$1,650 Tampa Poker Classic Main Event $300,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 9: 400/800 with a 800 ante Day 1A Entries: 71
David Prociak
Another Florida local is in the Main Event game here at the Tampa Poker Classic. David Prociak has long crushed Seminole Poker events with eight career wins. On any given tour, few are as accomplished as Prociak is in Florida. His wins in Florida have predominantly been in Hollywood, but Prociak has experienced Tampa success, too.
It was during the December 2017 Winter Poker Open when Prociak scored an outright win in a $350 Deep Stack tournament ultimately good for more than $40,000.
$1,650 Tampa Poker Classic Main Event $300,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 8: 300/600 with a 600 ante Day 1A Entries: 69
Wally Maddah
Wally Maddah calls Seminole Hard Rock Tampa his home and he’s making himself at home here in the Poker Classic Main Event. It was a rough start, taking a huge hit to his stack early, but he’s battled back a bit and settled in to it at his table.
There was recently a modest pot of about 7,000 and Maddah fired 1,500 into it. The button thought for a moment, then called turning over a pair of kings. Maddah tabled kings as well and the pair chopped it up for no blood. A small one slipped away from Maddah as his stack sits at roughly 20,000 from 30,000 starting.
$1,650 Tampa Poker Classic Main Event $300,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 7: 300/500 with a 500 ante Day 1A Entries: 64
Jason Goldman
Another break is in the books and another batch of big stacks are emerging. Jason Goldman is making the most of this opening day of play in the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Poker Classic Main Event. From a starting stack of 30,000, he has over 80,000 and is crushing Table 15. Goldman, a Florida regular, likes this pricepoint having cashed $1,650s in Hollywood, Immokalee and Tampa.
The clock currently shows 64 entries in the action putting the prizepool just south of six figures.
$570 Deepstack Pot Limit Omaha (Re-Entry) Structure | Payouts Returning to Level 13: 1,500/2,500 Players Remaining: 8 of 43
$570 PLO final table
It’s 3pm and the second and final day of play in the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Poker Classic $570 buy-in Deepstack Pot Limit Omaha (Re-Entry) is freshly underway. From 43 starting, only eight remain with Tommy Tran holding a massive lead.
Tommy Tran
Tran’s 273,000 chips easily best the rest of the field and it’s a two-horse race claiming 224,000.
Isaac Mitchell
Only the final five players earn a payday with first place valued at $8,815.
Seat assignments, chip counts and remaining payouts:
Seat 1: Charles Kapetanakos – 44,500 Seat 2: Matthew Stevens – 43,500 Seat 3: John Shuler – 85,000 Seat 4: Bryce Fox – 115,000 Seat 5: Tommy Tran – 273,000 Seat 6: Karen Longfellow – 13,000 Seat 7: Daniel Li – 66,500 Seat 8: Isaac Mitchell – 224,000
The Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Poker Classic Main Event is expected to draw a bunch more notables and some new faces as play moves into the weekend installment.
$1,650 Tampa Poker Classic Main Event $300,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 4: 100/200 with a 200 ante Day 1A Entries: 53
Chris Dombrowski
The first break’s a wrap and the day’s fourth level is almost done. The clock now shows more than 50 entries in the Thursday play and it’s Chris Dombrowski that’s amassed one of the biggest stacks.
Dombrowski, who hails from Dade City, Florida, is a gold bracelet champion and owns more than 80 career reported cashes. At present, he’s flirting with 70,000 chips here in Tampa and has doubled up and then some during the early play.
$1,650 Tampa Poker Classic Main Event $300,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 2: 100/100 with a 100 ante Day 1A Entries: 33
The Thursday morning crowd is slowly getting its legs as the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Poker Classic Main Event Day 1A clock shows 33 entries midway through Level 2. It’s a modest start in the big buy-in event and registration and re-entry are open all the way until 7:30pm to give the field time to grow much bigger.
We will touch base with the field and look at a few of the chip leaders following the first break.
2019 Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Poker Classic Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa, Florida Event 3 $570 Deepstack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed Entries: 287 Prize Pool: $143,500 February 25-27, 2019
Glyn Griffis
Event 3 was the second multi-day tournament on the Tampa Poker Classic schedule and the early week tournament put together a six-digit prize pool. After a long grind on Day 2, Orlando’s Glyn Griffis topped a tough final table to earn the title along with more than $33,000.
The tournament featured four starting flights and a $100,000 Guarantee. It hit the mark at the start of the fourth flight and the 287 entries created a prize pool worth $143,500. The last 29 spots paid with 56 players returning for Day 2.
They made the money shortly after the first break and Griffis began to assert himself. He quickly moved himself up among the leaders and was the big stack when they reached the final table. Griffis continued to catch big hands as players dropped around him. He had only one hiccup along the way, and it was self-induced.
Griffis made a technical error late on the final table that cost him a third of his stack, a live misclick of an all-in, but he bounced back after the misstep to dispatch Juan Rodriguez heads-up for the outright win.
Our Event 3 champ was excited to collect his first career tournament win. Griffis earned $33,430 for the title and happily packed up his Tampa Poker Classic guitar for the trip back to Orlando.
Final table results:
1st: Glyn Griffis – $33,430 + $1,650 TPC Main Event seat 2nd: Juan Rodriguez – $23,473 3rd: Brian Arbaugh – $14,540 4th: Hanish Patel – $8,844 5th: Bryce McVay – $6,830 6th: Derek Bowers – $5,660 7th: Tom Nguyen- $4,823 8th: James Soper – $4,114 9th: Gerald Silva – $3,343 10th: JT Mention – $2,919
$1,650 Tampa Poker Classic Main Event $300,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 1: 100/100 Day 1A Entries: 26
The clock ticked past the 11am hour and cards are freshly in the air for Day 1A of the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Poker Classic. There is already a number of notable faces in the field including Florida’s Erik Christensen and Mark “Bud” Wiser.
$1,650 Tampa Poker Classic Main Event $300,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 1: 100/100
The day is here and kickoff of the first-ever Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Poker Classic Main Event is just minutes away. The series headliner begins at 11am with a $1,650 buy-in and a $300,000 guarantee. This marks the first of three starting flights in the finale and we’re looking for a big field to build between now and Saturday.
11AM: Day 1A – $1,650 Tampa Poker Classic Main Event
$300,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Players begin with 30,000 in chips
Day 1 levels last 40 minutes; Day 2 and 3 levels last 60 minutes
Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 10
Day 1 will end after Level 15 or Tournament Director discretion
The $1,650 pricepoint and $300,000 guarantee have a history in Tampa with the last two Winter Poker Open Main Events matching those figures. Each of those years, that event drew more than 600 entries generating a total prize pool better than $900,000 and punctuated by a $1,006,500 kitty in 2017.
With those events making its pedigree, the Tampa Poker Classic Main Event is in position for huge success in-season here at the Seminole Hard Rock.
We will catch up with the Main Event when cards go in the air at 11am and bring you tournament updates now until play wraps. Good luck, Main Event players!
