$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.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 6: 200/400 with a 50 ante
Flight A Entries: 350

Players continue to pile into the ballroom to run up the first flight count including Jon Borenstein fresh off a plane from WPT Cali-swing events.

Borenstein is back in town looking to continue a nice string of results in sunny South Florida. Along with Lou Stadler mentioned earlier, Borenstein final tabled this event last year taking third place money for nearly $60,000. He also went deep in the $10,000 WPT Finale to wrap up that series and he made the $2,650 Freeze-out final table during the inaugural Big 4 during the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, all included in his more than $750,000 in career earnings.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 5: 150/300 with a 50 ante
Flight A Entries: 325

Players are back in their seats after the first break and the entry count jumped well over 300 before their return.

Aaron Gordon is the clear front-runner in early action after more than tripling his 20,000 starting stack in the first two hours. Jonathan Harris is not far behind with plenty of time and ten more levels to catch the leaders.

Top stacks:

Aaron Gordon – 63,100 (210 bb)
Jonathan Harris – 60,550 (202 bb)
Carmelo Manrique Huizi – 59,000 (197 bb)
Stephen Ekin – 56,000 (187 bb)
John Magnetta – 50,550 (169 bb)
Eddie Vehara – 49,700 (166 bb)
Frank Nerat – 48,925 (163 bb)
Courtland Twyman – 48,300 (161 bb)
John Cofhlin – 44,300 (148 bb)
Raymond Winters – 44,000 (147 bb)
Iman Dan – 43,300 (144 bb)
Anthony Barbera – 43,000 (143 bb)
Diane Schmidt – 43,000 (143 bb)
Joviel Gonzalez – 42,000 (140 bb)
Jacobo Fernandez – 42,000 (140 bb)

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 ante
Flight A Entries: 294

Flight A players are on their first break of the day only a few new entries away from hitting 300.

We’ll take this first opportunity with an empty room to take a look at stacks and find some big ones.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 ante
Flight A Entries: 283

The entrant count is nearing 300 as the players head into the fourth level of the day to put Event 1 on an easy path towards the $500,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Last year, the Event 1 prize pool went over $800,000 by the time registration closed and local favorite Lou Stadler took home a nice chunk of change from it. He made the final table and finished in fifth place out of the nearly 2,700-entry field to take home more than $42,000.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 3: 75/150 with a 25 ante
Flight A Entries: 230

Michael Newman is among our regular SHRP faces in the crowd today and he has a chance this series to pull off a unique feat. He has nine career titles to his credit, all coming right here, but this is his chance to put down a big mark in another major series.

Newman has taken home a SHRP trophy from each of the last three major series; the first coming during the 2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $570 NLH Event 15, the second in the 2016 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” $360 Pot Limit Omaha tournament, and finally the 2017 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open $570 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max event. And Newman said he doesn’t even know that much about Omaha.

If he can capture another title this series, that will make if four in a row. An unofficial SHRP slam of sorts.

$360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 2: 50/100
Flight A Entries: 175

The opening flight of Event 1 is usually the smallest of the six starters, a Thursday morning session before heading into the big weekend. If today’s early numbers are any indication, Event 1 should easily blast apart the $500,000 guaranteed prize pool.

The count is clicking closer to 200 entries in the second level before the clock hits noon. We expect a fine start to the series.

Jeff Kessler is among our early players and we usually don’t see the former SHRP champ this late in the year. Instead of evacuating further north at the start of spring, the 2013 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” Seniors Event winner is here trying to run up his stack.