2023 Tampa Signature Poker Series Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa, Florida Event 8 $200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed Entries: 973 Prize Pool: $164,437 September 11-13, 2023
Registration closed for the $200 No Limit Hold’em tournament with 973 entries over six starting flights. They combined to push the $100,000 guarantee into a prize pool worth $164,437 and the last 99 players will earn some money; $430 for a min-cash and $28,850 up top.
With the only double bag of the tournament, Woodrow Pass will pick up a $430 min-cash for his smallest bag while playing his biggest.
2023 Tampa Poker Classic Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa, Florida Event 11 $1,100 Deep Stack Six-Handed NLH (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed Entries: 108 Prize Pool: $104,760 September 12, 2023
AJ Kelsall
AJ Kelsall added $28,420 to his career earnings of more than $2.8 million when took home the title in Event 11 at the SPS tournament series at Seminole Hard Rock Tampa. The local resident was born in Pennsylvania, and you need to look no further than his fandom for Philadelphia sports teams to see that first hand.
Kelsall holds a World Series of Poker gold bracelet, and he has three WSOP Circuit gold rings as well. Kelsall has nine tournament victories in his career (including numerous wins here at SHR Tampa), and the largest tournament score he has claimed was worth $443,259 for a third-place finish in a six-max no-limit hold’em event earlier this year at the WSOP.
We caught up with Kelsall shortly after the victory, and here is what he had to say after the win: “It definitely feels good, I have a few seconds and thirds lately, so it feels good to win one. I had some trophy bets so winning is good. I got 325 Allen Kessler dollars coming, that’s like 40 lunches at McDonald’s for him right there [laughs].”
There was a stretch of the final playdown where Kelsall went into “Fly Eagles Fly” mode and took four players in a row tonight. “I knocked out eighth through fourth, someone else knocked out third, and I obviously knocked out second, so I knocked out everyone else in the last eight. With maybe like nine or ten people left I had 100k, I was in the last two or three [stacks]. I knocked someone out over there to get it down to seven, and then knocked out two more people right away. So in probably ten minutes I knocked three people out, and then I was the chip leader,” said Kelsall about the hot run that took him to the top of the chip counts.
“Maybe I’m a six-max specialist [laughs], I don’t I know, I guess that’s a good thing to be. I really enjoy six-max because typically people play looser, there’s more good hands. Like ace-jack for instance is a much better hand in six-max than full rings. The guy I played heads-up was a decent player, but he was playing very tight the whole time. So six-max typically makes you play looser, but he wasn’t. It makes it a little bit more fun, and you get to play more,” said Kelsall when he was asked about his success in six-max events.
“I never chop, and part of the reason is because you don’t get heads-up and get that experience very often. So when I play in bigger things like the World Series like you were mentioning when I came third in that six-max, it’s good to have short-handed experience whether it’s four-handed, three-handed or heads-up for those bigger times. So for me when I play bigger things these experiences in some smaller tournaments I think really helps a lot,” Kelsall said when he was asked about heads-up battle that defined the tournament.
Kelsall made a good metaphor for the final stages of a poker tournament the other night when he stated that you wouldn’t stop playing on the 16th hole of a round of golf if everyone was tied when it comes to chops in poker. When he was asked about that after the hard-fought heads-up final tonight, Kelsall offered a few other sports analogies that were on point. “I’m a competitive guy so poker cures that competitive instinct for me. When it’s 4-4 in the ninth inning, or 28-28 in the fourth quarter in football, that’s the most exciting part of the game. That’s the exciting part, playing three-handed or heads-up. That’s why Steph Curry is so good, because when there’s a minute left he wants to have the ball. He doesn’t just say, ‘let’s just call it boys,’ right,” said Kelsall.
Kelsall will be playing every day the rest of the series, focusing primarily on mixed games while mixing in the big money no-limit hold’em events as well depending on the schedule of the day.
Final Results:
1st: AJ Kelsall – $28,420 + SPS Trophy 2nd: Blaise Ingoglia – $18,470 3rd: Sean Boland – $12,360 4th: Ryan Luker – $8,530 5th: Daniel Zucker – $6,070 6th: Ricardo Eyzaguirre – $4,470 7th: Mark Koeln – $3,400 8th: Johnny Bromberg – $3,400 9th: Oscar Lindo Zeledon – $2,670 10th: Tarun Gulati – $2,670 11th: Frank Bramman – $2,180 12th: Josh Snow – $2,180 13th: Ryan Mazurkiewicz – $1,850 14th: Felipe Koury – $1,850 15th Jeremy Joseph – $1,630 16th: James Tomblin – $1,630 17th: Amie Martini – $1,490 18th: Dana Caruso – $1,490
$200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 15: 3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 ante Flight Remaining Players: 26 of 260
Flight F has come to a close with Jose Hernandez leading the final 26. He stacked up 480,000 at the end of play.
The 99 players that advanced to Day 2 from the 973 entries will return at 2 pm on Wednesday to play down to a champion. Here are the official chip counts for the flight:
$1,100 Deep Stack Six-Handed NLH (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 25: 30,000/60,000 with a 60,000 ante Remaining Players: 1 of 108 Entries
AJ Kelsall
Blaise Ingoglia got all in with preflop, and AJ Kelsall had him covered holding on the button.
The final board ran out , and Ingoglia was eliminated in second place, good for $18,740. That made Kelsall the champion of the tournament, and he took home $28,420 up top along with the SPS guitar pick trophy.
Stay tuned for the winner photo and interview with the local champion.
$1,100 Deep Stack Six-Handed NLH (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 25: 30,000/60,000 with a 60,000 ante Remaining Players: 2 of 108 Entries
Blaise Ingoglia and AJ Kelsall have pulled close to almost exactly even once again in this marathon heads-up match. The majority of the final matches during this tournament series have followed suit in this regard, with no easy short victories claimed for all parties involved.
$1,100 Deep Stack Six-Handed NLH (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 23: 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 ante Remaining Players: 2 of 108 Entries
Blaise Ingoglia
Blaise Ingoglia has gained the chip advantage in the heads-up final against AJ Kelsall with close to a 2:1 chip advantage.
There was one all-in hand between the final two, but both players held an ace on a final board dealt 8-7-4-8-4 where the kickers didn’t matter.
$1,100 Deep Stack Six-Handed NLH (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 23: 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 ante Remaining Players: 2 of 108 Entries
Heads-up play has been going for a hot minute between AJ Kelsall and Blaise Ingoglia. Neither player has been all-in yet as they test each other out during the final battle, and now they’re separated by just two big blinds.
$1,100 Deep Stack Six-Handed NLH (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 22: 15,000/30,000 with a 30,000 ante Remaining Players: 2 of 108 Entries
After a prolonged period of pretty even stacks between the final two players, things are now tilting in the direction of AJ Kelsall. Here is a look at the chips among the final two players.
$200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 9: 1,000/1,500 with a 1,500 ante Flight F Entries: 260
Registration closed for Flight F of SPS Event 9 with 260 more entries, putting the combined total at 973. The largest starting flight of the tournament was the last one, and the $100,000 guarantee was surpassed before cards even got into the air for this one.
Flight F will continue until 26 players remain and they will advance to Day 2 tomorrow at 2 pm in the money. Players must bag to cash.
$1,100 Deep Stack Six-Handed NLH (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 20: 10,000/20,000 with a 20,000 ante Remaining Players: 2 of 108 Entries
Sean Boland
Sean Boland busted when his A-Q ran into the A-J of Blaise Ingoglia on a final board reading A-10-7-10-J. Boland busted in third place, good for $12,360. Boland was the winner of the July no-limit hold’em leader board, and he won a prize package worth $8,900.
Ingoglia stacked up 1.82 million after collecting the pot, which gives him a slight advantage over the 1.42 million held by Kelsall to start the final match.
preflop, and AJ Kelsall had him covered holding 
on the button.
, and Ingoglia was eliminated in second place, good for $18,740. That made Kelsall the champion of the tournament, and he took home $28,420 up top along with the SPS guitar pick trophy.
