$3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship
Level 8: 300/600/75 Ante

Day 1A rolls on as we have reached Level 8.  With a ton of great poker superstars and Seminole Hard Rock’s finest, it promises to be more exciting action for the rest of the night.  306 players remain in today’s flight.

$3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship
Level 7: 250/500/75 Ante

Two more event winners in this series are in the field tonight trying to add the championship event trophy to the hardware they’ve already gotten this series.

James Salmon III, winner of Event 1, was struggling but hanging in on to a short stack of chips.  Just a few tables over, Event 8 champion Pete Malkoun was busy tangling with the likes of Vanessa Selbst and Eddy Sabat.  Both hope to accomplish the rare feat of winning two titles in a series here at Seminole Hard Rock.

$3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship
Level 7: 250/500/75 Ante

Viet Vo is used to grueling hands as he demonstrated on his way winning Event 18 in the 2015 Lucky Hearts Poker Open.  But this one in a WPT Main Event against Vanessa Selbst was a whole new dance.

Pre-flop, Vo had re-raised Selbst and was called sending the hand to a flop.  On board, Selbst checked and Vo bet 6,000 with Selbst making the call.  A came on the turn and Selbst checked again.  Vo fired another 7,800 only to have Selbst call again.

While this action was going on, the WPT camera teams came over, turned on the lights and started filming the hand with the spotlight squarely on Vo.  With a crowd gathered around the table, the came on the river.  Selbst checked one more time, Vo fired one more time but Selbst had enough and quickly re-raised to 25,500.

With all eyes on Vo, he took several minutes in the tank.  He asked for the count of the bet again and continued to ponder the situation.  Finally, the clock was called on Vo and the countdown began.  Vo asked for the bet size one more time and then during the last ten-second countdown he made the call.

Selbst showed and Vo showed he had lost the hand trying to make a hero call with sending more of his chips and the pot over to Selbst.

Action continues here on Level 7 here in our championship event.

3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship
Level 7: 250/500/75 Ante

We arrived at the table in what appeared to be a raised pot and two players, one of them being Amanda Musumeci, seeing a flop of . Musumeci led out for 3,200 and was called quickly by the older gentleman across the table.

The turn was the and Musumeci checked. Her grey-bearded foe put out a bet of 6,000 which Musumeci called. The river was the and both players checked. Musumeci turned over her hand, , first but it was no good as her opponent had hit the turn with his .

Pretty big downward trend here. Just 3b JJ, cbet Ten high flop, got floated by AK who binks turn. Down to 18k from 40 @ 500bb. @shrpo @WPT

— Amanda Musumeci (@TheReaLMander) April 17, 2015

$3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship
Level 7: 250/500/75 Ante

The championship event is back under way and registration has now closed for Day 1A.  We are off to a flying start recording 502 enties for today’s flight.

Players will play through Level 10 tonight with the survivors advancing to Day 2 on Sunday in hopes becoming the next WPT champion.

$3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship
Level 7: 250/500/75 Ante

The chip lead has once again shifted from one pro to another, this time it’s Barry Hutter taking his turn atop the leaderboard. Chance Kornuth sits in second position among nine players with over 100k in their stacks.

Barry Hutter – 222,175 (444 bb)
Chance Kornuth – 156,900 (314 bb)
Ismail Patel – 136,600 (273 bb)
Pierce McKellar – 116,650 (233 bb)
Jacob Schindler – 110,950 (222 bb)
Michael Goldfarb – 107,850 (216 bb)
Yaron Wasserman – 105,425 (211 bb)
Tyler Reiman – 104,650 (209 bb)
Peter Kaemmerlen – 104,075 (208 bb)
Paul Volpe – 96,900 (194 bb)
Anthony Zinno – 90,350 (181 bb)
Hans Winzeler – 83,300 (167 bb)
Zach Kessler – 81,375 (163 bb)
Justin Zaki – 81,150 (162 bb)
Brian Hastings – 77,700 (155 bb)
Darryll Fish – 67,050 (134 bb)
Mohsin Charania – 65,475 (131 bb)
Jason Mercier – 52,900 (106 bb)
Ory Hen – 46,875 (94 bb)
Vanessa Selbst – 46,475 (93 bb)
Mukul Pahuja – 45,100 (90 bb)
Carlos Mortensen – 44,000 (88 bb)
Amanda Musumeci – 39,800 (80 bb)
John Racener – 38,175 (76 bb)
Natasha Barbour – 37,600 (75 bb)
Will Failla – 37,450 (75 bb)
Angel Vu – 37,375 (75 bb)
Zo Karim – 34,900 (70 bb)
Matt Brady – 34,850 (70 bb)
Amir Lehavot – 33,400 (67 bb)
John Dolan – 22,325 (45 bb)
Dan Suied – 21,875 (44 bb)
Kristy Arnett – 20,250 (41 bb)
Daren Stabinski – 18,000 (36 bb)
Chris Moorman – 15,775 (32 bb)

$3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship
Level 6: 200/400/50 Ante

Chris Bolek got the last of his chips, all 5,825 of them, on a board of and was up against two other players who built a nice side pot when there was an all in and a call on the turn. All the cards were flipped over and Bolek was drawing thin with his for bottom pair with a flush draw. He was up against a bigger flush draw as one of the players held   and top pair as the remaining player held . Bolek needed a seven or nine to stay alive.

The river was the to give the player with the pot and a near triple up. Players will be going on dinner break in just a few moments.

$3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship
Level 6: 200/400/50 Ante

After misfiring on his first bullet, Paul Volpe is in a tad better shape this time around.  In quick fashion, Volpe has rolled up this stack to 103,500 to put himself among the chip leaders.

Volpe is quite familiar with WPT final tables as he pulled off one of the more spectacular feats in WPT history finish second and third in back-to-back events.  Volpe also holds a WSOP bracelet beating out a final four of Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier and Brian Rast to take that title in 2014.

We’ll see if it’s Volpe’s time to finally put his name on the WPT Champions Cup here at Seminole Hard Rock.

$3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship
Level 6: 200/400/50 Ante

As you would expect in our championship event, there are some amazing table matchups that pop up.  Early on, we found this group shooting it out featuring November Niner Bob Bounahara, Jake Schwartz, Daren Stabinski and Luis Santoni all seat close together.  It will be a long road early on for anyone stuck at this talented table.

$3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship
Level 6: 200/400/50 Ante

The last two players to play a hand in the ballroom last night are back at it again today.  After chopping Event 12 late last night, event champion Robert Kuhn and Jarod Ludemann wasted no time in getting back on the felt and are duking it out here on Day 1A with dreams of winning the title and putting their name on the WPT Champions Cup.