$490 + $45 + $20 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
The third flight of the opening event of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Winter Tampa Bay is underway.
Players start with 15k in chips and levels last 30 minutes each. Re-entry and late registration is open for the first two hours and closes after the first break of the day (~1:15 pm).
This is a two-day event with Day 2 on 12 pm Sunday.
TODAY’S EVENTS in the Poker Room
11AM: Event 1B: $490 + $45 + $20 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$150,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Event Structure: event01
7PM: Event 2 PLO: $175 + $25 + $20 Pot Limit Omaha (Re-Entry)
$10,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Level 14: Clock Stopped with 15 min remaining
Alan Korpi, Flight 1A Chip Leader
Alan Korpi (Lutz) and John Dobson (Tolland, CT) get the last two knockouts of the night to stop play with 14 players remaining (~15% of 88 entries).
Korpi is the chip leader of the second flight with 149,800, as three players finish between 145k and 150k.
The final 14 return 12 pm Sunday for Day 2. They’ll be joined by the 18 remaining players from Friday’s early session, along with those that survive the third and final flight which is 11 am Saturday.
Flight 1A Chip Counts
Alan Korpi 149,800
Alex Ivan 147,400
Jeff Coutroulis 145,000
Manelic Minaya 116,400
Robert Seay 113,800
Wally Maddah 105,300
Alan Fink 84,900
Matthew Perrin 81,300
Herbert Woodbery 74,300
John Dobson 66,900
Luqman Alghanim 65,500
Mike Imperiale 62,000
Debra Dorcy 52,000
Mike Wakefield 47,000
Level 13: Blinds 1k/2k/300 ante
Final Two Tables
One quick elimination puts the field at 17, three eliminations before play is stopped for the night.
On Break; Play Resumes 2:52 am
The structure sheet calls it a dinner break, but these players are taking a late night snack break. When the 18 remaining players return, the plan is to play until the field is down to 14 or the end of Level 14 whichever comes first.
Matt Perrin (Chesterfield, MI) is the chip leader with 131k (66 bb) and the average stack is 73k (37 bb).
Level 12: Blinds 800/1,600/200
Woodbery & Maddah Moving to a New Table
Eliminations are fast and furious with one player saying, “even a blind squirrel finds a nut,” when his short stack gets a knockout with A5 against his opponent’s A6 after flopping a straight.
20 players remain, including Poker Room regulars Herbert Woodbery (Orlando) and Wally Maddah (Tampa), which means the field is getting dangerously close to 15% remaining (13 players) of the 88 entries. It looks like play may have to stop before the scheduled 14 levels.
Level 11: Blinds 600/1,200/200 ante
Jeff Coutroulis
After reporting that USF Professor Marv Karlins was one of the chip leaders, he gets crushed on back-to-back hands from the big and small blinds.
First he sends a double-up to Andrey Ivlev (Tampa via Russia), who has KK against Karlins flopped OE straight draw. On the next hand, Karlins moves all in on a board of Q-J-T-5-9.
Jeff “Flicker” Coutroulis (Tampa) calls and knowing he can’t beat the nuts of AK says,”I don’t have an ace,” and turns over KQ for a King-high straight.
Karlins shows AT for just a pair of Tens and sends 23k across the table on the final bet.
The two hands takes Karlins from 90k to less than 30k, while Coutroulis and Ivlev both have new life.
Coutroulis has more than $200,000 in career tournament earnings including a 5th place finish in June’s Summer Tampa Bay / WPT Regional Series for $18,000. Ivlev has one recorded tournament cash from a 2011 event in Kiev, Ukraine.
Level 10: 500/1,000/100 ante
Perrin Representing the Motor City
The field of 88 entries for the 7 pm flight is down to 27 players, roughly 1/3 of what started.
Matt Perrin (Chesterfield, MI) is one of the big stacks at 90k, close to double the average stack of 49k (49 bb) as the level winds down.
Level 9: Blinds 400/800/100 ante
Karlins with an Easy Post Flop Read
On one of the first hands back from break Anthony Brammer (Tampa) is all in on a Jack-high flop and Marv Karlins (Tampa, FL) snap calls.
Karlins: AJ (pair of Jacks)
Brammer: 88
Karlins ends up winning the hand with trip Jacks, knocking out Karlins in the process. And as it turns out, it’s USF on USF crime.
Brammer, the University of Southern Florida Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach, is eliminated by a Professor of Management at USF.
“I’ve been there 40 years and teaching for 50,” says the 72-year-old who takes his stack to 80k.
In addition to teaching, Karlins is known in these parts as one of the authors of Read ‘Em and Reap, a book on poker tells. “We shot some of it right over there,” says Karlins who points across the Poker Room.
Karlins, along with poker super star Phil Hellmuth (record 13 WSOP bracelets) and ex-FBI agent Joe Navarro, wrote about non-verbal cues and decoding poker tells. But he’s not willing to admit he has any advantage over his opponents.
“One mistake with these guys and I’m done,” he laughs while pointing to two players who also have above average chip stacks.
It would have been interesting to see what kind of read Karlins would have had if Brammer moved all in preflop.
A coin flip, for 1/3 of his stack, with a chance to knockout a university colleague. Wonder what chapter that’s covered in?
Level 8: Blinds 300/600/75 ante
Brammer Checking out Hoops & Hold’em
Tournament reporting is one of the new additions to the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa poker experience.
Our media team will be on site from beginning to end and bring you all the action from the 11 tournaments over 10 days and $615,000 in total guaranteed prizes.
Players like Anthony Brammer (Tampa) are already finding the action and sharing it with their friends and family. Brammer is taking a break from his duties as Video Coordinating Coach for the USF men’s basketball team and playing in the kickoff event.
This tournament fits perfectly into Brammer’s schedule as Bulls have a home game Saturday (vs Alabama on tournament Day 1B). And if Brammer makes it to Sunday’s Day 2, he’s got a week off from basketball and can focus on poker.
Brammer has less than 20k and will need to chip up over the next few levels if he’s going to bag and tag at the end of the night.
From the Felt to Your Phone