanni Abate – 1,200,000
Franklin Lacava – 1,070,000
Jordan Gregory – 1,060,000
Ignacio Padron – 1,038,000
Jonathan Hilton – 1,020,000
Jason Sparks – 1,012,000
Damjan Radanov – 1,007,000

Play is scheduled to continue tonight until a winner is determined, but it’s almost impossible to envision a universe in which that’s a possibility. It’s more likely they’ll reach the 3:00 AM hard stop with two or three tables left in play, with the survivors returning tomorrow to play it out.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
End of Level 22: 8,000/16,000 with a 2,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 197 of 5,018

Level 22 has concluded, and the remaining field of just under 200 players has been sent on a one-hour dinner break. Action will resume just after 8:30 PM.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 22: 8,000/16,000 with a 2,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 235 of 5,018

Sheddy Siddiqui’s table recently broke, sending him to a new table and onto the direct left of fellow Floridian John Holley. So far, things have gone well for Siddiqui in the new digs.

In the most recent pot, he opened with an under-the-gun raise, and he was called by both a middle-position player and Holley, who was in the big blind. The flop was , and a continuation bet of 67,000 was enough for Siddiqui to win the pot right there, as both of his opponents quickly folded.

The Seminole Hard Rock Poker teammate is slowly working his way up toward a seven-figure stack, up about 20 percent since he took his new seat at Holley’s table.

Sheddy Siddiqui – 750,000 (47 bb)