$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 6:  200/400/50 Ante

In the final hand before the dinner break, Noah Schwartz limped UTG+1 for 400, the cutoff limped, the button limped, the small blind completed, and Andy Frankenberger raised from the big blind to 3,000. Schwartz moved all in for 16,500, and one of the limpers said, “I knew it!”

Everyone folded the action to Frankenberger, who tanked for a while before he called with . Schwartz turned over , and he needed his hand to hold to stay alive.

The board came , and Frankenberger rivered a club flush to win the pot and eliminate Schwartz. Fortunately for Schwartz, he can re-enter until the end of the dinner break, and we expect to see him back in the field.

Andy Frankenberger  –  69,900  (175 bb)
Noah Schwartz  –  Eliminated

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 6: 200/400/50 Ante

The Championship Event of the Seminole Hard Rock “Rock n’ Roll Poker Open” has been a rousing success and it just hit another benchmark.

400 entries have now been recorded for Day 1B taking the total entries for the tournament up to 734 easily crushing the guarantee.

Players will still have through the upcoming 90-minute dinner break to buy in before we have the final number of entries for the tournament.

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 6:  200/400/50 Ante

Joe Kuether just tripled up in a three-way all-in situation, where he held against and on a board of .

Kuether won the main pot with two pair, aces and jacks, while the player with the pocket eights won a much smaller side pot.

Joe Kuether  –  43,500  (109 bb)

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 6: 200/400/50 Ante

One of poker’s favorite couples in back in action here in our Championship Event.

Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly are both grinding away here at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.  Laak is doing well today even without his crazy goggles with 74,125 chips while Tilly currently stands at 27,500.

Both will look to build up their stacks together as we close in on the dinner break this evening.

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 6:  200/400/50 Ante

With the final board showing on the river, Jared Jaffee was all in under the gun for 8,700, and his opponent tanked for a long time in middle position before he called.

Jaffee showed , but his opponent turned over to win the pot with a pair of aces. Jaffee was eliminated, but is still free to re-enter up until the end of the dinner break.

Jared Jaffee  –  Eliminated

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 6: 200/400/50 Ante

Aaron Mermelstein has been spotted in the house today and given the year he’s been having it’s not good news for the rest of the field.

Mermelstein started off the year winning a World Poker Tour title in January.  He then won Event 4 of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in August which he quickly followed up by winning a title in Panama just a few days later.  Then in September, he won another WPT title picking up over one million dollars in winnings for the four victories.

Mermelstein will look to finish out the year here in style and is on his way pushing his stack to 48,000 at the halfway point of Level 6. Look for him to be a major threat today among the 396 entires in Day 1B.

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 6:  200/400/50 Ante

It’s quite a feat to earn WPT Player of the Year honors; it indicates both skill and a nice year of running good. We’re happy to have five previous winners with us this weekend though missing current POY Anthony Zinno.

Season VIII: Faraz Jaka
Season IX: Andy Frankenberger
Season X: Joe Serock
Season XI: Matt Salsberg
Season XII: Mukul Pahuja (bagged chips last night)

Those five players have combined for more than $16.8 million in career earnings and a trophy case full of awards.

If you want to do some association, we also have Erica Lindgren in the field today, wife of Season II Erick Lindgren.

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 6: 200/400/50 Ante

2015 WSOP Main Event third place finisher Neil Blumenfield is back in action again today here at the Seminole Hard Rock “Rock n’ Roll Poker Open”.  Blumenfield won over the poker world during the November Nine with his terrific demeanor and trademark fedora.

And the style has started to catch on at his table as Peter Nguyen is also sporting some spiffy headwear.  But one person we doubt will be switching over anytime soon is Bruce “SkullCrusher” Kramer who isn’t ditching the black hood anytime soon.

Blumenfield’s hat appears to be bringing him luck today as he currently stands at 35,425 chips while Nguyen stands at 27,650.  Of course, the hood has it right now with Kramer at 44,550.

389 entries are now on the board here in Day 1B as we’ve just hit the final level before the dinner break.

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 5:  150/300/50 Ante

Joe Kuether will be hitting the registration desk if he wishes to capture the Championship this series. He was involved in a bizarre little hand in the front of the ballroom that had the rest of the table shaking their heads.

We caught the action with Kuether all-in for 22,500 and the flop reading  . His opponent in the 3-seat, who’s name is being withheld to protect against potential sharks, picked up his hand above the table to check his cards. After a few minutes he tossed in his stack of 5K chips, followed by his stack of black chips, then his quarters.

One stack at a time without saying a word.

The dealer explained, “that’s just a call.”

The 3-seat was a bit confused as action moved over to Harrison Gimbel, still waiting to act. Gimbel eventually called as well as we saw the situation.

Kuether:
Gimbel:
3-seat:

Kuether was looking good against the two smaller pairs until Gimbel binked the turn to take the lead. The river was a useless and Kuether went to the cage while the 3-seat asked if he was allowed to rebuy.

Matt Glantz helpfully pointed towards the registration desk but our confused player found he had a few hundred left to burn before he could do that.

$3,500 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” Championship
Level 5: 150/300/50 Ante

Vanessa Rousso bagged up chips yesterday on Day 1A, and some of her friends from the 17th season of “Big Brother” showed up to cheer for her in this Championship event.

So lucky @MelProceOuellet @_LizNolan @JuliaNolan_ & @JudasDraven came 2 root me on @HardRockHolly @shrpo main event! pic.twitter.com/tgOikqrab9

— Vanessa Rousso (@VanessaRousso) November 28, 2015