$300 Jeff Conine Celebrity Charity Event
Structure | Payouts
Level 19:  50,000/75,000 with a 75,000 ante
Players Remaining:  9 out of 370

Raul Cabrera was all in for 125,000 with , but he was dominated by the of Steve Iodice as he faced elimination.

The board came — Cabrera flopped an open-ended straight draw, turned a gutshot straight-flush draw, but Iodice rivered a full house, eights full of tens, to win the pot and eliminate Cabrera in 10th place.

Steve Iodice  –  600,000  (8 bb)
Raul Cabrera  –  Eliminated in 10th Place  ($600 + prize package below)

Cabrera’s prize package includes a $150 gift certificate to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Rock Spa, a Bottle of Grey Goose, a martini set, a pocket mirror, a Soy Delicious candle, Lady Mont Blanc Emblem perfume, a Pure Fiji spa package, a Tiffany Twisted Knot Pendant Silver Necklace, and a Michael Kors brown belt bag.

$300 Jeff Conine Celebrity Charity Event
Structure | Payouts
Level 19:  50,000/75,000 with a 75,000 ante
Players Remaining:  10 out of 370

The final 10 players redraw for random seats at the final table, and they are now “in the money.” But since this is a charity event, it’s not a traditional prizepool, and the final 10 players will win a combination of cash and prize packages. Check out the prizes by clicking here.

Here are the approximate chip counts for the final 10 players:

Seat 1.  Daniel Genachte  –  500,000  (7 bb)
Seat 2.  Chris Cote  –  410,000  (5 bb)
Seat 3.  Robbie Kubusheski  –  80,000  (1 bb)
Seat 4.  James Scott  –  335,000  (4 bb)
Seat 5.  Rob Lenkey  –  400,000  (5 bb)
Seat 6.  Raul Cabrera  –  125,000  (2 bb)
Seat 7.  Haitham Kaki  –  550,000  (7 bb)
Seat 8.  Ronald Benedetto  –  320,000  (4 bb)
Seat 9.  Randal Fernandez  –  615,000  (8 bb)
Seat 10.  Steve Iodice  –  455,000  (6 bb)

Defending champion Randal Fernandez has the chip lead, and it would be amazing if he could go back-to-back in a big field charity event like this.

$300 Jeff Conine Celebrity Charity Event
Structure | Payouts
Level 16:  10,000/20,000 with a 20,000 ante
Players Remaining:  38 out of 370

When the players took their second break around 11:30 pm, there were only 38 players remaining, and only three of them had more than 200K in chips.

1.  Chris Cote  –  280,000  (14 bb)
2.  Julia Sturm  –  210,000  (11 bb)
3.  Steve Iodice  –  200,000  (10 bb)

In the last level before the break, Michael Damiani was down to just 17,500, which was less than two big blinds, and he got it all in preflop with pocket kings in a big multi-way pot.

The flop came , one of the other players shoved for an additional 28,000, and another player called, covering both. At this point, Jeff Conine was calling the action on the microphone.

Big Stack:  
Middle Stack:  
Michael Damiani:  

The turn card was the , the river card was the , and Damiani won the main pot with his pocket kings to more than sextuple (6x) his chip stack up to 112,500.

Michael Damiani  –  112,500  (6 bb)

The field is shrinking quickly, and they will probably be at the final table soon.

$300 Jeff Conine Celebrity Charity Event
Structure | Payouts
Level 13:  3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 ante
Players Remaining:  60 out of 370

The field is quickly shrinking, and it’s already down to the final six tables. With about 60 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 62,000 (10 big blinds).

Retired NHL goalie Roberto Luongo and tournament namesake Jeff Conine have both busted in the last few levels, but defending champion Randall Fernandez is still in with a chance to defend his title.

Josh Trinkler  –  55,000  (9 bb)
Randall Fernandez  –  30,000  (5 bb)
Michael Damiani  –  17,000  (3 bb)

$300 Jeff Conine Celebrity Charity Event
Structure | Payouts
Level 11:  2,000/3,000 with a 3,000 ante
Players Remaining:  ~90 out of 370

As Level 11 begins, the field is down to the final 10 tables, which means there are about 90 players remaining, with an average chip stack around 41,000 (14 big blinds).

It turns out that Jeff Conine did survive the start of the tournament, but he built up enough chips that he could afford to spend a lot of time away from the table mingling with people.

But now that the first break is over (along with the auctions), Conine can focus on the poker along with everyone else.

Retired Florida Panthers goalie Roberto Luongo is also still in the field, and he’s seated next to Richard Gress, who final tabled Event 1 a couple days ago to earn $21,325.

Michael Damiani is still holding on, as is defending champion Randall Fernandez.

Here are a few updated chip counts from after the break:

Jeff Conine  –  57,000
Michael Damiani  –  33,000
Randall Fernandez  –  22,000
Roberto Luongo  –  22,000
Richard Gress  –  7,000

$300 Jeff Conine Celebrity Charity Event
Structure | Payouts
Level 9:  500/1,500 with a 1,500 ante
Players Remaining:  ~150 out of 370

The live auction took place during the break, and the first item up for bid was a five-course dinner prepared in your own home for up to six guests, specially prepared by Chef Anthony Billisi, who had been featured on the Food Network.

Most of the auction items centered around unique experiences like this, or interesting trip packages.

At the end of the break (around 10:00 pm), the action resumed in Level 9, with blinds at 500-1,500 with a 1,500 ante. There were about 150 players remaining, with an average chip stack around 24,500 (16 big blinds). The field should start to shrink pretty rapidly going forward.

$300 Jeff Conine Celebrity Charity Event
Structure | Payouts
Level 9:  500/1,500 with a 1,500 ante
Entries:  370

Level 8 comes to an end, and the players take a 20-minute break.

The silent auction has ended, and they will be running a live auction during this break. There are also refreshments and drinks available during the break.

$300 Jeff Conine Celebrity Charity Event
Structure | Payouts
Level 7:  400/800
Entries:  367

Jorie Damiani won this charity event back in 2014, back before the event was held here at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood. (And back when her last name was Polokoff.) That year, she won a seat into the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas.

She has since married fellow poker player Michael Damiani, and they now have a baby, so they don’t get to play as many poker tournaments as they used to. But neither one of them wanted to miss this charity event tonight, and so far, both appear to be doing fairly well.

Michael started the night at Jeff Conine’s table, but that table has since broken and the players were reassigned to different tables. Damiani says Conine was off to a strong start early accumulating chips, but something must have happened since then, because when we’ve seen Conine recently, he’s been mingling with people rather than seated at a table. (Our guess is that Conine has been eliminated.)

Both Michael and Jorie are doing well to survive the early chaos of a charity event, and Jorie just knocked out a player when she made trip fours in a three-way pot.

The field is halfway thru Level 7, and the tournament clock shows 367 entries.

$300 Jeff Conine Celebrity Charity Event
Structure | Payouts
Level 5:  300/500
Entries:  357

It looks like host Jeff Conine has been eliminated, but once the event gets going, he usually likes to focus more on his hosting duties to make the event more enjoyable for everyone else.

Defending champion Randall Fernandez is also in the field. Fernandez won this event last year to earn a seat into the $5,250 SHRPO Championship.

Near the end of Level 5, there are 352 entries in the field with more than an hour remaining in registration.

$300 Jeff Conine Celebrity Charity Event
Structure | Payouts
Level 3:  200/300
Entries:  344

One of the earliest eliminations during the first level was retired NHL player and now-broadcaster Randy Moller, who is an announcer for the Florida Panthers.

Moller had gotten short and was all in from the small blind for 2,800 with , and he needed to improve to stay alive against the of Nickie Irvine on the button.

The board came , and Irvine won the pot with her ace to eliminate Moller.

Nickie Irvine  –  14,000  (140 bb)
Randy Moller  –  Eliminated

Of course, as this is a charity event, there are unlimited re-entries while registration remains open (until 10:00 pm or so). So Moller re-entered and found himself back in the field sitting at the same table as recently retired NHL goalie Roberto Luongo, who has played a respectable amount of poker in his career in addition to 11 seasons with the Florida Panthers.

The field is near the end of Level 3, with 344 entries showing on the tournament clock.