2018 Escalator Series (Week 4)
$560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed
Level 11: 600/1,200 with a 200 ante | Structure
Flight A Players Remaining: 63 of 183

There’s a pair of gold bracelet champions at Table 31 and they recently battled it out to the river. After Phil Hui check-called a 5,500 turn bet by Jonathan Hilton on an board, fifth street fell the . Hui checked again and Hilton shoved for about 14,000. Hui called and Hilton turned over , just one better than Hui’s .

The table broke shortly after and the good fortune was short lived for Hilton who was knocked down to just 3,200 shortly thereafter.

2018 Escalator Series (Week 4)
$560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed
Level 9: 400/800 with a 100 ante | Structure
Flight A Players Remaining: 99 of 183

Andre Rakusa is sitting pretty with registration freshly closed in Flight A of the $400,000 guaranteed Escalator event. He holds one of the largest stacks in the room with better than 115,000 at the 400/800 level. That figure puts him in good position to find a bag, but there’s still a ways to go with play wrapping around 6:45pm.

2018 Escalator Series (Week 4)
$560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed
Level 9: 400/800 with a 100 ante | Structure
Flight A Entries: 183

Made it past late reg in the 560 @shrpo on one bullet with 34k, coming back to 400/800

— Joshua Beckley (@Joshua1Beckley) March 15, 2018

The second break of the day wrapped moments ago and players are back in their seats. Registration closed when cards went in the air and the Flight A field is final at 183 entries. That’s good for better than $90,000 toward the $400,000 guarantee and has the tournament easily ahead of pace to best the six-figure target.

Event breakdown:

2018 Escalator Series (Week 4)
$560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed
Level 8: 300/600 with a 75 ante | Structure
Flight A Entries: 179

A good chunk of Paul Balzano’s more than $1,300,000 in reported tournament earnings has come from right here at the Seminole Hard Rock. Most notably, he final tabled the 2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $5,250 Championship finishing seventh for $125,000. Balzano is a regular at any pricepoint here in the room and has had a solid start in today’s $560.

Currently with about 45,000 chips, Balzano has more than doubled his 20,000 starting. He recently had a chance to grow it even higher, calling an opponent’s 10,100 turn shove on an board. Balzano had the worst of it with for a flush draw and needed to hit versus . The river was a blank and Balzano missed an opportunity to scoop a nice one.

2018 Escalator Series (Week 4)
$560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed
Level 6: 200/400 with a 50 ante | Structure
Flight A Entries: 165

Scott Levitt and Ilan Hadida earned their way into today’s $560 Escalator via final table appearances in last week’s $350. Each of the three Escalator events that preceded today’s finale boasted seats in the following week’s event for the 10 final tablists.

Last week, Levitt carded a third-place finish while Hadida bowed out ninth. Included in their roughly $33,000 and $8,000 payouts was an entry in today’s event. As luck would have it, they’ve found themselves together at a again, although this time they’re quite a ways from the final one.

2018 Escalator Series (Week 4)
$560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed
Level 5: 150/300 with a 50 ante | Structure
Flight A Entries: 153

The first break is behind the Escalator $560 Flight A field and play is deep into Level 5. The clock shows a strong start with with 153 entries already in the game. That accounts more than $75,000 of the tournament’s $400,000 guarantee and the figure will climb even more between now and the close of registration at roughly 3:30pm.

2018 Escalator Series (Week 4)
$560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed
Level 1: 25/50 | Structure

The clock strikes the 11 o’clock hour in South Florida and poker action is underway at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Going now is Flight A of the property’s unique Escalator Series headliner, a $560 buy-in no limit hold’em tournament. This marks the last of four month-long events and boasts the biggest of the guarantees — $400,000.

Each of the first three tournaments saw fields in excess of 1,400 entries and another 1,000+ are expected over the course of the next few days. While cards are freshly in the air for Flight A, Flight B is still to come tonight at 7pm followed Flight C, D, E and F set for 11am and 7pm Friday and Saturday.

Flight A details:

11am: Flight A – $560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed

• 20,000 chips and 30-/40-minute levels
• Registration and re-entry available until the start of Level 9 (about 3:30pm)
• Play concludes following Level 14 (6:40pm) or 10 percent of the field
• Day 2 begins Sunday, March 18th at 1pm
• Structure Sheet

This series last ran in 2016 and this same event drew 1,081 entries generating a total prize pool of better than $540,000. Claiming the top spot along with $88,506 and a $3,500 seat was Richard Whitebrook whose crowning came following a three-way chop.

Updates will be available daily now through Sunday right here at SHRPO.com. We’ll check back in on Flight A following the first break.

Good luck, players!

Week 4 | $560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed

Winner receives added $3,500 WPT Showdown Championship seat

• Download: Escalator Series Structure Sheet (PDF)
• Link: Escalator Series Week 1 Results
• Link: Escalator Series Week 2 Results
• Link: Escalator Series Week 3 Results

Thursday, March 15th

11am: Flight A – $560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed

• 20,000 chips and 30-/40-minute levels
• Registration and re-entry available until the start of Level 9 (about 3:30pm)
• Play concludes following Level 14 (6:40pm) or 10 percent of the field
• Day 2 begins Sunday, March 18th at 1pm

7pm: Flight B – $560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed

• 20,000 chips and 30-/40-minute levels
• Registration and re-entry available until the start of Level 9 (about 11:30pm)
• Play concludes following Level 14 (2:40am) or 10 percent of the field
• Day 2 begins Sunday, March 18th at 1pm

Friday, March 16th

11am: Flight C – $560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed

• 20,000 chips and 30-/40-minute levels
• Registration and re-entry available until the start of Level 9 (about 3:30pm)
• Play concludes following Level 14 (6:40pm) or 10 percent of the field
• Day 2 begins Sunday, March 18th at 1pm

7pm: Flight D – $560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed

• 20,000 chips and 30-/40-minute levels
• Registration and re-entry available until the start of Level 9 (about 11:30pm)
• Play concludes following Level 14 (2:40am) or 10 percent of the field
• Day 2 begins Sunday, March 18th at 1pm

Saturday, March 17th

11am: Flight E – $560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed

• 20,000 chips and 30-/40-minute levels
• Registration and re-entry available until the start of Level 9 (about 3:30pm)
• Play concludes following Level 14 (6:40pm) or 10 percent of the field
• Day 2 begins Sunday, March 18th at 1pm

7pm: Flight F – $560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed

• 20,000 chips and 30-/40-minute levels
• Registration and re-entry available until the start of Level 9 (about 11:30pm)
• Play concludes following Level 14 (2:40am) or 10 percent of the field
• Day 2 begins Sunday, March 18th at 1pm