$2,200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guarantee | Structure
Level 12:  1,000/2,000 with a 2,000 ante
Players Remaining:  47 of 149

The players return from dinner to begin Level 12, with increased blinds of 1,000-2,000 with a 2,000 ante.

Jimmy Dang is the chipleader with 235,000, and here are some of the other notable stacks in the field:

Jimmy Dang  –  235,000  (118 bb)
Ian O’Hara  –  170,000  (85 bb)
Guy Naimi  –  121,000  (61 bb)
Stephen Ekin  –  118,000  (59 bb)
Victor Figueroa  –  105,000  (53 bb)
Darren Elias  –  85,000  (43 bb)
Robert Borick  –  78,500  (39 bb)
Joe McKeehen  –  75,000  (38 bb)
Jason Gooch  –  66,000  (33 bb)
Nadya Magnus  –  62,000  (31 bb)
Dominique Mosley  –  62,000  (31 bb)
Paul Balzano  –  50,000  (25 bb)
Michael Tureniec  –  50,000  (25 bb)
Faraz Jaka  –  49,000  (25 bb)
Maria Ho  –  43,000  (22 bb)
Ping Liu  –  42,500  (21 bb)
Ali Imsirovic  –  33,000  (17 bb)
Jerry Wong  –  30,000  (15 bb)
Marvin Rettenmaier  –  24,000  (12 bb)
Raminder Singh  –  22,000  (11 bb)
Jake Schwartz  –  20,000  (10 bb)
Justin Zaki  –  20,000  (10 bb)
Manny Amaro  –  19,500  (10 bb)
Brian Altman  –  17,000  (9 bb)
Chad Eveslage  –  8,500  (4 bb)

$2,200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guarantee | Structure
Level 11:  1,000/1,500 with a 1,500 ante
Entries:  143

They wrapped up play for Level 11 and tournament staff sent the players on a 40-minute dinner break. Registration will remain open until they return and we’ll be set to play it down to a champion.

$2,200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guarantee | Structure
Level 10:  1,000/1,500 with a 1,500 ante
Entries:  129

Heading towards the dinner break, Maria Ho made a move to build her stack. She was in a four-way pot and shoved for 20,500 from early position after a flop.

Ho found two folds but Victor Figueroa called after a short tank.

Figueroa:
Ho:

Figueroa was ahead with middle pair of queens and Ho needed to catch a diamond to double. The turn gave her a few more outs but the river missed her draw to send her out.

Victor Figueroa – 93,500

$2,200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guarantee | Structure
Level 9:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Entries:  123

The second break is complete and action is back underway with the $200,000 guarantee in the rearview mirror. It is over $250,000 now with nearly two hours to push it up.

Brock Wilson was one of the more recent additions and riding a huge heater. The Northeast grinder has banked more than $1,000,000 since the middle of November and shows no signs of slowing down. Wilson picked up $620K from a runner-up finish in the partypoker Millions Bahamas Super High Roller and he earned another $300K for a second-place finish in our RRPO High Roller. He finished off his year with a WSOP Circuit High Roller win in Los Angeles for only $131K.

$2,200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guarantee | Structure
Level 8:  400/800 with a 800 ante
Entries:  119

South Florida has its fair share of poker talent and our players have plenty of success to show for it. We have two November Niners sitting side-by-side in Event 17 that banked two big scores.

Neil Blumenfield made the WSOP Main Event final table and finished in third for a cool $3.4 million. (The two players who finished ahead of him, Joe McKeehen and Josh Beckley, are also regular players in our big events). Jerry Wong duplicated Blumenfield’s run in 2016 and went on to pick up $1.1 million for an eighth-place finish.

$2,200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guarantee | Structure
Level 6:  300/500 with a 500 ante
Entries:  98

The entry count is only two away from pushing the prize pool to an even $200,000 and it should not take much longer to get it there. Maria Ho is one of the recent additions to the tournament, a return to a place she’s had some nice success.

She picked up a nice score in the summer of 2018 when she made the SHRPO Big 4 $1,100 tournament. Ho did double duty that trip; playing that final table even as she was hosting the action on the mic and camera.

She followed that up last year when she made the final table of our WPT Poker Showdown Championship and finished third for $345K.

#TravelTuesday: Spending the next week HERE – at the @HardRockHolly Hotel & Casino in Florida for the Lucky Hearts #Poker Open. Who else is down with sleeping in a giant #GuitarHotel??? ((Raises hand)) | @SHRThePokerRoom #LHPO pic.twitter.com/p5TZ030Y5P

— Maria Ho (@MariaHo) January 14, 2020

$2,200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guarantee | Structure
Level 5:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Entries:  89

The first break is complete and we found a clear chip leader while they were gone. There are some nice stacks in early action but none are bigger than Trung Trans’s. He 4x’d his stack and sits with 82,000 for a great start to his day.

$2,200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guarantee | Structure
Level 4:  200/300 with a 300 ante
Entries:  79

Level 4 has come to an end and the Event 17 were sent on their first break of the day. With 79 players here so far, the field is only 21 new entries away from hitting the $200,000 guaranteed prize pool and it should easily get there before the next break.

$2,200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guarantee | Structure
Level 4:  200/300 with a 300 ante
Entries:  70

More big names are making their way to South Florida with the LHPO Championship kicking off tomorrow. That is making for a tough field in today’s $2,200 event and the winner will really earn the title later this evening.

Among them, the man with the most WPT wins in history. Darren Elias has an incredible four titles on the tour and it could be even more. In addition to the wins, he also holds the record for most final tables with 12 and any number of them could have turned into another title.

$2,200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guarantee | Structure
Level 2:  100/100 with a 100 ante
Entries:  51

The first level ran its course and the prize pool moved over the halfway mark to the $200,000 guarantee. That’s a great turnout in the early afternoon and it should not take too long to get it there with registration open until 6:40 pm.

The field is a nice mix of local grinders and out-of-town pros. Larry Klur is among our regulars in every series, both in-room and the big tours, and he’s back looking for a trophy.