Championship: Jake Bazeley Doubles

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 ante
Flight B Entries: 463

Jake Bazeley

On a final board reading 4h3d2dKs8h with around 11,000 in the pot, the small blind bet 6,000. Jake Bazeley 2015 Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open Champion moved all in from the cutoff for 21,150.

The small blind called with Kh3h for two-pair but was no good against Bazeley’s 8s8c set of eights.

Jake Bazeley – 54,000

Championship: Well-Traveled Scott Davies

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 ante
Flight B Entries: 441

Scott Davies

Scott Davies gets around. The poker pro returned to SHRP poker this afternoon trying to expand his impressive résumé.

Davies owns six tournament titles that he won on five different continents. He has an LAPT title from South America (Peru), an EPT victory in Europe (Monte Carlo), APPT win in Asia (Macau), his first WSOP bracelet in Australia, and a WSOP Circuit ring right here in the states.

Davies is missing only Africa and Antartica, the latter probably a pretty tough get.

Championship: Four Bills

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 ante
Flight B Entries: 424

Michael Cohen

The blinds are up and so is the entry count. We crossed over 400 for the day and the prize pool is nearing $3.5 million for the Championship.

Michael Cohen is in the field today and another one of our players who freerolled the Championship after a top finish in the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year race. He finished second to the previously mentioned Nathan Papp after a couple final tables and deep runs during the year.

Championship: Nancy Birnbaum Riding Hot Streak

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3: 75/150 with a 25 ante
Flight B Entries: 382

Nancy Birnbaum

The Championship moved over 1,000 combined entries after the first break and we see a steady parade of players joining the fun. With late registration open till 9:15pm, we expect some players are sleeping off their Friday night before hitting the Event Center.

SHRP regular Nancy Birnbaum wasted no time taking her seat. She was here at the start and can get comfortable at a table that will not break today. The three-time WSOP Circuit winner kicked off her series with a nice run, a final table in the Omaha/8 followed by a last two-table finish in the big WPTDeepStacks Event, and she wouldn’t mind closing it out with a WPT final table.

Championship: Philip Wojtuniecki Leads

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3:75/150 with a 25 ante
Flight B Entries: 367

Philip Wojtunieki

Flight B players returned to their seats and they are all chasing Michigan native Philip Wojtuniecki at the top of the counts. He’s closing in on 100,000 and holds nearly 25,000 more than second place Tony Tran.

James Kirvin, Ken Bruno, and Daniel Chalifour round out the top five with Matt Affleck’s 61,000 just outside.

Top five stacks:

  1. Philip Wojtuniecki – 96,150
  2. Tony Tran – 71,575
  3. James Kirvin – 69,250
  4. Ken Bruno – 68,000
  5. Daniel Chalifour – 62,675

Championship: Reigning Player of the Year

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2:75/150
Flight B Entries: 307

Nathan Papp

Flight B is cruising right along and heading towards the first break of the day. More than 300 entries so far and showing no signs of slowing.

Nathan Papp is back in the Championship and still enjoying his freeroll thanks to his reign as the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year. Papp picked up those honors last year with first and second place finishes in the two Immokalee events, a great run at his home casino. The POY title earned him a seat in all SHRP major Championships throughout the year and he’s using his Showdown seat this afternoon.

The current POY race has WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Champ Darryll Fish at the top of the leaderboard followed by SHRP regular Brett Bader.

Current SHRP Player of the Year standings

Championship: Guarantee Met

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2:75/150
Flight B Entries: 292

With ten minutes gone in Level 2, the 292nd entry went into Flight B to put the combined total up to 938 for the Championship. That number is good enough to surpass the $3 million guaranteed prize pool and they will continue pushing it higher throughout the day.

Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 9 around 9:15 this evening.

Championship: “Win a Seat” Winner

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1: 50/100
Flight B Entries: 254

Joanne Kim

We have a special feature during each of our major series. There is a drawing before the series kicks off and we award a free seat in the Championship at random.

For the 2018 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, that winner was Joanne Kim. Her name came out of the virtual hat and the California resident flew across the country last night to take her place in Flight B of the Championship. Kim grabbed her spot at the table and grinding along with everyone else.

We will keep one eye on her day and hope she has a great time today in the Hard Rock Event Center.

Championship: Nearing the Guarantee

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1: 50/100
Flight B Entries: 223

Cord Garcia

Flight B is 30 minutes into the day and it continues to move towards the $3 Million Guarantee. We show 223 entries int he game to leave the Championship less than 70 away from the magic number.

Cord Garcia grabbed an early seat and mixing it up.

“I didn’t show up at 11am to fold,” the WSOP Colossus winner joked with his table. “You can’t bluff me.”