$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
End of Level 12: 800/1,600/200 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 370
Players Remaining: 117

Players are on their final break of the day and will return for two more levels. Those still with stacks at the end of Level 14 will bag them up and return for Day 2 on Sunday.

Four-time Seminole Hard Rock Poker champion Luis Santoni is doing well and coming back to 120,000 in his stack. One of the nice guys in the room, Santoni has over $1 million in tournament cash including a Legends of Poker win for $112,000 back in 1995. That was a lot more money 20 years ago.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 12: 800/1,600/200 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 370
Players Remaining: 117

Flight A is in the last level before the break of the day; they have 30 more minutes before they can see the end of the day when play resumes.

Seminole Hard Rock Poker team member Mukul Pahuja has some work to do if he wants to advance from this flight. He’s riding the short stack but the former WPT Player of the Year has the skill to get it done.

Besides his WPT accomplishments, Pahuja has $4.4 million in career earnings, three WSOP Circuit rings, eight tournament victories (including a trophy from this series in 2013), nine six-digit cashes, and a $872,000 payday when he finished third in the 2013 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 11: 600/1,200/200 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 370
Players Remaining: 130

Cruising right along here  in Flight A and we expect about half of the remaining 130 players to be around by the time they finish up after Level 14. A few of the big names dropped out already but Seminole Hard Rock Poker team member Natasha Barbour is still battling her late-entry stack.

Barbour is a recent addition to the SHR Poker team and her $633,000 in career earnings made it an easy decision. She earned a WSOP Circuit ring in 2010, a WSOP Circuit Ladies title in 2013, and the PCA Women’s trophy a few months ago in the Bahamas.

Beach morning w the cutest kids ever then Late regged the 350 ! gotta last 3.2 hours then bag ???? @SHRThePokerRoom

— Natasha Barbour (@natashabarbour) March 31, 2016

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 10: 500/1,000/100 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 370
Players Remaining: 153

Flight A is quickly playing down even with the average stack hovering around 50 big blinds. We have 17 full tables remaining with 153 players aiming to bag chips at the end of Level 14.

Dan “Miami Boss” Suied was a late entrant this afternoon and trying to run up his score. His biggest tournament cash came in a series-opening tournament when he took home $110,000 for beating the 2,888-strong Event 1 field during the 2014 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 9: 400/800/100 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 370

Registration closed when cards went in the air for Level 9 and the official number is 370 entrants for the opening flight. That’s a great start and puts Event 1 well on course to blast the $500,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Seminole Hard Rock Poker team member Stewart Newman was one of the late entrants in Flight A but made the most of it as soon as he took his seat. He put up his buy-in shortly before the second break and doubled his 20K starting stack on the very first hand.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 8: 300/600/75 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 360

Players are on their second break of the day as tournament staff color off the quarter chips and prepare to close down registration for Flight A. We ran into Nancy Birnbaum at the start of the day and she’s cruising along.

Birnbaum has over $600,000 in tournament earnings along with three WSOP Circuit rings (almost five with her two runner-up finishes). She’s one of our regular faces in the crowd and her last cash here came with a final table appearance during January’s Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open Event 8.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 8: 300/600/75 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 340

Flight A is in its last level with open registration and 350 is looking like a lock with more players buying in and re-entering. We caught up with Jon Borenstein in the front of the room, moments before he busted his first bullet in the game. He fired again and grinding away.

Borenstein spent a little time in the tropics before coming back to the states for a WSOP Circuit series in Los Angeles. Instead of going back to Costa Rica to relax, he decided to come across the country for a little Showdown action.

Borenstein started off his 2016 in fine fashion with a sixth place finish in the big Borgata $2 Million Deep Stacks for $86,000. In 2015 he cashed three times for five-digit paydays including a PCA Main Event final table appearance and seventh place result in the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $2,650 Freezeout as part of the Big 4 tournaments.

Had a flight booked back to Costa Rica today… Somehow am now on a flight to Florida to play the whole hard rock series instead #????????forme

— Jon Borenstein (@JBoishere) March 29, 2016

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 7: 250/500/75 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 325

Flight A is moving steadily towards a possible 350 entrants for the opening session. That would be a great start with five more flights to go. More top players are taking their shot today including Loni Harwood.

Harwood has the biggest results in the room right now and has more success in her early career than many pros will have in their lifetime. She holds two WSOP bracelets, two WSOP Circuit rings, and a Seminole Hard Rock trophy.

Harwood won her first WSOP bracelet in 2013 during a summer that saw her make two other final tables among her five cashes. She followed that bracelet up with a WSOP National Championship title last summer to push her over $1,000,000 in career earnings.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 6: 200/400/50 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 300

David Jackson is one of our more successful regulars we find during our big events. He’s here often and he’s here early.

Jackson has over $725,000 in career earnings including tournament cashes around the country. He has a handful of final tables appearances here and WSOP Circuit events but his two biggest came in Las Vegas during the summer of 2014. He won a Phamous Poker event to start his June that year and ended it with a fourth place finish in the WSOP $1,500 buy-in Event 55.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 5: 150/300/50 Ante
Flight 1A Entries: 280

Flight A crossed over 275 entrants during the break and they’re back in their seats ready to play another two hours before registration is closed for the early session.

Miami’s Edwin Cabrera made the most out of his first four levels, running up his 20K starting stack over 80,000 in two hours. That’s a great start to the day but there’s plenty of time for the other players to catch him.

Thomas Collazo is his nearest competitor with 65,750 and Ross Willner isn’t far behind. Collazo finished fourth in this event during the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” for a cool $56,000.

Top stacks and notables:

Edwin Cabrera – 85,375 (285 bb)
Thomas Collazo – 65,750 (219 bb)
Ross Willner – 60,275 (201 bb)
Alejandro Duque – 58,900 (196 bb)
Gary Bodley – 55,550 (185 bb)
Joelle Guarino – 46,775 (156 bb)
Nancy Birnbaum – 32,000 (107 bb)
Kim Stone – 27,900 (93 bb)
John Depersio – 22,625 (75 bb)
Steven Bennett – 21,450 (72 bb)
David Jackson – 19,525 (65 bb)