$3,500 WPT LHPO Championship
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5: 200/400 with a 400 ante
Entries: 542
Alternates continue to get seated and we found more friends in the game including Ronnie Bardah, Kenny Nguyen, Jake Schwartz, and Justin Harvell.
They will continue through Level 6 before taking a 90-minute dinner break.
$3,500 WPT LHPO Championship
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5: 200/400 with a 400 ante
Entries: 521
Due to the fantastic turnout today, there has been an update to the tournament schedule for both starting flights.
Day 1A and 1B were scheduled to play 10 full flights but will now play through Level 11. That pushes the end time from ~11:15 pm to ~12:30 am.
Please stop by the Tournament Supervisor desk if you have any questions.
$3,500 WPT LHPO Championship
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5: 200/400 with a 400 ante
Entries: 521
After a flop of 
, Howard Chilcutt got it all in from under the gun for 9,300 with 
, and he needed his hand to hold to stay alive against his opponent’s 
.
The turn card was the 
, the river card was the 
, and sixth street was the 
.
Wait, what?
The dealer accidentally dealt out a sixth card on the board, but quickly caught his mistake and the players had a good laugh, saying the other player couldn’t even catch up on sixth street.
But whether the board was six cards or the regulation five, Chilcutt’s pocket queens held up for him to win the pot and double up in chips.
Howard Chilcutt – 28,000 (70 bb)
The tournament clock shows 521 entries, though the actual number is nearing 600 based on alternates. Registration remains open until the start of Level 9 (around 9:15 pm), and players are allowed one entry and one re-entry per starting day (maximum of four entries).
There will be a 90-minute dinner break at the end of Level 6, around 5:30 pm, and action is scheduled to continue tonight until the end of Level 10, around 11:15 pm.
$3,500 WPT LHPO Championship
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4: 200/300 with a 300 ante
Entries: 480
There’s a familiar face sitting at the top of the chip counts as Loni Harwood’s 115,000 looks to be tops heading towards the second break.
We last saw Harwood during the 2020 WSOP Circuit Tampa series where she came two spots from winning her sixth WSOP Circuit ring. All told she owns five WSOP Circuit rings along with two WSOP bracelets and a Poker Showdown trophy from 2012 with more than $3 million in career earnings.
$3,500 WPT LHPO Championship
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4: 200/300 with a 300 ante
Entries: 480
With the board showing 
, Leon Toledo bet from the big blind, the UTG+1 player moved all in, and Toledo quickly called all in for 9,300 with 
for a jack-high straight.
The UTG+1 player turned over 
for a set of kings, and Toledo needed his straight to hold to stay alive.
The river card was the 
, and Toledo won the pot to double up in chips.
Leon Toledo – 20,000 (67 bb)
The tournament clock shows 480 entries, though the actual number is nearing 600 based on alternates. Registration remains open until the start of Level 9 (around 9:15 pm), and players are allowed one entry and one re-entry per starting day (maximum of four entries).
There will be a 90-minute dinner break at the end of Level 6, around 5:30 pm, and action is scheduled to continue tonight until the end of Level 10, around 11:15 pm.
$3,500 WPT LHPO Championship
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4: 200/300 with a 300 ante
Entries: 480
After a flop of with about 3,400 already in a three-way pot, Nick Palma checks the small blind, the UTG+1 player checks, and the player in the cutoff bets 3,200.
Palma check-raises all in for 6,700, and the UTG+1 player thinks for a while before he calls. The cutoff folds.
Palma shows 
for an overpair, and his opponent turns over for a pair of jacks. Palma needs his hand to hold to stay alive.
The turn card was the 
, the river card was the , and Palma won the pot with his aces to double up in chips.
Nick Palma – 20,000 (67 bb)
After the hand, Palma seemed optimistic about coming back from his big loss to Dean Baranowski (when his full house lost to quads), saying that he was going to treat his 20K as if it were the size of a standard starting stack and he had just bought in. (The actual starting stacks are 40K, but 20K is still a lot of chips at this point.)
The tournament clock shows 480 entries, though the actual number is nearing 600 based on alternates. Registration remains open until the start of Level 9 (around 9:15 pm), and players are allowed one entry and one re-entry per starting day (maximum of four entries).
There will be a 90-minute dinner break at the end of Level 6, around 5:30 pm, and action is scheduled to continue tonight until the end of Level 10, around 11:15 pm.
$3,500 WPT LHPO Championship
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4: 200/300 with a 300 ante
Entries: 480
Nick Palma and Dean Baranowski gave us details on a huge hand they played a little while ago that propelled Baranowski to a massive chip stack.
When the blinds were still at 100/200, a player raised to 800, and two other players called before Palma and Baranowski called.
The flop came 
with two spades. Palma bet 4,000, Baranowski called, and everyone else folded.
The turn card was a non-spade 
, Palma bet 6,500, and Baranowski called.
The river card paired the board with another (not a spade), Palma bet 25,500, Baranowski moved all in for 42,000, and Palma called with for a full house, sixes full of threes.
But Baranowski turned over for quad threes to win the pot and knock Palma down below 10K.
Dean Baranowski – 122,000 (610 bb)
Nick Palma – 8,000 (40 bb)
There was no love lost for Palma, who sincerely called Baranowski “a beautiful man,” and excitedly relayed the details of the hand to us, even though he was on the losing end of it.
The tournament clock shows 480 entries, though the actual number is at least 550 based on alternates. Registration remains open until the start of Level 9 (around 9:15 pm), and players are allowed one entry and one re-entry per starting day (maximum of four entries).
There will be a 90-minute dinner break at the end of Level 6, around 5:30 pm, and action is scheduled to continue tonight until the end of Level 10, around 11:15 pm.
$3,500 WPT LHPO Championship
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4: 200/300 with a 300 ante
Entries: 480
We continue to see new faces in the Seminole Ballroom, taking part in the Championship as their first go at the series.
Recent arrivals include Frankie Flowers, John Dolan, Asher Conniff, Joe Reddick, Michael Wang, and WPT Season XIII Player of the Year Anthony Zinno.
$3,500 WPT LHPO Championship
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3: 100/200 with a 200 ante
Entries: 480
The entry count moved up to 480 after the first break to push the prize pool over $1,500,000 with no slowdown in sight. Due to the size of the field and with an eye towards player safety, new entrants will have an alternate number and will be seated as soon as possible.
David Nathaniel Jr was one of the last players to get a seat before we hit capacity and he’s here on a freeroll. Nathaniel Jr is our reigning Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year and earned that title after a win in the SHR Tampa Pinktober Main Event along with WSOP Circuit Coconut Creek Main Event final table and WSOP Circuit Tampa Main Event cash.
Part of his prize package included a Championship/Main Event seat in our major series and Nathaniel Jr is looking forward to another deep run.
$3,500 WPT LHPO Championship
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3: 100/200 with a 200 ante
Entries: 458
The first (staggered) break is complete and cards are back in the air for the entire field.
But not before being welcomed WPT’s Executive Tour Director Matt Savage who was joined by our Tournament Manager Jason Heidenthal, Enriketa Ozolina, and Tony Dunst.