$200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 8:  400/800 with a 800 ante
Players Remaining:  105 of 203

Another WPO tournament and another great showing by our players. Today’s one-day $200 buy-in Event 3 drew a huge 203-entry field to create a prize pool worth $32,480. The last 21 spots will be paid with $552 for a min-cash and $8,117 up top plus the Guitar Trophy.

2020 Winter Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Tampa, Florida
Event 3
$200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Entries: 203
Prize Pool: $32,480
December 6, 2020

1st: $8,117 + Guitar Trophy
2nd: $5,116
3rd: $3,151
4th: $2,209
5th: $1,721
6th: $1,332
7th: $1,169
8th: $1,007
9th: $909
10th-12th: $780
13th-15th: $650
16th-18th: $601
19th-21st: $552

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 23:  15,000/25,000 with a 25,000 ante
Players Remaining:  18 of 811

Jeff Morzella opened to 65,000 from middle position and it folded to Ryan Luker in the small blind. He moved all in for 115,000 and Frank Weigel called from the big. Morzella called as well and it was three to the flop.

Weigel bet out 125,000 to get a fold from Morzella and the hands were tabled.

Weigel:
Luker:

Luker caught a piece of the flop with his suited ace but he could not come back as the board finished with the turn and river.

Frank Weigel – 840,000 (34 bb)

Last year this tournament had a tough final table that saw AJ Kelsall and Tony March chopping up the top two spots, also help March’s charity along the way. Kelsall made another deep run this year but fell short in 20th place.

19th: Ryan Luker – $2,237
20th: AJ Kelsall – $2,237
21st: Engelberth Varela – $2,237

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 22:  10,000/20,000 with a 20,000 ante
Players Remaining:  21 of 811

And just like that, Event 2 is down to 21 players in less than half of a level after the break. Tournament staff paused the clock to redraw seats at the last three tables.

During that short spurt, Rafael Reis blasted away. The once big stacked player is now the biggest by far with 2,055,000.

One of the recent eliminations was Emmanuel Dimaano Jr who earned two payouts for two bags this tournament.

Recent results:

22nd: Thierry Quintin – $1,889
23rd: Randolph Spain – $1,889
24th: Denis Ramic – $1,889
25th: Brandon Sinawi – $1,598
26th: Jeffrey Kaplan – $1,598
27th: Emmanuel Dimanno Jr – $1,598

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 22:  10,000/20,000 with a 20,000 ante
Players Remaining:  27 of 811

Event 2 moved into Level 22 shortly after the tournament hit the last four tables. We are still waiting for that slow down but it has not happened yet.

One interesting challenge with the current environment, picking out players as they practice the Safe + Sound guidelines. We have a new chip leader and did not recognize him, turns out it is none other than six-time WSOP Circuit champ Blake Whittington. The Jacksonville native is in town for the series and moved over 1 million chips after the break.

Once Whittington was “outed”, he was on the end for some fun needles from nearby fellow pros AJ Kelsall and Peter Walsworth.

Blinds are now 15,000/30,000 with is 30,000 ante and the average stack is 600,000 (30 bb) with 27 players remaining.

Recent results:

28th: Daniel Kusnerak – $1,311
29th: Jonmikel MacNichols – $1,311
30th: Hyong Lee – $1,311
31st: Kevin Blewitt – $1,311
32nd: Terri-Anne Crawford – $1,311
33rd: Niquarus Rawls – $1,311
34th: Mitchell Smith – $1,311

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 21:  10,000/15,000 with a 15,000 ante
Players Remaining:  34 of 811

Event 2 is back in action after the break and Nancy Dang still leads the field as it shrinks. Her stack is two 5k chips over one million and her 1,010,000 is tops at the moment. Former Tampa Little Slick champ Frank Weigel is making a move and sits in second place with 970,000.

Blinds are now up to 10,000/15,000 with a 15,000 ante and the average stack is 480,000 (32 bb) with 34 players remaining. With the 1K color up, the pretty 25K and 100K chips are now in play.

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 21:  10,000/15,000 with a 15,000 ante
Players Remaining:  34 of 811

Level 20 came to an end and the 34 remaining players are taking another 15-minute break. Things are still flying and moving right along.

Rafael Reis is the latest player to make a move and stacked to 873,000 before leaving his seat. He is a dangerous player with a big stack as you can tell by his list of accomplishments. Reis moved over $1 million in career earnings before tournament poker took a break with big wins in Hollywood and Atlantic City.

Recent results:

35th: Leif Oskarsson – $1,311
36th: Wai Yu – $1,311
37th: Rassam Mohammadian – $1,151
38th: Russell Regan – $1,151
39th: Israr Khan – $1,151
40th: Michael Cohen – $1,151
41st: Timothy Smith – $1,151
42nd: Andrew Bannon – $1,151

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 20:  6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 ante
Players Remaining:  42 of 811

We saw an entire table of players standing up and looking over the protective plexiglass, a clear indicator something interesting happened.

It turns out that Oleg Rutskin was in a big hand when all the chips went in the middle after a flop. Rutskin was holding an over pair against his opponent who flopped middle pair/nut flush draw with .

The turn put his opponent in the lead but it didn’t last long when Rutskin binked the river. The flush got there but Rutskin made a boat to send him out.

Making things more interesting, Rutskin’s neighbor Leif Oskarsson said he folded which would have been good for the straight flush.

Blinds increased to 6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 ante and the average stack is 386,000 (32 bb) with 42 players remaining.

Recent results:

43rd: David McLeroy – $1,151
44th: Ryan Ramsdell – $1,151
45th: Dale Blank – $1,151
46th: Jeremy Boston – $1,017
47th: Jacob Naumann – $1,017
48th: Thomas McDonald – $1,017
49th: Tom Nguyen – $1,017
50th: Brian Walsingham – $1,017

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 19:  5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 ante
Players Remaining:  50 of 811

Event 2 booked another level and the tournament is down to 50 players with a shot at the title. Starting Day 2 chip leader Roberto Molina was unable to bounce back from losing a ton to Engelberth Varela and had to settle for 56th place.

Nancy Dang is moving in the other direction. The Flight C chip leader is up to 865,000 to sit among the leaders.

Blinds are up to 5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 ante and the average stack is 324,000 (32 bb).

51st: Phi Nguyen – $1,017
52nd: David Dibernardi – $1,017
53rd: Russell “Bud” Waggoner – $1,017
54th: Jeffrey Morris – $1,017
55th: James Wong – $910
56th: Roberto Molina – $910
57th: Derrick Cutler – $910
58th: Timothy Buckley – $910
59th: Michael Cooper – $910

$200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure
Level 1:  100/100

If you missed out on Day 2 of WPO Event 2 or if you dropped out of it, we have a little something for you this afternoon. Play a little poker and watch some football on one of the many big-screen TVs around the room.

Event 3 has a $200 buy-in and will award one of those coveted SHR Tampa guitar trophies at the end. Players will sit down to 20,000 starting stacks and all levels last 20 minutes today. Late registration and re-entries are available until the start of Level 7 at 4:15pm.

This is a one-day tournament and we will have a brand new champion by the end of the night.

• Players begin with 20,000 in chips and 20-minute levels
• Late registration/re-entry available until the start of Level 7
• This is a one-day tournament and plays to completion
• Event 3 Structure Sheet

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 18:  4,000/8,000 with a 8,000 ante
Players Remaining:  59 of 811

Level 17 came to an end with a handful of eliminations and a big lay down. We missed the action until the board was out to the turn reading and ~55,000 in the pot.

Adam Briggs bet 45,000, Michael Cohen raised to 105,000 and Briggs took his headphones off. He thought for a minute and folded his hand but not before showing his pocket aces. Cohen showed his hand as well and his flopped top set to make it a great laydown for Briggs.

Michael Cohen – 450,000 (56 bb)
Adam Briggs – 465,000 (58 bb)

Blinds are up to 4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 ante and the average stack is 275,000 (34 bb) with 59 players remaining.

Recent results:

60th: Alexander Ziskin – $910
61st: Eric Hannan – $910
62nd: Robert O’Rourke – $910
63rd: Yahir Cardona – $910
64th: Soe Lee – $814