$25,400 High Roller Event (Re-Entry)
Level 16: 6,000/12,000/2,000 Ante

Level 15 comes to an end, and Level 16 begins with increased blinds of 6,000-12,000 and a 2,000 ante. Play continues without a break.

With 14 players remaining, the average chip stack is nearly 600,000 (50 big blinds). The final 11 players will finish in the money, guaranteed at least $57,500, and action will continue tonight until there are nine players left for tomorrow afternoon’s televised final table.

$25,400 High Roller Event (Re-Entry)
Level 15: 5,000/10,000/1000 Ante

Doc Sands called this hand “the stupidest spot of all time.”  Phil Laak called it the “weirdest hand I’ve played in five years.”  It was something to see.

Doc Sands had just been moved to the table and cleared out one rack with a small amount of chips to play a hand and also had another full rack.  On a board, Sands bet out 27,000.  Suddenly, Phil Laak put out a raise of 500,000 chips.  Sands could not believe what was going on and asked why Laak would make such a move.

Laak said that he was putting Sands all in based on the small amount of chips in front of him but missed the huge amount of chips in the rack Sands had off to the side.  Laak then called the floor over explaining the situation that he didn’t realize the other chips were also in play but the floor ruled that Laak’s massive bet stood.

Sands then tried to run through every possible scenario and tactic Laak could possibly be using.  After some out-loud discussions between the two, Sands folded.  Laak agreed to show his cards and turned up with a straight draw and back-door flush draw. Sands said he folded pocket kings.  Laak explained his error to whomever would listen afterwards and believed it was probably his craziest blunder ever.

It will certainly be one of the hands to remember from this year’s Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open.

$25,400 High Roller Event (Re-Entry)
Level 15: 5,000/10,000/1000 Ante

James Joyner was just eliminated in 15th place. With 14 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 593,000 (59 big blinds).

$25,400 High Roller Event (Re-Entry)
Level 15: 5,000/10,000/1000 Ante

After Jason Mercier took a big chunk out of Andy Andrejevic’s stack, David Peters finished him off and then George Dolofan took out Fred Goldberg to take us down to fifteen players remaining with eleven getting into the money.

Here are the seating assignments after the re-draw:

Table 78
Seat 1: Brian Yoon
Seat 2: Ankush Mandavia
Seat 3: Doc Sands
Seat 4: Jason Mercier
Seat 5: Tom Marchese
Seat 6: Raj Vohra
Seat 7: Barry Hutter
Seat 8: Kathy Lehne

Table 84
Seat 1: David Peters
Seat 2: George Dolofan
Seat 3: Sean Winter
Seat 4: Ashwin Sarin
Seat 5: Vacant
Seat 6: James Joyner
Seat 7: Ian O’Hara
Seat 8: Phil Laak

$25,400 High Roller Event (Re-Entry)
Level 15: 5,000/10,000/1000 Ante

The collisions are getting bigger and bigger and Ian O’Hara just won one of them making the right call and managed to get some chips off Doc Sands.

On a board and 144,000 in the pot, Sands fired out 125,000.  O’Hara took his time and made the call.  Sands showed the bluff and O’Hara flipped up taking down the pot.

In the meantime, Shannon Shorr was eliminated on another table and we’re down to 17 players left tonight.

$25,400 High Roller Event (Re-Entry)
Level 15: 5,000/10,000/1000 Ante

With a 95,000 chip pot built between Phil Laak and Andy Andrejevic from a flop, the came on the turn.  Andrejevic checked and Laak fired out 53,000.  Andrejevic made the call and the hit the river.  Andrejevic once again checked and Laak put out another 144,000.  Andrejevic went into the tank and finally made the call.

Laak showed for the set and Andrejevic mucked.  The hand put Laak just ahead of David Peters for the chip lead with 19 players left.

$25,400 High Roller Event (Re-Entry)
Level 15: 5,000/10,000/1,000 Ante

The players return from break to begin Level 15, with increased blinds of 5,000-10,000 and a 1,000 ante.

With 19 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 437,000 (44 big blinds). Action will continue tonight until there are nine players remaining for tomorrow afternoon’s televised final table.

The final 11 players will finish in the money, guaranteed at least $57,500.

$25,400 High Roller Event (Re-Entry)
Level 14: 4,000/8,000/1000 Ante

We’ve on break here in our High Roller with 19 players remaining. Here are the chips counts as we near our final table.

Table 77
David Peters – 773,000
Shannon Shorr – 134,000
Jason Mercier – 271,000
Phil Laak – 596,000
Barry Hutter – 569,000
Andy Andrejevic – 622,000

Table 78
Fred Goldberg – 275,000
Raj Vohra – 438,000
Ashwin Sarin – 476,000
Tom Marchese – 321,000
Brian Yoon – 145,000
George Dolofan – 263,000
James Joyner – 429,000

Table 84
Ian O’Hara – 637,000
Doc Sands – 638,000
Ty Reiman – 344,000
Sean Winter – 395,000
Ankush Mandavia – 653,000
Kathy Lehne – 199,000

$25,400 High Roller Event (Re-Entry)
Level 14: 4,000/8,000/1,000 Ante

Things have tightened up since the rebuy period ended but we do have a few players opening up some space between themselves and the rest of the pack.

Andy Andrejevic, Ankush Mandavia, Ian O’ Hara and Tom Marchese are looking good right now.  Andrejevic stands at 637,000 leading the way.  Mandavia sits at 596,000 with O’Hara at 569,000 and Marchese at 505,000.

24 players remain as we close in on our final table tonight.

$25,400 High Roller Event (Re-Entry)
Level 14: 4,000/8,000/1,000 Ante

Byron Kaverman was all in from the small blind with , and he needed to improve to stay alive against the of David Sands in the big blind.

The board came — Kaverman flopped an open-ended straight draw, but improved no further. Sands won the pot with his ace to eliminate Kaverman from the tournament.

David “Doc” Sands  –  365,000  (46 bb)
Byron Kaverman  –  Eliminated

With 24 players remaining, they redraw for random seats at the final three tables (8-handed play). The average chip stack is about 346,000 (43 big blinds).