$1,650 Winter Poker Open Championship
Level 14: 1,200/2,400/400 Ante
The tournament clock reads 10:00 remaining and players in Flight C will log three more hands before beginning the bagging process. Notables still alive include Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Ambassadors John Racener, Justin Zaki and Wally Maddah.
Stay tuned.
$1,650 Winter Poker Open Championship
Level 14: 1,200/2,400/400 Ante
Tampa’s Daniel Ramirez has had a Winter Poker Open worthy of envy. He kicked off his hometown series with a runner-up finish in Event 1 where he outlasted the majority of a 741-entry field to pocket $24,528. From there, he finished 49th in Event 4, 39th in Event 7 and 3rd in Event 10. With those deep runs behind him, Ramirez looks to finish strong in the series’ Championship.
He currently holds 145,000 chips with the end of Flight C right around the corner.
$1,650 Winter Poker Open Championship
Beginning of Level 14: 1,200/2,400/400 Ante
Level 14 is underway and it marks the last level of the night. The clock shows 57 players remaining from the massive 235-entry starting field. Those still in contention bag and tag in about 45 minutes.
Complete, combined Day 2 chip counts will be posted later tonight.
$1,650 Winter Poker Open Championship
Level 14: 1,000/2,000/300 Ante
You don’t see a player walk away from a big tournament with an hour left and a big stack. Seminole Hard Rock Tampa regular Alex Ivan did just that.
Tournament staff was breaking another table as Ivan was putting together a stack a few chips shy of 400,000 and Carl Carodenuto took a seat to his right.
“This is as good a time to leave as any,” Ivan said to a tournament supervisor. He left his player’s card for someone else to bag up his big stack at the end of Level 14.
$1,650 Winter Poker Open Championship
Level 13: 1,000/2,000/300 Ante
Defending champion AJ Kelsall has busted from the Championship for the fourth and final time. Kelsall played deep into Flight A and B before busting shy of Day 2 in both instances. Flight C started out better, but ultimately saw him hit the rail just before the dinner break. He re-entered, and even doubled through current leader Antuan Bunkley, but eventually was sent packing a fourth time.
With that, his run at back-to-back Winter Poker Open Championship titles has come to an end.
$1,650 Winter Poker Open Championship
Level 12: 800/1,600/200 Ante
Antuan Bunkley held pocket aces and four-bet the action preflop to 45,000. One opponent flatted and the flop came 
giving Bunkley quads. A back-and-forth wager saw the opponent shove and Bunkley call. The opponent held queens and was all but live. Bunkley busted the player and now sits at an unheard of 490,000 chips — good enough for the Flight C and the overall chip lead.
$1,650 Winter Poker Open Championship
Beginning of Level 12: 800/1,600/200 Ante
Players are back in their seats, cards are in the air and action has resumed following the last break of the night. A quick stroll through the tournament area during the players’ rest showed Carl Carodenuto is on a different planet hovering comfortably above the 300,000 mark. Appearing to claim the second spot in the counts is Antuan Bunkley. Despite doubling the defending champ shortly before break, Bunkley holds 231,000 chips and is poised to bag one of the biggest stacks in the room.
Players are set to log three more 45-minute levels before play wraps shortly after 11 p.m. ET. At that time, those still alive bag and tag set to return for Day 2 tomorrow at noon.
The clock currently reads 82 players remaining. Notable names still in the field include Seminole Hard Rock Poker Tampa Ambassadors Justin Zaki, John Racener and Wally Maddah as well as John Holley.
$1,650 Winter Poker Open Championship
Level 10: 500/1,000/100 Ante
It looked like Carl Carodenuto would a chance before the end of the night to move past the huge Flight B stack of Jonathan Lagace-Bastien and he did it with three levels remaining.
He could still back that off over the next two hours but he will put a big number in a bag.
The latest big hand came when Carodenuto knocked someone out after they put their money in drawing stone dead. It was three-ways with the board reading 
and Carodenuto was facing a shove for 40,000. He flatted the bet and the third player smelled something funny and let his top pair King go.
Carodentu quickly tabled 
for the nut flush and his opponent reluctantly showed the no-chance-to-win 
. That hand pushed Carodentu up to 365,000 as they get ready for the next break.
$1,650 Winter Poker Open Championship
Level 11: 600/1,200/200 Ante
Defending champion AJ Kelsall was on the button and faced a raise. After a brief moment of thought, he jammed for about 20,000. Antuan Bunkley was in the small blind and shoved for more. The big blind folded as did the original raiser. Kelsall was at risk with 
against Bunkley’s 
.
The flop smacked Kelsall — 
— improving him to a fullhouse and leaving Bunkley drawing dead to quads.
The turn finished the hand. Kelsall raked the pot and lived to fight another day.
$1,650 Winter Poker Open Championship
Level 11: 600/1,200/200 Ante
The $1,650 Winter Poker Open Championship drew a field of 453 entries — 53 percent more than last year’s finale — generating a $679,500 prize pool that more than doubled the guarantee. Each of the top 45 finishers head home with prize money worth at least $3,398. Payouts escalate from there before seeing the top two finishers walk with six figures.
Most importantly, the winner’s share totals $173,607 and, of course, the token Seminole Hard Rock Tampa guitar trophy.
Full prize structure:
1st – $173,607
2nd – $100,226
3rd – $61,155
4th – $49,264
5th – $38,732
6th – $32,276
7th – $25,821
8th – $19,706
9th – $13,590
10th-12th – $8,834
13th-15th – $6,795
16th-18th – $5,368
19th-27th – $4,213
28th-36th – $3,737
37th-45th – $3,398