$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3: 200/300 with a 300 ante
Total Entrants: 356

Giuseppe Iadisernia may not be a household name but our Super High Roller players know about him. He is regularly seen in our higher buy-in events and he was part of the $50,000 Super High Roller and went all the way to a third-place finish for $190,000.

Iadisernia also likes the cash games and participated in the Poker Night in America High-Stakes cash game yesterday in front of their live-stream cameras.

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3: 200/300 with a 300 ante
Total Entrants: 349

Joe Cheong opened to 800 from under the gun and got two callers.

The flop came , it checked to James Calderaro who bet 5,600, Joey Weissman folded and Cheong called.

Both players checked the , on the turn. The river brought the , and Cheong moved all in having Calderaro covered. Calderaro folded leaving himself with around 15,000.

Cheong asked what he had and Calderaro said Ace King. Cheong said “You wouldn’t fold ace king to me.”

A few hands later Calderaro was eliminated by Cheong.

Joe Cheong – 115,000
James Calderaro – Eliminated

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3: 200/300 with a 300 ante
Total Entrants: 349

Jeff Fielder opened to 800 from middle position and Jacquelyn Scott three-bet to 2,000 from the big blind. Fielder called.

The flop came , and Scott shoved for around 40,000. Fielder called with and was out in front against Scott’s pocket queens.

The board came clean for Fielder as his two-pair held to eliminate Scott.

Jeff Fielder – 85,000

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3: 200/300 with a 300 ante
Total Entrants: 338

Championship players returned from their first break of the day we had our first look at the stacks.

Michael Caceres leads the field with 89,000 after two levels for the biggest stack in the room. Justin Ligeri, Chance Kornuth, Ido Ashkenazi, Aram Zobran, and Derek Sudell round out the top six with 80K or more.

Michael Caceres – 89,000
Justin Ligeri – 85,000
Chance Kornuth – 84,000
Ido Ashkenazi – 81,500
Aram Zobran – 81,000
Derek Sudell – 80,000

Other random notables:

Stoyan Ogreshkov – 75,000
Kunal Patel – 73,800
Rex Clinkscales – 70,000
Phil Hui – 66,500
David Paredes – 65,000
Matt Stout – 62,000
Ralph Massey – 58,800
Anna Antimony – 57,000
Cliff Josephy – 57,000
Jonathan Jaffe – 55,700
Neil Blumenfield – 51,000
Maria Konnikova – 51,000
Lexy Gavin – 50,500
Tyler Patterson – 50,000
Kristen Bicknell – 47,800
Shannon Shorr – 46,300
Blair Hinkle – 46,000
Mike Leah – 41,500
Jacquelyn Scott – 40,500
John Cynn – 40,000
Scott Blumstein – 39,500
Darren Elias – 39,000
Brian Hastings – 38,000
Ryan Van Sanford – 37,900
Matt Affleck – 36,000
Jake Bazeley – 34,400
Noah Schwartz – 34,000
Jeff Gross – 33,000
Paul Balzano – 30,000
Harrison Gimbel – 30,000
Aaron Massey – 24,900
Michael Tureniec – 20,000

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2: 100/200 with a 200 ante
Total Entrants: 309

Darryll Fish is a regular fixture in our big events and today is no different. He won his first career WPT title here in January in the Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship and that gave him the lead in the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year race.

SHRP regular Brett Bader sits in second and this is the last tournament where the lead can change.

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2: 100/200 with a 200 ante
Total Entrants: 303

Maria Ho has a busy schedule this week. The pro has been hosting our video updates over the last few days but now she gets to sit down at the table to use her poker skills.

Ho recently moved her stack a little higher after taking her opponent to Value Town with on the board. She does not have an easy table with Northwest friends Tyler Patterson and Matt Affleck on one end and Harrison Gimble in the six-seat.

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2: 100/200 with a 200 ante
Total Entrants: 301

On a board reading , a player in middle position bet 1,400, and Marc MacDonnell raised to 6,200 from late position. His opponent called.

The river brought the , middle position checked and Marc MacDonnell bet 14,000. His opponent thought about it awhile before eventually deciding to lay it down.

Marc MacDonnell – 51,000

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2: 100/200 with a 200
Total Entrants: 282

On a final board reading Stephen Chidwick bet 2,500 into a pot of around 10,000 from the small blind.

Mike Vanieo raised to 7,500 and Chidwick stared him down before electing to call.

Vanieo tabled for the winning straight and Chidwick mucked.

Mike Vanieo – 44,000
Stephen Chidwick – 27,000

$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2: 100/200 with a 200 ante
Total Entrants: 283

We get our fair share of poker champions in the field and today we have the latest to win the top honor in poker.

John Cynn is in today’s flight and the last tournament he won happened to be the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event. He outlasted the second biggest field in WSOP Main Event history to walk away with $8,800,000 and a massive piece of jewelry.

We expect to see other WSOP Main Event champ before the day is though. Joe McKeehen has been here for most of the series and Scott Blumstein showed up a few days ago. Jonathan Duhamel pops in from time to time and Carlos “The Matador” Mortensen, Greg Merson, and Ryan Riess should be here at some point.