$1,650 Buy-In Championship No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 4 Complete; Next Blinds: 150/300/25 ante
Entries: 99
As players head to break, it looks like Director of Poker Tommy Bates is handing off today’s heavy lifting to Tournament Director Byron Rodriguez.
Especially after some of the pictures we captured yesterday.
$1,650 Buy-In Championship No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 4: Blinds 100/200/25 ante
Entries: 92
Allen Kessler and David Levi have combined for dozens of wins and each have earned millions of dollars in their tournament careers. And they both made it a point to travel from Las Vegas to play in the Winter Poker Open Championship Event.
“I have friends in Florida and wanted to play one more event before the end of the year, so this is it,” says Levi, who just won a big pot to take his stack to 80k.
“It’s a good structure, really good structure,” says Kessler, who’s been a Seminole Hard Rock Tampa supporter on Twitter.
@JeremyJagoda @SHRTPoker yes I’m flying all the way from vegas to play it. Great event, structure and staff.
— Allen Kessler (@AllenKessler) December 17, 2014
Kessler had success here last year with a 6th place finish for $19,000.
“It’s a nice room, I’m glad to be here,” Kessler says adding, “they don’t skip any levels. The structure is the main thing.”
Levi’s big hand today comes against Carlo Rodriguez (Weston, FL) with Levi hitting bottom set against Rodriguez’s top two pairs on a J-9-3 flop. They’re all in on the turn and Rodriguez ships his 30k starting stack when he doesn’t boat up.
“There’s definitely good value,” says Levi. “It’s a nice room, I’m glad to be here. I hope they’ll have a lot more of these in the future.”
Levi vs Kessler
| Levi | Stats* | Kessler |
| $3.3 Million | Career Earnings | $3.15 Million |
| 28 | Wins | 15 |
| 279 | Total Cashes | 217 |
| $230,000 | Best Cash | $276,000 |
*Recorded Tournament Results from TheHendonMob.com
$1,650 Buy-In Championship No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 3: Blinds 100/200
Entries: 84
“That’s a fun table to cover,” says Stephen Diamantas (Tampa, FL), who is glad he’s simply a Table 9 spectator.
The table features two Las Vegas pros in Allen Kessler and David Levi. The two each have more than $3 million in career recorded tournament earnings and 43 combined wins.
Also on the table is Timothy “TK” Miles (Tallahassee, FL) who won the Championship Event here in June for nearly $300,000.
Diamantas, the 2013 winner of this event, has a good view of the action from his seat on Table 8. He busted late last night, tweeting this summary of his title defense to date:
Made a horrible call getting caught up in trying to bag a big stack.Then added to my mistake by not valuing my remaining chips. Bring on 1C
— Stephen Diamantas (@SDiamantas) December 20, 2014
$1,650 Buy-In Championship No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 2: Blinds 75/150
Entries: 75
Tampa bound for Day 1C of the @SHRTPoker #winterpokeropen Championship. Hope I can make it firing one bullet like @Bearw8.
— Rob Manjura (@RManjura) December 20, 2014
$1,650 Buy-In Championship No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 1: Blinds 50/100
Entries: 49
Calendar girls Crystal Brittany & Sonia are here waiting to deal you in as we’re more than halfway through the opening level. But you have to hurry as they’ll only be here until noon.
Lots of familiar faces already in the field including:
Tony March
Douglas Chan
Hristos Tsironis
Elliott “Comrade” Zaydman
Jeff “Flicka” Coutroulis
$1,650 Buy-In Championship No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 1 Blinds 50/100
It’s a picture perfect day for the Day 1C of Championship Event, the last chance to enter this $300,0000 Guaranteed prize pool tournament.
Players are taking their seats and waiting for the official “shuffle up and deal.”
Starting stacks are 30k and Day 1 levels are 45 minutes, with time to 60 minutes on Day 2. Registration and re-entry is open until the start of Level 9, approximately 6:30 pm.
Flight B big stack Matt Rose is the overwhelming chip leader with 484k (242 bb). 44 players remain from the first two flights.
Overall Chip Leaers
Matt Rose 483,700
Michael Laake 372,900
David DiBernardi 255,400
Robert Gill 236,900
Tony Tran 215,000
Championship Schedule
Day 1A: 75 Entries/20 Players Remaining
Day 1B: 90 Entries/24 Players Remaining
Day 1C: Starts in Minutes
Day 2: 12 pm Sunday
Totals: 165 Entries/44 Players Remaining
113k Avg (57 bb)
Day 2 Blinds: 1k/2k/200 ante
Calendar Girl Appearance 10a-12pm
Meet Sonia & @Britt2128 in the Poker Room 10a-12p today! @cameraDaveDG will be taking pics. @SHRTPoker @SHRTampa pic.twitter.com/yBBFiEOY6P
— David Demontmollin (@hardrockdemont) December 20, 2014
$1,650 Buy-In Championship No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 7: Blinds 250/500/50 ante
Entries: 78
Players are back from break and Tom Nguyen (Tampa, FL) is still leading the field; he’s up to 146k.
Defending Champion Stephen Diamantas (Tampa, FL) hit a big hand at the end of the last level. Diamantas and his opponent are all in on a three heart board of Q-J-T-4.
“It didn’t work,” says Diamantas of his opponent’s all-in bluff, “he had Queen-Eight, no heart.”
Diamantas has 
for the winning flush in a 60k pot. He’s up to 102k.
Chip Leaders
Tom Nguyen 146k
Stephen Diamantas 102k
Chris Conrad 101k
Angel Vu 85k
Brian Arbaugh 81k
$1,650 Buy-In Championship No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 6: Blinds 200/400/50 ante
Entries: 73
As Day 1B is quickly closing in on the Day 1A total of 75 entries, it’s worth mentioning two of the key figures who are making sure the Tampa Winter Poker Open runs smoothly.
Director of Poker Tommy Bates is thrilled with how the Championship and the entire 18 day series is going. “Living the dream,” says Bates, “we do this for the players. We’ve gotten a lot of good feedback and want to keep growing Tampa poker.”
Bates’ right hand man is Tournament Director Byron Rodriguez who oversees everything from event structures to tournament rulings. “I want to mention all my floor guys and dealers. Without them, things wouldn’t run as smoothly as they’ve been.”
Bates and Rodriguez are in the Poker Room everyday and encourage players to continue giving their feedback. They want to thank everyone for making poker at the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa a big success.
Name: Jasah
Month: Ms. July
Born: Tampa, FL
Resides: Tampa, FL
Instagram: Jasah_
Favorite Casino Game: Texas Hold’em (table game)
Jasah (pronounced Jay_sah) has been working at the Hard Rock table games for two years. This her second appearance in the Hard Rock Calendar.
She occasionally works in the Poker Room and says, “I love poker. It’s so much fun to interact with the players. They’re sarcastic and so am I. They give me a hard time and I give it right back.”
Jasah is graduating from nursing school and is preparing to take the boards (BON). “Being a nurse would be awesome,” she says.
As for trying out for the calendar, Jasah’s biggest supporters are her mom and dad. “They told me to go for it. I said, ‘are you sure, you’re my parents?”
Favorite Music?
“I really like rock and alternative. I love Bad Suns and Bear Hands. It’s fun and gets you in the mood to do stuff, like a bad a$$ workout. It motivates me to do something awesome.”
Special Interest?
“Baking is in my blood. My grandmother (Dorothy) and I started when I was little and she passed down her recipes.
“Oreo and pink lemonade cupcakes are my favorites. I love cake, so a mini cake that you can eat anytime is so convenient. I love baking.”
Experience of being a Hard Rock Calendar Girl?
“The girls are so sweet, I made really good friends. The experience I had was so wonderful.
“At first you feel like an average Joe, but when you try out they make you feel like a rock star. The Hard Rock makes you feel comfortable in your own skin, especially with so many people looking at you on a photo shoot. I don’t think every company can do that.”
