$150 Ladies No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 3: 75/150

The Ladies Event is taking its first break of the day and they’ve already built a nice field. The 35 in the game right now makes it look while we’ll double the 18 entrants from this event last year for a big prize pool.

We found our defending champion at her table before the break. Dani Mae has one career tournament cash and the St. Petersburg made the most of it with the win.

We’ll return with an updated count plus our first break leaders.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 10: 600/1,200/200 Ante

One player stands out in the 1C field after registration closed and he has some juicy results. Jon “Pearljammer” Turner took a seat at the front of the poker room and is quietly grinding this $150,000 Guarantee.

Turner has over $1.7 million in career live tournament earnings including nine WSOP final tables. He really made his mark back in the glory days of online poker when he amassed a very impressive $7.7 million in tournament earnings.

Good luck Table 31.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 9: 500/1,000/100 Ante

Misti Murphy is having a good time during the mid-point of the flight and came back from the second break to the biggest stack in the room, and the only one in six-digit territory.

Her 106,700 is way out front of the rest of the field with several in the 80K range and former leader Richard Petrovic making little progress over the last four levels.

Registration has closed for the flight with an unofficial 90 entrants. There are three more starting flights to go with the next kicking off at 6pm.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 8: 400/800/100 Ante

Flight 1C players on the second break of the day as tournament staff color off the quarter chips and close down registration for the third starting field.

We’ll have final numbers for 1C when they return and find out who moved up their stack in the last two hours.

$150 Ladies No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 1: 25/50

After a short delay to get everyone seated, the $150 buy-in Ladies event is underway and it has already topped last year’s attendance.

This tournament drew 18 players for the special event and we had that many in the game before cards flew. There are a few more we should see before registration closes at 6pm and we’ll be on the look out for Dani Mae, last year’s champion.

There is not prize pool guarantee on this event but tournament staff have added on something nice for the eventual winner. On top of first place money, the Ladies Event champion will also take home a $600 gift certificate to the Rock Spa at Seminole Hard Rock Tampa.

$150 Ladies No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 1: 25/50

While there are more than 80 players grinding away in Event 1 this afternoon, it’s the Ladies Event which will crown the first champion of the series.

They are about to kick things off in the middle of the poker room with the $150 Ladies Event and we expect to see some regular faces in the crowd. They are getting plenty of play with 15K starting stacks and 25-minute levels throughout the day.

Late registration is open until the start of Level 7 at 6pm and they can re-enter of often as they like if they lose their stack. Players will be taking their seat in the next few minutes and we’ll be underway.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 8: 400/800/100 Ante

We’ve hit the eighth level of play this afternoon, this means we’re into the last chance to get in this flight for a piece of the $150,000 guaranteed prize pool.

There are 83 entrants in the game heading into the level to keep us on a pace to reach that guarantee with the three biggest flights left to go.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 5: 150/300/25 Ante

There are a few big stacks around the room but it’s Richard Petrovic with the early lead. He more than tripled his 20K starting stack and went on the first break with 61,550 to pace the rest of the field.

There’s still plenty of time to catch the man up top but Petrovic has set himself up for a deep run this afternoon.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 4: 100/200

Players are heading off on their first break of the day and the afternoon flight continues to grow with 71 entrants so far. They have until 3:30pm after the second break in the game, we’re all but assured of topping yesterday’s biggest flight.

We’ll track down our big stacks and find our first leader on break.

$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)

The opening day of the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Winter Poker Open drew 157 entrants across the first two flights of Event 1. A fine kickoff to the festival and more players are getting in the game today.

We have 21 players coming back on Sunday so far with Peter Kosakowski holding a big lead. He’s the only player over 400,000 or 300,000. This tournament is a “best stack forward” event so even the shorter stacks have a chance to come back today or tomorrow and run up a bigger one for Sunday.

The end-of-day chip average was just shy of 150,000 and 37 big blinds when they return to 2,000,/4,000 blinds.