Event 7 ($560 No-Limit Hold’em)

Two more starting flights (Days 1C and 1D) were played, bringing the total amount of entries up to 1,866. Only 410 of them have made it through for Day 2 on Sunday. The $1 million guarantee will be reached when the field hits 2,000 entries and when all is said and done, more than 3,000 entries are expected. The overall chip leader is Pedro “Pete” Rios, who led the way in the Day 1D session and is the only player above the 400,000 mark.

Here are the top five overall chip counts:

1. Pedro “Pete” Rios – 453,500
2. Howard Mash – 398,400
3. Darrin Rabinowitz – 344,400
4. Luis Guarda – 317,700
5. Andrew Stern – 313,800

Event 8 ($240 Omaha 8 or Better)

From the starting field of 105 players, 18 advanced to Day 2 on Friday. Cory Blum and Aaron Salamon were the last two standing and agreed to an even chop.

Here are the final results:

1st: Cory Blum – $5,458
2nd: Aaron Salamon – $5,458
3rd: Zhen Cai – $2,625
4th: Robert Leff – $1,785
5th: Daniel Genachte – $1,418
6th: Robert Wachtel – $1,103
7th: Jonathan Gallin – $893
8th: Marla Crumpler – $683
9th: Ronald Brooks – $473
10th: Debbie Mitchell – $368
11th: Daniel Yanofski – $368
12th: Thomas Nasuti – $368

Event 9 ($150 No-Limit Hold’em w/ Bounties)

Event 9 ($150 No-Limit Hold’em w/ Bounties) drew a field of 159 players. From the $150 buy-in, $70 went into the main prizepool while $50 went into the bounty prizepool. The top 15 places were paid with first place set at $3,559 and a min-cash paying $156.

When the field was down to four, the remaining players agreed to an even chop which paid each $1,968. It was ruled that the remainder of the level would be played, and the final standings would be determined by chip counts at the end of the level. With Lester Goldsmith’s elimination in fourth place, James Sutherland held more than half the chips in play. From there, Sutherland sat back while Ramy Boctor and David Suraci played several big pots against each other.
When time ran out, Sutherland still had just more than half the chips with 478,000 of the 954,000 in play. Suraci scored a double-up through Boctor on the last hand to secure second place.

Here are the final results:

1st: James Sutherland – $1,968
2nd: David Suraci – $1,968
3rd: Ramy Boctor – $1,968
4th: Lester Goldsmith – $1,968
5th: Stephen Christy – $707
6th: Gerald Mitchell – $551
7th: Christopher Lewis – $434
8th: Raul Robles – $323
9th: Muneer Ahmed – $223
10th: Steven Kleisath – $184
11th: Conrad Lau – $184
12th: James Padula – $184
13th: Christopher Carey – $156
14th: Joshua Che Elrich – $156
15th: Regina Hampton – $156

There was only one event in action on Tuesday in the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, as it was the second starting day for Event 6 ($125 No-Limit Hold’em), with three flights starting at 11:00 am, 3:00 pm, and 7:00 pm.

This event needed to attract a field of at least 1,500 entrants to clear the $150,000 prizepool guarantee, and that number was surpassed about halfway through the day. Even if registration closed after two starting days instead of three, the prizepool would already be more than $200,000.

But there are still three more starting flights tomorrow (Wednesday) to grow the prizepool even larger.

Here is a breakdown of the starting fields for each flight:

Flight A (Mon @ 11 am):  285
Flight B (Mon @ 3 pm):  347
Flight C (Mon @ 7 pm):  397

Flight D (Tue @ 11 am):  278
Flight E (Tue @ 3 pm):  406
Flight F (Tue @ 7 pm):  376

Flight G (Wed @ 11 am):  ?
Flight H (Wed @ 3 pm):  ?
Flight I (Wed @ 7 pm):  ?

Total Field Size (so far):  2,089
Total Prizepool (so far):  $208,900

So there have been 2,089 entrants in this tournament so far, but most of them have already busted. How many survivors have made it through?

Flight A:  36
Flight B:  35
Flight C:  44

Flight D:  25
Flight E:  36
Flight F:  47

Flight G:  ?
Flight H:  ?
Flight I:  ?

Total # of Survivors to Day 2 (so far):  223

Of those 223 survivors, only 11 made it thru Day 1 with more than 200,000 in chips. Here’s the top of the leaderboard, with the blinds increasing to 1,500-3,000 and a 300 ante:

1.  Edward Gilfillan  –  305,400  (101 bb)
2.  Corey Zarnoch  –  274,800  (91 bb)
3.  Leonard Sande  –  268,000  (89 bb)
4.  Manny Julve  –  235,300  (78 bb)
5.  Nancy Birnbaum  –  229,100  (76 bb)
6.  Mark Zand  –  225,800  (75 bb)
7.  Gerardo Gonzalez  –  225,200  (75 bb)
8.  Beatris Gonzalez  –  216,600  (72 bb)
9.  Ryan Gunderson  –  212,300  (70 bb)
10.  Jeremy Costa  –  201,000  (67 bb)
11.  Michael Chwiej  –  200,800  (66 bb)

Will the field size reach 3,000? Will the prizepool reach $300,000 for a $125 buy-in tournament? And will anyone from the three starting flights on Wednesday be able to cross the 300,000 mark and catch Edward Gilfillan for the Day 1 chip lead?

Return to SHRPOlive.com on Wednesday for the answers to these and other questions.

Monday Night Recap (Events 1, 2, 4, 5, 6)

There were four final tables on Monday at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, along with three starting flights for Event 6 scattered throughout the day. Here is a quick rundown of what happened.

Event 1, $350 No-Limit Hold’em ($500K Guarantee)

Winner:  Derek Buonano

Event 1 began the day with 19 players remaining. When they got down to the final nine, the event became an apparent standoff as nearly two levels passed without a bustout — the short stacks kept winning the all-in situations.

The players took an extended break to discuss a deal, and eventually agreed to a slightly modified ICM chop that gave chipleader Derek Buonano the victory, along with $90,000.

There were 3,391 entrants in the five-day tournament, and the final 306 players finished in the money to claim their share of the $1 million prizepool. Here were the official final table results (based on the chop):

1st:  Derek Buonano  –  $90,000
2nd:  Steven McKoy  –  $64,001
3rd:  Jaime Campos  –  $58,418
4th:  Zachary Goodman  –  $58,323
5th:  John Liu  –  $57,557
6th:  David Diaz  –  $50,047
7th:  Jeff Yeh  –  $42,742
8th:  Kevin Ho  –  $41,000
9th:  Daniel Navarrete  –  $38,787

Event 2, $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em ($75K Guarantee)

Winner:  Benjamin Stark

There were 98 entrants in Event 2, and the top nine finished in the money. When the final table got down to six players, they agreed to a six-way deal where everyone got at least $9,900, and chipleader Ben Stark was awarded the trophy.

1st:  Ben Stark  –  $27,000
2nd:  Chris Karambinis  –  $20,000
3rd:  Alain Rodriguez  –  $11,000
4th:  Christopher Mitchell  –  $9,910
5th:  Michael Wakefield  –  $9,900
6th:  Yaroslav Nakonechnyy  –  $9,900
7th:  George Dolofan  –  $4,410
8th:  Francesco Pisani  –  $3,430
9th:  Moe Musa  –  $2,450

Event 4, $240 Seven Card Stud ($25K Guarantee)

Winner:  Kevin Painter

There were 41 entrants in Event 4, and the original prizepool was set to pay the final five players. But when the field neared the Money Bubble with seven players remaining, they decided to make a deal. Chipleader Kevin Painter was awarded the trophy.

1st:  Kevin Painter  –  $2,287
2nd:  Sergio Corominas  –  $1,575
3rd:  Debra Jorgensen  –  $1,287
4th:  Al Green  –  $1,013
5th:  Roberto Martinez  –  $875
6th:  Jeremy Jennings  –  $600
7th:  Christian Ivens  –  $563

Event 5, $240 No-Limit Hold’em Black Chip Bounty ($20K Guarantee)

Winner:  Christopher Carey

There were 252 entrants in Event 5, and the day began with the final nine players. This was the first tournament of the SHRPO series that didn’t end with a deal, as they played all the way down to a winner.

The final table action took a little less than five hours as Christopher Carey outlasted the field and defeated Richard Hopple heads up to win the trophy.

The final 22 players finished in the money, and here are the official results from the final table:

1st:  Christopher Carey  –  $7,053
2nd:  Richard Hopple  –  $4,158
3rd:  Alexis Carrasquillo  –  $2,772
4th:  Abbey Daniels  –  $1,928
5th:  Fernando Alfonso  –  $1,436
6th:  Benito Prats  –  $1,109
7th:  Francis Garcia  –  $857
8th:  Marvin Karlins  –  $630
9th:  Celena Holloway  –  $454

Event 6, $125 No-Limit Hold’em ($150K Guarantee)

Monday marked the beginning of Event 6, which would hold *nine* starting flights over three days. The event needs to attract 1,500 entrants to meet the $150,000 guarantee, but it shouldn’t be a problem as the field has already reached 1,029 entrants and two-thirds of the starting flights have yet to be played.

Of the 1,029 entrants who started on Monday in three different flights, there were 115 survivors who made it to Day 2. Only five of them finished above 200,000 in chips:

1.  Leonard Sande  –  268,000
2.  Mark Zand  –  225,800
3.  Ryan Gunderson  –  212,300
4.  Jeremy Costa  –  201,000
5.  Michael Chwiej  –  200,800

There will be three more starting flights on Tuesday at 11:00 am, 3:00 pm, and 7:00 pm, and three more on the same schedule on Wednesday.