Championship Day 1A: Gabriel Abusada Leads; Chad Eveslage Second

$5,250 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  300/600 with a 600 ante
Entries:  490

Chad Eveslage

The second break came to an end and we have a new chip leader. Garbriel Abusada moved up to the top with 157,800 with a cluster of players behind.

Newly minted WPT champion Chad Eveslage (won the Venetian event that previously mentioned Kyna England finished third) was second with 144,800 followed closely by Kevin Garosshen’s 144,100 and Hal Rotholz’s 141,500.

Championship Day 1A: Next Break on Deck

$5,250 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  300/500 with a 500 ante
Entries:  465

Anthony Zinno (left) and T.K. Miles (right)

Flight A of the SHRPO Championship will hit their second break shortly after the field put $2.25 million towards the $3,000,000 guarantee already. They likey won’t get there today, most likely very early tomorrow.

We found a lot of tough spots in the field with top pros sitting side-by-side, Anthony Zinno and T.K. Miles is one of them. Zinno (three-time WPT, two-time WSOP champ) and Miles (two-time WSOPC, Event 7 winner) make for a rough way to go for the rest of the table.

Championship Day 1A: Alex Foxen Doubles Sending One Out

$5,250 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  300/500 with a 500 ante
Entries:  456

Alex Foxen

We caught up with Alex Foxen in a three-way pot with the board out and reading AdQc7s7c9c. With about 22,000 in the pot, the player in the big blind checked and Foxen moved all in for 33,000. His opponent in the cutoff called and the big blind folded.

Foxen showed Qh7h for a full house, sevens over queens, and the cutoff tossed his cards in the muck before the dealer to table them. They counted down his stack and he had exactly 33,000 to end his day.

Alex Foxen – 88,500 (177 bb)

Foxen made history during the 2018 SHRPO by winning the same Big 4 tournament in back-to-back years. He won the $2,650 tournament in 2017 for $204,600 and again in 2018 for $208,452.

Championship Day 1A: Kyna England On a Heater

$5,250 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Entries:  417

Kyna England

Kyna England is having a great couple of months at the poker tables and brought her talents to South Florida. Her run began with a trip to the MSPT Iowa Main Event in March where she picked up $73,782 for a third-place and it was off to Las Vegas.

There she entered the WPT Venetian Main Event against a very tough field and found herself at another big final table. England blasted her way to another third-place finish, just shy of putting her name on the WPT Mike Sexton Champions Cup, but comforted by a $448,755 payday.

In addition to those scores, England picked up a WSOP Circuit Potawatomi ring in February 2020, one of the last events before poker shut down for the year.

Welcome to South Florida!

Championship Day 1A: Cherish Andrews Leads After Break

$5,250 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Entries:  408

Cherish Andrews

The first break came to an end and the entry count climbed over 400 while they were gone. Nearly two-thirds of the way to the $3,000,000 guarantee and we’re looking a big number late tomorrow when registration closes.

Cherish Andrews picked up the most chips over the first two levels and came back as the leader with 124,100. WPT Tampa Championship runner-up Gabriel Abusada was second with 109,800 followed by Carlos Rojas with 101,100.

Carlos Rojas
Gabriel Abusada

Championship Day 1A: Joseph Cheong Eliminated by Carlos Rojas

$5,250 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2:  200/300 with a 300 ante
Entries:  370

Joseph Cheong

In a three-way pot with the flop reading Kh3c2c, Carlos Rojas bet 4,5000 and Joseph Cheong raised all in for 23,600. The other player folded and Rojas called.

Rojas: 2d2s
Cheong: 6c4c

Rojas was ahead with the set of deuces but Cheong made his club flush on the 7c turn. He lead was short-lived because the Ks river turned Rojas’s set into a full house to send Cheong out.

Carlos Rojas – 98,000 (327 bb)
Joseph Cheong – Eliminated

Championship Day 1A: Blinds Up

$5,250 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2:  200/300 with a 300 ante
Entries:  340

Kitty Kuo (left) and Shawn Mohamed (right)

Blinds are up in the Championship with 340 entries in line to make this one of the biggest starting flights we’ve had. We had 396 entries for Day 1A in 2019 and that number is sure to be topped this afternoon.

Plenty of familiar faces in the crowd including Kitty Kuo, Shawn Mohamed, and Asher Conniff.

Asher Conniff

Championship Day 1A: First SHRPO Champ

$5,250 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1:  100/200 with a 200 ante
Entries:  314

Blair Hinkle

The first-ever Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open ran in 2013 and the Championship featured a huge $10,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. That tournament put us on the poker map in a big way.

The tournament drew 2,384 entries and Blair Hinkle made history as our first SHRPO Champion. That was our biggest Championship field until the recent WPT Poker Showdown and Hinkle made it 12th out of 2,482 entries.

Those are two nice results in our two biggest Championships.