$1,100 WPTDeepStacks Main Event
Level 10: 500/1,000 with a 100 ante
Flight B Players Remaining: 180/398
Average Stack: 55,300 (55 bb)

With a raise to 2,500 and a call before him, Seminole Hard Rock Poker team member Michael Laake three-bet shoved for 22,800 from late position. The initial raiser reshoved and isolated the pot with , leading Laake’s .

The flop came down , no help to Laake. The turn was the to give Laake’s opponent an ace-high straight. The river, though, was the to give Laake an ace-high straight as well to chop the pot.

“You’re all in trouble now,” laughed Laake.

Michael Laake – 25,000 (25 bb)

$1,100 WPTDeepStacks Main Event
Upcoming Level 10: 500/1,000 with a 100 ante
Flight B Entries: 389

The players are in the midst of a one-hour dinner break. Play resumes at about 7:30pm. Among the chip leaders are Chino Rheem (139,000), Nagui Yassa, (127,500), and Michael Newman (116,000).

$1,100 WPTDeepStacks Main Event
Level 8: 300/600 with a 75 ante
Flight B Entries: 374

Chino Rheem is among our biggest stacks in the room but he doesn’t have an easy road on a table that will not break today. He was part of the 2008 WSOP November Nine gang and he is seated along with 2016 November Niner Neil Blumenfield. Rheem also has to deal with former SHRP champions Dimitry Agrachov, Yves Fequiere, and Raminder Singh.

But he should be able to handle himself. Rheem has more than $8 million in career earnings, four cashes over $1 million, and three WPT titles with the last coming in the 2016 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Finale.

$1,100 WPTDeepStacks Main Event
Level 7: 250/500 with a 75 ante
Flight B Entries: 360

Players returned to their seats and there are three big stacks among them. Richard Freire leads the way with 140,000 with former November Niner Chino Rheem and SHRP champ TK Miles rounding out those over 100,000.

They’ll play three more levels before heading off on dinner break. Reigstration will close when they return at 7:30 and we’ll know our final number for Day 1B.

Top stacks and some notables:

Richard Freire – 140,000 (280 bb)
Chino Rheem – 115,000 (230 bb)
TK Miles – 104,000 (208 bb)
David Diaz – 89,000 (178 bb)
Mohsin Charania – 88,000 (176 bb)
Michael Aron – 87,250 (175 bb)
Jonathan Dimmig – 85,000 (170 bb)
Omar Yates – 84,000 (168 bb)
Stewart Newman – 80,000 (160 bb)
Chad Eveslage – 78,125 (156 bb)
Anthony Astarita – 56,000 (112 bb)
Jake Bazeley – 53,000 (106 bb)
Jake Schwartz – 46,300 (93 bb)
Michael Laake – 45,000 (90 bb)
Lou Stadlery – 44,200 (88 bb)
Kobi Ribak – 41,050 (82 bb)
Neil Blumenfield – 34,000 (68 bb)
Jerry Wong – 31,350 (63 bb)
Kathy Liebert – 30,000 (60 bb)
Chris Bolek – 30,000 (60 bb)
Asher Conniff – 28,000 (56 bb)
Jon Borenstein – 27,550 (55 bb)
Matthew Wantman – 27,150 (54 bb)
Marsha Wolak – 25,000 (50 bb)
Wally Maddah – 22,200 (44 bb)
Noah Schwartz – 17,000 (34 bb)

$1,100 WPTDeepStacks Main Event
Level 6: 200/400 with a 50 ante
Flight B Entries: 345

The clock ran down on Level 6 and Flight B players are on their second break of the day. There are a few big stacks emerging and we will track down some of the notables while they are away.

$1,100 WPTDeepStacks Main Event
Level 5: 150/300 with a 50 ante
Flight B Entries: 304

We noticed Kelly Minkin was wearing an interesting shirt at the table today. It seemed like a normal t-shirt until she sat back a little and realized it was emblazoned with the face of Seminole Hard Rock Poker team member Stewart Newman.

It turns out Minkin made a bet with Newman about his age, lost the friendly wager, and is now stuck with him throughout the day.

It shouldn’t have any impact on the top pro’s game. Minkin has plenty of big resulted including a third place finish at the 2015 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship final table.

$1,100 WPTDeepStacks Main Event
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 ante
Flight B Entries: 269

Players are back in their seats and everyone is chasing former WPT champ Olivier Busquet at the top of the chip counts. The 2009 Borgata winner registered late and quickly pushed his 25,000 starting close to 80,000.

Top stacks and some notables:

Olivier Busquet – 78,450 (392 bb)
Luis Zepan – 76,875 (384 bb)
Richard Freire – 66,400 (332 bb)
Bradley Rhodes – 66,000 (330 bb)
Mitchell Lee – 63,500 (318 bb)
Andreas Ioakimides – 61,750 (309 bb)
Stephen Leahy – 57,300 (287 bb)
David MacDonald – 56,300 (282 bb)
Brian Reinert – 44,200 (221 bb)
Sheddy Siddiqui – 34,400 (172 bb)
Jacquelyn Scott – 33,300 (167 bb)
Neil Blumenfield – 29,875 (149 bb)
Nancy Birnbaum – 29,275 (146 bb)
Patrick Eskandar – 24,900 (125 bb)
Kathy Liebert – 24,625 (123 bb)
Tim Reilly – 23,500 (118 bb)
Michael Laake – 23,000 (115 bb)
Noah Schwartz – 23,000 (115 bb)
Kobi Ribak – 21,300 (107 bb)
David Poces – 14,650 (73 bb)
Wally Maddah – 12,800 (64 bb)

$1,100 WPTDeepStacks Main Event
Level 3: 75/150 with a 25 ante
Flight B Entries: 250

WPTDeepStacks Main Event Day 1B players are off on their first break of the day with an even 250 in the game. We’ll take this chance to grab some chip counts and check on our leaders.

$1,100 WPTDeepStacks Main Event
Level 3: 75/150 with a 25 ante
Flight B Entries: 232

Flight B is in the last level before the first break of the day and the next stop is 250 entries to get us two-thirds of the way towards the $1 million guaranteed prize pool.

Nancy Thomas is taking another shot at the WPTDeepStacks title and she has a nice chunk of change in her bankroll after a big run last week. She was part of the huge Ultimate Re-Entry field to open the series and took home $109,000 for a second place finish out of 4,756 entries.