$570 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Re-Entry
Level 8: 300/600 with a 75 Ante
Flight 1E Entries: 627

Four players were involved in a pot on fourth street, with the board showing . There was about 20,000 in the middle already, and Lisa Teebagy moved all in for 15,225 from the big blind. The player next to act spent several minutes in the tank before calling all in for slightly less, and Thila Narayanan called too, having both all-in players covered. The fourth player folded, and the cards were shown down. “I have the nuts,” Narayanan warned.

Teebagy:
Short stack:
Narayanan:

Both of Narayanan’s opponents were drawing dead to the river, and he dragged a big pot with that double knockout.

Thila Narayanan – 70,000 (117 bb)
Lisa Teebagy – Eliminated

$570 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Re-Entry
Level 7: 250/500 with a 75 Ante
Flight 1E Entries: 601

Mike Dentale opened to 1,200 in early position, and there were two callers behind him. From the cutoff, Eli Levy three-bet to 4,800, and only Dentale called to see the flop.

It came . When Dentale checked, Levy moved all in for 10,825. The bet sent Dentale deep into the tank, eventually apologizing for the delay. “I’m sorry, guys. Just give me, like, 60 seconds.” After about that much time, he called to put Levy at risk.

Dentale: (pair of treys)
Levy: (pair of aces)

The turn and river were blanks, and Levy doubled up.

“Are you going to write that I paid him off?” Dentale asked the reporter, offering a fist bump.

Eli Levy – 34,600 (69 bb)
Mike Dentale – 55,000 (110 bb)

$570 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Re-Entry
Level 7: 250/500 with a 75 Ante
Flight 1E Entries: 600

Flight E hit another milestone and will have more than 600 entrants before this is published. We don’t know how big it will get, but we’ll know in an hour when registration closes up.

There might be another reason why today is so big, besides the seven-digit prize pool. We’re seeing a lot of Northeast grinders in the ballroom today including Mike Dentale, Jon Borenstein (pictured above), and WPT World Champion Asher Conniff. They may have come for the action but they traded up for some balmy South Florida weather over the late-April snow storm hitting their area.

Good choice.

$570 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Re-Entry
Level 6: 200/400 with a 50 Ante
Flight 1E Entries: 585

Only 90 minutes remain for players to get a piece of the early action today and the field is quickly approaching 600 entrants. A big number that will continue to run up until they shut the doors on Flight E at 3:30pm.

Sean Shah is sitting at one of the edge tables today, fewer neighbors around him but he’s not lonely. He’s grinding away and ready for another deep run in the ballroom.

Shah was the last player sent out of a tournament in the ballroom during last year’s series when he was eliminated from the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship on the televised final table bubble. After Shah’s $169K knockout, the remaining six players moved to the Hard Rock Live arena to play it out in front of the cameras.

$570 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Re-Entry
Level 5: 150/300 with a 50 Ante
Flight 1E Entries: 525

There seems to be no end to the stream of players coming to play today the room is buzzing today. Flight E flew past 500 entrants after the break and it will keep going up for the next two hours.

Seminole Hard Rock Poker regular Marty Robbins came back from break with the biggest stack in the room. He’s the only player over 80,000 but Nicholas Potestio is close behind with 78,000.

Top stacks and notable counts:

Marty Robbins – 81,675
Nicholas Potestio – 78,150
Randy Rhoads – 71,675
Vasilii Leshchenko – 65,325
Rudy Sarzo – 65,150
Scott McInnis – 63,000
Gil Nagar – 61,825
Roberto Alberro – 52,500
Ruslan Dykshteyn – 52,350
Gregory McNealy – 51,850
Jose Beznos – 50,575
Joseph Buonodono – 50,550
Howard Mash – 46,300
Herbert Woodbury – 32,700
Ory Hen – 28,650
Neil Blumenfield – 22,425
David Inselberg – 22,175
Cornel Cimpan – 21,375
Jay Romano – 19,500
Lou Stadler – 18,900
Ryan D’Angelo – 18,825

$570 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Re-Entry
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 Ante
Flight 1E Entries: 465

The stuffed ballroom is emptying out as players take their first break of the day. We’re getting closer to the big 500 count and will get there before registration closes in 90 minutes.

We’ll take a look for our early big stacks while the room is relatively empty and quiet.

$570 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Re-Entry
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 Ante
Flight 1E Entries: 435

Most of the ballroom tables are now in use, only a small group of tables on the edge have gone unused so far, and we fully expect this to be the biggest field of Event 9 so far.

Yesterday afternoon’s run drew 491 entrants and it will be fun to see how far we get over the $1 Million Guarantee before the night flight even starts.

$570 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Re-Entry
Level 3: 75/150 with a 25 Ante
Flight 1E Entries: 339

The term “crushed” is often overused when talking about going over a guaranteed prize pool, but today it might be worthy. We had the 338th entrant hop in today (and 339th at the exact same time) to officially put Event 9 into $1 million territory two minutes past the noon-time hour.

Every entrant now will push the prize pool higher with plenty of time to join in the fun. Registration for Flight E closes at 3:30 and the final chance session starts at 6pm.

$570 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Re-Entry
Level 2: 50/100
Flight 1E Entries: 260

Event 9 is going to hit the $1 Million Guarantee today, that is beyond doubt, but not many would go out on a limb to say we’d get there before the first break. That is a very real possibility with 260 entrants in the game at the end of the first level with a fast-moving line at the registration desk.

We’ll keep one eye on the clock as we near the magic number of 338 today to get there.

We ran into Jay Romano as the action was getting underway and the former Seminole Hard Rock Poker champion is ready to “blind monkey” his way to another.

$570 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Re-Entry
Level 1: 25/50

The final starting day of the $1 Million Guarantee Event 9 is ready to go and we’ll cross into seven-digit prize pool territory before too long. The first four flights drew 1,662 entrants to leave the field 338 entrants shy of hitting the mark with a full day of action left to go.

We move over that well before registration closes on the afternoon flight, then starting piling on to increase the prize pool through the evening run.

Joshua Hood continues to lead the 315 players who have already booked their spot in the Day 2 field on Sunday with David Battaglia the only other player to bag up more than 300,000.

Entrants will sit down to 20,000 starting stacks and play 30-minute levels. Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 9 at 3:30pm and play will conclude for the penultimate flight after Level 14. Those still around with stacks will put them in a bag and come back tomorrow at 1pm to play it down.

We expect a huge crowd for some Saturday afternoon action. Tournament staff and dealers are ready to go, cards will be flying shortly.

Combined chip counts through Flight D

• $1,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
• Players begin with 20,000 in chips and 30-minute levels
• Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
• Day 1 will end after Level 14 or Tournament Director discretion
• Event 9 Structure Sheet