$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 Ante
Entries: 820

The clock is running down on Level 4 and the Championship players will take a break when the clock runs out. We’re waiting on an updated entry count but players continue to roll into the ballroom at a regular pace getting the prize pool closer to $3 million with each new seat taken.

One of the more recent entrants was Justin Young, our defending champion. The WSOP Circuit winner put $670,000 in his pocket for winning last year’s WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship and pushed his career total to $4.5 million.

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 Ante
Entries: 820

The entry count kicked back into gear and crossed over 800 in the third hour, clearly passing $2.5 million in the prize pool and steadily climbing.

Blair Hinkle knows a little something about getting through huge fields like this. He earned his first WSOP bracelet in 2008 by besting a field of 1,344 players, a nice score but not his biggest.

Hinkle followed that up by conquering the first $10 Million GTD Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in 2013 with better than a thousand more players than his WSOP win. He earned more than $1.7 million from a prize pool that almost reached $12 million.

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 3: 75/150 with a 25 Ante
Entries: 747

Seminole Hard Rock Poker team members are coming out in force for the big WPT event. So far we’ve found Matt Stout, Sheddy Siddiqui, Stewart Newman, Michael Laake, Mukul Pahuja, Darryll Fish, and Matt Affleck.

The latter two sitting at a tough table that also includes Mike Leah and Anthony Zinno.

We expect we’ll see the rest of the team before too long including Jessica Dawley who already has two deep, big-field runs this series.

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 3: 75/150 with a 25 Ante
Entries: 747

The World Poker Tour has run countless events over its 15 seasons in action but no player has won more than three titles since the inception of the tour. But the list of players with three titles is pretty impressive and Darren Elias joined them earlier this year with a little Canadian WPT title.

Elias is the fifth person to notch a third WPT win along with Gus Hansen, Carlos Mortensen, Anthony Zinno, and Chino Rheem.

Rheem’s third title came right here a year ago when he won the $10,000 WPT Finale over a very tough field.

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 3: 75/150 with a 25 Ante
Entries: 735

Championship players are returning from their first break of the day as the prize pool climbs towards the next big milestone. It will hit $2.5 million with entry number 781 and they’ll push on to $3 million.

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 2: 75/150
Entries: 696

We mentioned Kevin Ballard earlier in the day, our player who entered via his “Win a Seat” drawing and he’s enjoying his time at the table so far.

But things are about to get a little more interesting. Now sitting to his left is 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Joe Cada with tough pro Tony Ruberto one seat over.

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 2: 75/150
Entries: 668

Jean LeBlond his having himself a very nice series as we roll into the bigger events. The Canadian grinder defeated poker pro David Jackson to take home the $1,100 Six-Max title for more than $32,000 earlier in the series and went deep in the big-field $570 Event 9.

The Six-Max win also qualified LeBlond for a freeoll between the first 14 trophy winner with a $10,000 WPT Finale to first place and a $3,500 Championship seat to second. LeBlond outlasted all but David DiBernardi and won his seat in today’s event.

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 2: 75/150
Entries: 625

It didn’t take long to hit the magic number. We were on the cusp of hitting the $2 million guaranteed prize pool when they moved into the second level of the day and got there soon after.

With 625 entries, the prize pool hit dead on $2,000,000 and they’ll continue push it higher until registration closes at 10:15pm.

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 1: 50/100
Entries: 600

Players continue to make their way into the ballroom including past champions, local regulars, and top pros.

Among them is our reigning Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year David Prociak. This event is part of the package he won for topping all other SHRP players last year and he’s looking to win a tournament for the fourth major SHRP series in a row.

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 1: 50/100
Entries: 530

Today marks the start of the Championship but it is not the biggest buy-in on the schedule. The $50,000 Super High Roller took place Wednesday and Thursday with WSOP bracelet winner Dietrich Fast running over the final table take bank $483,000 less than 24 hours ago.

He’s here early along with second place finisher Adrian Mateos.