$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1: 25/50
Flight B Entries: 182

There are four members of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker team in attendance so far for Event 1.

Loni Harwood and Darryll Fish both endured short Day 1A flights this afternoon, and they’ve both returned for Day 1B after a few hours of down time.

Over on the other side of the room, Jessica Dawley is one of two team members still alive in the Day 1A field. Dawley is sitting short with less than 10 big blinds as she and the rest of the remaining field play the last four hands of their day.

Matt Affleck is also among the shortening Day 1A crowd, and he has closer to 100 big blinds in his stack. Affleck is just finishing his last hand, and he’ll have somewhere around 220,000 chips in the bag after a productive afternoon.

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1: 25/50

One flight is running down and it’s time to start the evening flight of the $1,000,000 Guaranteed opening tournament of the 2017 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open series. After a great turnout for Flight A, it will be interesting to see the kind of numbers that show for Flight B this evening.

The $570 buy-in tournament has six starting flights and 441 entries jumped into Flight A to put it on a nice pace to hit the guaranteed prize pool. They will pack themselves into the back of the ballroom and continue building until registration closes later this evening.

Entrants sit down to 20,000 starting stacks and play 30-minute levels throughout the day. Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 9 at 10:30pm with play continuing for 14 full levels. After Level 14, surviving players will bag up their chips for a return on Sunday for Day 2.

• $1,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
• Players begin with 20,000 in chips and 30-minute levels
• Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
• Day 1 will end after Level 14 or Tournament Director discretion
• Event 1 Structure Sheet

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 12: 600/1,200/200 ante
Flight A Entries: 441
Players Remaining: 144

The final break is over and players returned to their seats to play down three more levels.

Every is chasing Thao Le at the top of the counts but there are some fine players not far behind. We expect to lose a half dozen more tables between now and bagging, so the stacks will climb in the next 90 minutes.

Top stacks and a few notables:

Thao Le – 154,000 (96 bb)
Bruce Snell – 151,000 (94 bb)
Greg Levine – 149,000 (93 bb)
Evan Teitelbaum – 111,000 (69 bb)
Neil Blumenfield – 102,000 (64 bb)
Elliott Zaydman – 92,000 (58 bb)
Roberto Alberro – 82,000 (51 bb)
Matt Affleck – 71,000 (44 bb)
Eric Piderit – 69,200 (43 bb)
“Miami John” Cernuto – 56,000 (35 bb)
Steven McKoy – 31,500 (20 bb)
Asher Conniff – 29,700 (19 bb)
Jessica Dawley – 24,100 (15 bb)

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
End of Level 11: 600/1,200/200 ante
Flight A Entries: 441
Players Remaining: 162

Flight A players are on their last break of the day. They will return in ten minutes then play three more levels before bagging up.

We’re looking out for our late leaders and will check out the stacks.

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 11: 600/1,200/200 ante
Flight A Entries: 441
Players Remaining: 171

The field is shrinking and the stacks are growing. Two-time SHRP champ Eric Piderit is quietly moving into contention for the lead and sits with more than 70,000 heading into the late levels.

The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Black Chip Bounty champ also has a little help from home. Piderit is sporting his daughter’s dollar sign fidget spinner as a card protector and he might not be able to send it back if it proves to be good luck.

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 10: 500/1,000/100 ante
Flight A Entries: 441
Players Remaining: 198

Now that registration is closed, the tournament tables are breaking in quick succession and nearly 100 players hit the rail over the first level back from break. Players still have plenty of time to run up a stack before they bag after Level 14 or jump in the 6pm flight.

Asher Conniff is fighting to stay in the flight but grinding a sub-starting stack late. The former WPT World Champion is back down in Florida after watching his friend Scott Blumstein win the WSOP Main Event Championship bracelet a few weeks ago.

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 9: 400/800/100 ante
Flight A Entries: 441
Players Remaining: 288

Registration is officially closed on the opening flight of Event 1 and the 441 entries put the tournament on a path to easily surpass the $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.

One more member of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker team hit the tables before they locked the doors. The last time we saw Darryll Fish, he was in the process of finishing second in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship for more than $450,000. It was the fifth WPT final table for Fish and he’ll have a few more chances to make another televised final table this series.

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 8: 300/600/75 ante
Flight A Entries: 422

Event 1 has moved into Level 8 and it’s the last chance for players to get down to the ballroom for a piece of the early action. They’ll finish out this level, take a break while the quarters come out of play, then lock down registration when they return at 3:30pm.

We found a poker legend in the field this afternoon, and he’s not only a local legend. “Miami John” Cernuto is old-school old-school poker. His first tournament cash was 30 years ago and earned his first bracelet 21 years ago. He has three WSOP bracelets (in Limit Omaha, Stud/8, and No Limit Hold’em), two WSOP Circuit rings, plus more than $5.7 million in career earnings.

And “Miami John” has not been resting on his laurels. He picked up seven more cashes this summer including a H.O.R.S.E. win at Binions and a PLO8/Omaha8/Big O Mix tournament title at the Golden Nugget.

$570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 7: 250/500/75 ante
Flight A Entries: 411

Flight A won the race to 400 entries with more than an hour remaining in late registration. A very nice start to the series and we expect even bigger numbers moving forward.

Jon Borenstein jumped in shortly before the first break and looking for another nice payday this summer. The Florida transplant has some nice scores here, including a seventh place finish in the inaugural $2,650 Big 4 Freeze-Out, and he earned his biggest payout earlier this summer.

Borenstein had three WSOP cashes before he decided to jump in the WPT500 Las Vegas tournament. The small buy-in/big prize pool tournament drew more than 3,500 entries and Borenstein was the last player sitting to get his picture taken with the trophy. He banked $230,000 for the win and that number pushed him to the edge of $1,000,000 earned for his career.