Main Event: Flight B Final at 189 Entries; Two Flight Total = 353, Prize Pool $529,500

Winter Poker Open Main Event
$1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed
Level 10: 500/1,000/100 | Structure
Flight B Entries: 189 | Total Entries: 354

The dinner break’s a wrap and registration is closed in Flight B of the Winter Poker Open Main Event. The second of three starting flights drew 189 entries marking an incredible year-over-year attendance increase of more than 68 percent. The two-flight total field stands at 353 entries easily surpassing the $500,000 guarantee with an unofficial prize pool of $529,500.

Flight C kicks off tomorrow and the tournament is all but assured to surpass the $800,000 figure.

Here’s a look at the breakdown:

Day/TimeFlightEntries
Thur/11amA164
Fri/11amB189
Sat/11amC—
Total—353

Unofficial prize pool: $529,500

Main Event: Chip Leader Tom Nguyen

Winter Poker Open Main Event
$1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed
Level 9: 400/800/100 | Structure
Flight B Entries: 179 | Total Entries: 343

Tom Nguyen

Tom Nguyen, a familiar face to any player that spends time in the Tampa poker room, enjoys the chip lead just before dinner break in the Main Event. Nguyen, who just finished third in teh $350 two days ago, claims a stack of roughly 200,000 and is in good shape to find a bag in Flight B.

Main Event: Guarantee Gone; $500K+Up for Grabs

Winter Poker Open Main Event
$1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed
Level 8: 300/600/75 | Structure
Flight B Entries: 172 | Total Entries: 336

With the 170th Flight B entry, the $500,000 guarantee has officially been bested in the Winter Poker Open Main Event. Today’s flight specifically has seen a huge turnout as it’s currently in the midst of a 53-percent year-over-year attendance increase.

In the end, the prize pool should easily hit the $750,000 mark and will likely cross into the $800,000s.

Main Event: 2016 POY and Sunday’s $350 Champ, David Prociak

Winter Poker Open Main Event
$1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed
Level 7: 250/500/75 | Structure
Flight B Entries: 163 | Total Entries: 327

David Prociak

David Prociak, the 2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year, has already had a nice success at this year’s Winter Poker Open. Just two days ago, he won the series’ $350, besting 546 entries and earning $40,787 in the process.

He’s in Flight B of the Main Event now, and returned from break about 30 minutes with one of the top stacks in the room. He took a hit after a quartet of players got 6,200 in the pot prelop. The flop fell nine-high and Alex Ivan lead for 11,200. Two others players folded and it was on Prociak who had Ivan covered. Prociak put a pile of gray in the middle and Ivan called off.

Ivan: JsJc for an over pair
Prociak: 7d7h for a pair of sevens

The turn and river came blanks and Prociak’s six-figure stack took a notable hit as he shipped about 27,000 chips the way of Ivan.

Main Event: Defending Champion David Bradshaw Back for Flight B

Winter Poker Open Main Event
$1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed
Level 6: 200/400/50 | Structure
Flight B Entries: 157 | Total Entries: 321

David Bradshaw

Defending Winter Poker Open Main Event champion David Bradshaw put a hurt on the early stages of yesterday’s Flight A taking over 200,000 chips to the dinner break. He lead the field by a margin, but got a bit squirrely in a few pots late. Bradshaw got short when he risked a big portion of his stack with his pair and a flush draw, but never improved against an opponent’s two pair.

Bradshaw busted shy of a bag, but is back on the felt mixing it up again here in Flight B.

Main Event: Another Big Day of $500K Guaranteed Play

Winter Poker Open Main Event
$1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed
Level 6: 200/400/50 | Structure
Flight B Entries: 148 | Total Entries: 312

Flight B is outperforming even the most optimistic of projections.

With 148 entries kicking off Level 6, the most recent Main Event installment is already 32 percent bigger than last year’s same flight (which drew 112 entries). That puts the combined field at 312 entries good for an unofficial prize pool of $468,000. With tomorrow’s Flight C still to come, an $800,000 prize pool is a real possibility in the Winter Poker Open Main Event.

Main Event: Hollywood’s Most Recent Champ

Winter Poker Open Main Event
$1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed
Level 5: 150/300/25 | Structure
Flight B Entries: 141 | Total Entries: 305

Michael Newman

Fresh off a big, $374,000 score in Hollywood, Michael Newman is back to tournament poker. Just about two weeks ago, he defeated a difficult field stacked with pros in the Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open Championship. Newman was rewarded handsomely and makes his way to the Winter Poker Open Main Event with a head of steam.

Main Event: Tampa Poker Ambassador Wally Maddah

Winter Poker Open Main Event
$1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed
Level 5: 150/300/25 | Structure
Flight B Entries: 137 | Total Entries: 301

Wally Maddah

Seminole Hard Rock Tampa poker ambassador Wally Maddah is never one to take a day off from the felt. He was getting short late in yesterday’s Flight A and joked that he didn’t want to bag because then he’d have nothing to do during Friday and Saturday’s flights. Maddah ultimately found the felt late and is back for a full day of poker here in Flight B. He has a tough table with a slew of Tampa regulars.

Main Event: Colossus Cord and Rafael Reis

Winter Poker Open Main Event
$1,650 Buy-In, $500,000 Guaranteed
Level 4: 100/200/25 | Structure
Flight B Entries: 130 | Total Entries: 294

Rafael Reis (left) and Cord Garcia

Cord Garcia and Rafael Reis each claim some notable tournament titles from their time on the felt. Garcia captured a gold bracelet in the largest tournament by entries in poker history, the 2015 World Series of Poker Colossus event. He maneuvered through a mine field of more than 22,000 players and earned better than $635,000.

Reis, too, owns a “largest ever” win. In November of 2016, he bested 5,018 entries in Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood’s $360 Deep Stack. That event went down as the largest poker tournament ever to take place in the state of Florida and earned Reis better than $155,000.

The pair clearly knows how to make their way through big fields, and they’ll have to learn how to make their way through eachother in Tampa. They are seated side-by-side at Table 12 early in Flight B of the Main Event.