Level 5:  Blinds 150/300/25 ante

Players have returned from their first break of the day and registration for this flight is closed.  Unofficially, there were 76 entries in Flight 1.

Jim Seaver (Weeki Wachee, FL) leads the remaining 56 players with about 80,000 chips.  On his way to the chip lead, he won a big pot and busted a player who got all-in holding a flush draw when Jim had top pair and the nut-flush draw.

At a time when the average stack is only about 20k, Jim (pictured above) is sitting behind four times the average and looking good!

Level 4:  Blinds 100/200/25 ante

About halfway through level four and seven tables are in action in Flight 1 of Event 1.  There’s no line at registration, which is open for this flight through the break after this level (about 1:20pm).

Once registration closes, players will have to settle for either Flight 2 at 7pm, or return tomorrow for Flight 3 at 11am.

Local poker pro Natasha Barbour has three previous wins  here at the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa and the newlywed Natasha is apparently spending her honeymoon here playing poker, looking for win number four.

Married just five days ago, she is now Natasha Raimon and apparently the name change is working for her.  She tweeted this:

Natasha Raimon is 2 for 2 in tourneys. #newlastnameheaaaaaattttttttter

— Natasha Raimon (@natashabarbour) March 7, 2014

Congratulations to Natasha and her husband Mike!

Level 2:  Blinds 75/150

Event 1 of the Spring Poker Open carries a $100,000 Guarantee on the prize pool and there are three starting flights.  Flight 1 began this morning at 11am.  Flight 2 begins at 7pm tonight, and the third and final starting flight beings at 11am Saturday.

Players may enter multiple starting flights and if they manage to bag chips in more than one, they will take their “best” stack into Day 2, which is on Sunday at 10am (no combining stacks).

Re-entries are unlimited, so players can fire as many bullets as they like in each flight until registration closes at the start of level 5 (of each flight).