$400 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 13:  1,500/2,500 with a 2,500 ante
Players Remaining:  115 of 522

A new chipleader has emerged in the field, with Rodolfo Guaigua building up a stack of 430,000 (172 big blinds).

Rodolfo Guaigua  –  430,000  (172 bb)

With about 115 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 91,000 (36 big blinds). Action will continue this evening until there are 53 players remaining, and everyone who survives this flight will advance to Day 2, which begins Sunday at 1:00 pm. Everyone who reaches Day 2 will be in the money.

$400 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 10:  600/1,200 with a 1,200 ante
Players Remaining:  135 of 522

Another break has come and gone and players are back in their seats trying to play down into the money.

We have a new leader and it is former Hollywood champ, James Salmon. He looks like the biggest stack holding 239,500 while former leader Kevin Payton dipped to 198,000.

$400 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 10:  600/1,200 with a 1,200 ante
Players Remaining:  225 of 522

Registration closed for Flight A of Poker Showdown Event 1 with 522 entries putting more than $170,000 towards the $500,000 guarantee. That mark will be met tomorrow and the prize pool will continue to grow.

Flight A will continue to play into the evening and come to an end when 53 players remain. Survivors will advance to Day 2 on Sunday at 1 pm in the money (players must bag to cash).

$400 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 9:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Flight A Entries:  522

Players are back in their seats with an unofficial 522 entries showing on the clock and registration closed for Flight A. That’s a great start and an easy path to hitting the $500,000 guarantee.

A walk among the tables found one huge stack. Kevin Payton is up to 246,700 after four levels and far ahead of the rest of the field. Elissa Halbreich sits with the second biggest stack at 193,300 followed by Doug Eddy with 144,700.

$400 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 8:  400/800 with a 800 ante
Flight A Entries:  520

Flight A players are taking their second break of the day and registration will close when they return. They topped 500 entries before they left and added some more.

$400 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 7:  300/600 with a 600 ante
Flight A Entries:  480

Flight A is moving closer to 500 entries for the morning session and it should get there with an hour remaining in registration. If you miss out on this chance, we have the next flight at 6 pm.

More friendly faces in the game include Steve “Yo Cuz” Buckner, Jennifer David, and Richard Zipes.

$400 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Flight A Entries:  406

Players are still jumping into the early action and we’ve virtually locked up the $500,000 guarantee. It’s just a matter of getting there and building it up through the weekend.

We found father/son duo Eric and Caleb Piderit back in the Grand Ballroom trying to spin up some Day 2 stacks. Caleb is on a nice heater over the first part of 2022; he made two final tables during our LHPO series including a sixth-place finish in the $25K High Roller and finished 24th in the Tampa Poker Classic Championship this past weekend.

$400 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  200/300 with a 300 ante
Flight A Entries:  386

Four levels are down and tournament staff sent players on their first break of the day. The entry count is close to hitting 400 and we haven’t come close to the huge weekend fields yet.

$400 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3:  100/200 with a 200 ante
Flight A Entries:  311

Today is the first day of the Poker Showdown but some players are in mid-season form already. Our sister property in Tampa just wrapped up their Tampa Poker Classic with two weeks of tournaments.

Ryan Hogan and Thomas Edler played a full slate of games on the west coast of Florida. Elder went deep twice but could not add another trophy to go with his September Super Stacks Main Event crown while Hogan walked away with a win in their $200 one-day event.

$400 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2:  100/100 with a 100 ante
Flight A Entries:  251

The entry count quickly ticked over 250 as they moved into Level 2 and a great start to the series. That’s a big number and we can start looking forward to a huge prize pool by the time registration closes late Saturday evening.

Some early entrants include Michael Tait, Shawn Mohamed, Michael Newman, Pavel Ivan, Scott Robbins, Jay Romano, Jennifer Parker, and Willie Wiggins.