$1,100 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em (Freeze-out)
Level 7: 150/300/50 Ante
Event 16 is on another break and tables are breaking as well. The count is up to 208 players with 148 of them still around with chips.
We’re tracking down the next group of leaders as the quarter chips stay in play for three more levels.
$1,100 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em (Freeze-out)
Level 7: 150/300/50 Ante
The pace has finally slowed with 206 players in Event 16, it seems most of the players who want in the game have already taken their seats. So far there’s $206,000 up for grabs and that might entice more people to come down to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino to take their freeze-out shot.
Two more patched up players are in the field. Matt Stout brings his talents back to the ballroom and looking to add to his $3.2 million in career earnings. He is also the proud owner of a 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open trophy.
Michael Laake was in the game early and grinding away. He won a WSOP Circuit ring in 2011 and has two Seminole Hard Rock Poker titles.
$1,100 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em (Freeze-out)
Level 6: 100/200/50 Ante
Event 16 has crossed into double guarantee territory as the 200th player gets in the game. Four-time WSOP-C winner Sam Panzica was number 199 and we are still looking for who put the field at 200.
Table 28 has a reunion of friends and competitors. Two-time WPT final table member Dan Buzgon is sitting in the 2-seat and WPT Borgata Winer Poker Open champ Aaron Mermelstein took up residence in the 6-seat.
The two are friends from the Northeast and recently battled at the $1,100 Event 4 final table. Mermelstein went on to win the tournament with Buzgon going out in 3rd.
Also making a first time appearance this series is Xuan Liu. She has cashed for more than $1.5 million in her career including 3rd place in the 2012 PCA Main Event and 4th place at EPT Sanremo in 2011.
$1,100 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em (Freeze-out)
Level 5: 75/150/25 Ante
Event 16 is less than 10 players away from doubling up the $100,000 guarantee and plenty of time to reach that number. The freeze-out format doesn’t seem to be bothering them at all.
The slow structure means players who jumped out to an early lead, now hold just a few more big blinds then your average tournament grinder. David Jackson is the early leader and he only has 280 big blinds to wield against his opponents.
Jackson was part of the huge-field Event 5 last week and final table a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event during the 2014 World Series of Poker.
Ari Engel sits with the second biggest stack followed by some big names including Jean Gaspard, Chis Hunichen, Ryan Tepen, and Alex Rocha.
Top and notables counts:
David Jackson – 42,025 (280 bb)
Ari Engel – 40,950 (273 bb)
Jeffrey Trudeau, Jr – 34,600 (231 bb)
John Dollinger – 32,900 (219 bb)
Antonio Velazquez – 30,175 (201 bb)
Aaron Massey – 27,025 (180 bb)
Jean Gaspard – 26,525 (177 bb)
Tom Dobrilovic – 24,100 (161 bb)
Stuart Paterson – 23,525 (157 bb)
Chris Hunichen – 20,900 (139 bb)
Ryan Tepen – 18,025 (120 bb)
Tim Burt – 16,675 (111 bb)
Alex Rocha – 14,625 (98 bb)
Matt Stout – 14,225 (95 bb)
Darryll Fish – 13,425 (90 bb)
Elliott Zaydman – 11,850 (79 bb)
David Diaz – 9,375 (63 bb)
$1,100 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em (Freeze-out)
Level 4: 75/150
While catching up with the recent entries to the field, we found four more strong players.
Michelle Shah has deep runs in our two biggest events so far this series. She was the last women standing in 26th during the 2,022-entrant Event 5 and finished 60th out of 2,928 entrants in Event 10. Shah also has success in this short-handed format, finishing 34th out of 1,651 in the WSOP $1,500 Six-Max tournament.
Nancy Birnbaum’s success is well documented on the site and she continues to post big results. She has three WSOP Circuit wins, over $500,000 in career earnings, and final table the $1,000,000 Guarantee Event 10 just a few days ago.
Forgot to tweet that I’m playing 1100 6max $100k gtd @shrpo ss 12k now at 15.7 @abbeydaniels1 on my right. #playwithjoy
— Rachel Kranz (@AdventuresPoker) August 12, 2015
True story.
Abbey Daniels final tabled the 2013 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship and made three WSOP-C final tables with two runner-up results. Rachel Kranz has over $300,000 in career earnings including the $1,650 Eight-Handed event a few months ago during the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.
$1,100 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em (Freeze-out)
Level 3: 50/100
Event 16 is showing no signs of slowing down yet. The prize pool moved over $150,000 midway through the third level and it continues to run up. Two more regulars hit the tables with almost $5 million won between them.
Ari Engel is back in the ballroom with his $2.1 million in career earnings, 77 WSOP/WSOP-C event cashes, and seven WSOP Circuit rings.
Reigning Heart Poker Tour Player of the Year Aaron Massey has been in town for a week and grinding away. He holds two WSOP-C rings along with his two HPT titles and $2.5 million in career earnings.
$1,100 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em (Freeze-out)
Level 2: 50/75
The entrant count went over 125 before the end of the second level to reach the next big-money milestone. With no re-entries available in the freeze-out, the climb will have to slow down. There’s plenty of play in the structure to give some people a reason to sleep in a little longer.
Seminole Hard Rock Poker ambassadors Darryll Fish and Sheddy Siddiqui jumped in the action during the first hour. “DFish” has a WSOP-C ring, three WSOP final tables, three WPT final tables, and earned $1.9 million in his live tournament career (he has that same amount in online winnings before Black Friday).
Sheddy Siddiqui is a regular player during all events here and finished fifth this summer during the WSOP Millionair Maker. He’s just one tiny cash away from crossing the $1 million earning mark.
More players continue to get in the game and we’re tracking them down.
$1,100 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em (Freeze-out)
Level 2: 50/75
It took less than one level for the big six-max event to cross over the $100,000 guarantee and now they’re piling on. Every entrant now pushes the prize pool higher with nearly six hours left to register.
A few of the early runners include Jeffrey Trudeau, Jr who’s having a nice run this series, local pro Ian O’Hara, and Will “The Thrill” Failla fresh off putting a Borgata Summer Poker Open Championship on his résumé along with an HPT and WPT title.
$1,100 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em (Freeze-out)
Level 1: 25/50
We’re closing in on the final weekend of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, the tournaments are getting bigger and the fields are getting tougher. Today’s early tournament will bring out locals and top players getting in town for Championship weekend.
Event 16 is a $1,100 buy-in tournament played with a slow structure and short-handed format. Those two elements will balance out the natural fast pace of six-handed tables and give them plenty of room to maneuver. Quarter chips don’t come out of play until after the tenth level.
They’ll start with 12,000 stacks and play 30-minute levels while registration is open. Once it closes at the start of Level 11, the tournament will switch to 40-minute levels for the duration. This is a freeze-out tournament so no re-entries are allowed. If a player busts, they move on to the next event.
This is scheduled as a one-day event with a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool. It will be big, but move quickly.
2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
$1,650 Eight-Max No Limit Hold’Em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guarantee
April 19 – 20th, 2015
Total Entries: 110
Total Prize Pool: $165,000
Recap:
A world champion, a November Niner and one of the most consistent players at Seminole Hard Rock took to the felt chasing the Event 16 title but in the end Rachel Kranz pulled off the amazing upset and took down Event 16 and the $44,683 first prize.
11 players returned on Day 2 including Jamie Gold, Chino Rheem and Daren Stabinski plus chip leader Robert Black.
Fairly quickly, the short-stacked Jamie Gold fell in 10th place and was soon followed by Ray Qartomy in 9th. The field continued to whittle down rapidly as Long Nguyen went out in 8th, Eracles Panayitou left in 7th, and Black finished 6th. At that point, the remaining five players were battling for most of the evening before Daniel DiZenzo finally went out in 4th leaving Rheem, Stabinsky and Kranz to play for the title.
Because the players were so deep, it took hours before Stabinski finally met his fate in 3rd. Stabinski just could not find an answer for Kranz finally going out when he went all-in with 
on a 7-9-10 board. Kranz had an answer holding pocket tens and sent Stabinski to the payout window in third setting up a showdown with Rheem.
With a large crowd including Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi watching the action, Rheem began with a ton of confidence but outchiped 4:1. With what seemed like non-stop conversation going on, Rheem finally doubled up. On a 
board, the chips ended up in the middle and Chino flipped up 
and Kranz had 
. After the board ran out 
, Rheem now had a 2:1 edge.
But Kranz struck back. Rheem went all-in having hit a top pair on a six-board but Kranz turned over pocket jacks and retook the lead.
Not long after, the woman who had seemed to have all the answers pulled out some magic one more time. After a 
flop, Kranz and Rheem had their chips in the middle. Rheem was looking good with 
for top two pair but Kranz was holding 
for the set and after the cards ran out 
, Kranz had pulled out the victory.
Kranz was very congratulatory to Chino and was thrilled with victory yelling out “It just set in – I won $44,000!” Not only that but she had outlasted one of poker’s greats to do it.
Congratulations to our Event 16 Champion – Rachel Kranz!
Results:
1st – Rachel Kranz (New York, NY) – $44,683
2nd – Chino Rheem (Los Angeles, CA) – $26,400
3rd – Daren Stabinski (Weston, FL) – $19,365
4th – Sean Giesbrecht (Richmond, BC, Canada) – $13,860
5th – Daniel DiZenzo (Sussex, NJ) – $10,478
6th – Robert Black (Dallas, TX) – $8,003
7th – Eracles Panayitou (Tom’s River, NJ) – $6,435
8th – Long Nguyen (Houston, TX) – $5,198