$600 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 12:  1,000/2,000 with a 2,000 ante
Flight A Players Remaining:  155 of 580

The players return from break to begin Level 12, with blinds at 1,000-2,000 with a big blind ante of 2,000.

A scan of the field during the break turned up four players with at least 200K in chips, creating an unofficial leaderboard:

1.  Jimmy Corrales  –  266,000  (133 bb)
2.  Jason Klass  –  245,000  (123 bb)
3.  Tomy Brown  –  230,000  (115 bb)
4.  Zachary Eichenbaum  –  200,000  (100 bb)

With about 155 players remaining from a Flight A field of 580, the average chip stack is about 74,800 (37 big blinds). Action will continue today until there are 73 players remaining, and the survivors will finish in the money and advance to Day 2, which begins Sunday at 1:00 pm.

$600 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 11:  800/1,600 with a 1,600 ante
Flight A Players Remaining:  175 of 580

After a flop of , Bobby Crain was all in from the button with for a set of nines, and he needed it to hold against his opponent’s in the hijack — a pair of sevens with a gutshot straight draw.

Crain needed his hand to hold to stay alive.

The turn card was the , the river card was the , and Crain won the pot with a full house, nines full of sevens, to double up in chips.

Bobby Crain  –  108,000  (68 bb)

With about 175 players remaining from a Flight A field of 580, the average chip stack is about 66,300 (41 big blinds). Action will continue today until there are 73 players remaining, and the survivors will finish in the money and advance to Day 2, which begins Sunday at 1:00 pm.

$600 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 9:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Flight A Players Remaining:  195 of 580

A short-stacked player was all in from middle position with , and dominated by the of Barry Roth in the hijack.

The board came , and Roth won the pot with a higher two pair, kings and deuces, to eliminate his opponent from Flight A.

Roth is part of the poker staff at Seminole Hard Rock Tampa, but down here in Hollywood, he’s able to sit back and relax and play poker with the rest of the players.

Barry Roth  –  51,000  (43 bb)

With about 195 players remaining from a Flight A field of 580, the average chip stack is about 59,500 (50 big blinds). Action will continue until there are 73 players remaining, and the survivors will finish in the money and advance to Day 2, which begins Sunday at 1:00 pm.

$600 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 10:  600/1,200 with a 1,200 ante
Flight A Entries:  580

The numbers are in and Flight A of Event 15 drew 580 to the $600 Deep Stack NLH tournament. That puts the tournament nearly a third of the way to the $1,000,000 guarantee and it should get there sometime tomorrow.

Flight A will play down to the last 73 players who will advance to Day 2 on Sunday at 1 pm in the money.

$600 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 9:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Flight A Entries:  580

The players returned from break to begin Level 9, with increased blinds of 500-1,000 with a big blind ante of 1,000.

Registration has closed, and as soon as we receive official numbers from the tournament staff, we will post them here in the updates. The final 12.5% of each starting flight will advance to Day 2 and finish in the money. (Players must bag chips at the end of Day 1 to finish in the money.)

A scan of the field during the break turned up 10 players with at least 100K in chips, and four with at least 150K, creating an unofficial leaderboard:

1.  Roni Zelichonok  –  173,600  (174 bb)
2.  Tomy Brown  –  169,800  (170 bb)
3.  Lucky Pericles  –  160,000  (160 bb)
4.  Michael Capo  –  158,600  (159 bb)

$600 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 8:  400/800 with a 800 ante
Flight A Entries:  570

Level 8 came to an end and tournament staff sent players on their second break of the day. We have 570 entries showing on the clock but will pick up a few more before registration closes at the start of Level 9.

$600 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 7:  300/600 with a 600 ante
Flight A Entries:  504

Quick blink and Flight A jumped over 500 entries with a steady parade of players joining. At this rate, we’re looking at hitting the guarantee sometime tomorrow and running it up over the weekend.

We mentioned three-time WPT champ Eric Afriat earlier and found another player with their name on the WPT Mike Sexton Cup. Noah Schwartz has his name inscribed twice and the Florida pro has nearly $6 million in career earnings putting him among the top ten earns from the Sunshine State. A list that includes high rollers Jason Mercier, Sean Winter, and two of the Mizrachi brothers.

$600 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 6:  300/500 with a 500 ante
Flight A Entries:  481

Another 100 entries hit Flight A and 500 is on the near horizon for a great start to the second weekend of the series. Putting a quarter of a million dollars up early is a fine way to get the tournament underway.

Eric Afriat is among the crowd today and a bit of legend around these parts. He won the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship in 2014 and made the same final table five years later, coming one spot short of winning in again.

$600 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  200/300 with a 300 ante
Flight A Entries:  387

We thought we had a lot of players earlier but a good number decided the afternoon was more their speed. They added more than 100 to the numbers in Level 4 and now heading on the first break of the day. They’ve contributed more than 20% of the guarantee with hours and flights to go.

$600 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3:  100/200 with a 200 ante
Flight A Entries:  295

Flight A is close to topping 300 entries after an hour of action and with unlimited re-entries, we’re going to have a big opening session. They’ve already put $150,000 towards the huge seven-digit guarantee.

Rick Kalgstein is back in South Florida after a successful trip to the Southwest. He won the $240 Double Stack tournament in Choctaw a few days before traveling back here and looking to stay hot. The Florida grinder also owns a SHR Tampa guitar trophy when he won their Deepstacks Challenge in July 2019.