The first flight of the Championship is filling quickly as we approach the afternoon hours. A lot of local regulars are already in their seats as others make their way to the new Event Center.
Michael Tureniec was an early entrant and going for a unique double this weekend. We hosted a WPTDeepStacks event at the start of the week and the WSOP Little One for One Drop champ added that title to his list of accomplishments yesterday afternoon.
No one has ever won a WPT and WPTDeepStacks event in the same series and we are sure he wouldn’t mind being the first.
The preliminary events are wrapped up and it’s time to get down to the business of finding our 2018 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship.
The new Event Center will host some of the best players from around the world, all looking to put their name on the WPT Champions Chip.
We expect to see some of our former WPT Poker Showdown Champions like Eric Afriat, Justin Young, and Tony Sinishtaj this weekend along with other members of the WPT Champions Club, WSOP bracelet winners, and major title holders.
Phil Hellmuth, 14-time WSOP winner, will join the field at some point today and he will sit side-by-side with our local regulars in the game.
The $3,500 Championship has a $3 million guaranteed prize pool with two starting flights and a deep, slow structure to give everyone plenty of room to make moves.
Players sit down to 30,000 deep starting stacks and hour-long levels for the first two days. Late registration is available until the start of Level 9 at 9:15 pm with unlimited re-entries during that time. They have a 90-minute dinner break at 5:30 pm to enjoy the restaurants throughout the casino.
Both starting flights will play through ten full levels and survivors will bag up their chips for a return on Sunday for Day 2.
Cards fly at 11 am and we will bring you updates all day long.
$3,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Players begin with 30,000 in chips
Day 1 & 2 levels last 60 minutes; Day 3 levels last 90 minutes
Late registration available until start of Level 9
Day 1 will end after Level 10 or Tournament Director discretion
$1,100 WPTDeepStacks Event (Re-Entry) $250,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 16: 1,500/3,000 with a 500 ante Players Remaining: 162 of 816
Joseph Cheong came into the day with the chip lead and it’s only gotten better from there. We caught the tail end of his most recent big hand, this time sending Danny Shiff out in a flopped cooler.
Shiff had on the flop but Cheong’s straight with was better. Shiff could not boat up on the turn or river to exit early on Day 2 while Cheong piled up to 550,000.