$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 14: 1,200/2,400 with a 400 ante
Players Remaining: 31 of 142

Only a few more hands remain before players bag up their chips for a return on Sunday for Day 2. The end can’t come quick enough for some on Table 42 with the tough lineup all day.

Late in the day, 2010 WSOP Main Event sixth place finisher John Dolan was replaced but 2010 WSOP Main Event runner-up John Racener.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 14: 1,200/2,400 with a 400 ante
Players Remaining: 33 of 142

Players are in the last level of the evening with four tables and 33 players remaining. We have a few more contenders for the end-of-day chip lead with Matthew Leecy closing on 300,000 and Kirsten Olieberg not far behind.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 13: 1,000/2,000 with a 300 ante
Players Remaining: 45 of 142

Action is picking up with only two more levels left in the day. Two big hands at adjacent tables saw two locals have different fates.

Seminole Hard Rock Tampa team member Justin Zaki put his last 29,000 in the middle with and ran into his opponent’s pocket kings. He had to hit his over and found it right on the flop. He faded the turn and river to double over 60,000.

Tony March was getting short on Table 42 and had his shove called by Anthony Astarita. It was a race between the of March and Astarita’s before the board ran to send March out and move Astarita up to 95,000.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Returning to Level 13: 1,000/2,000 with a 300 ante
Players Remaining: 47 of 142

Championship players are on their final break of the flight with 47 still around with a chance to bag. They’ll return and play two more 45-minute levels before calling it a night.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 12: 800/1,600 with a 200 ante
Players Remaining: 49 of 142

There’s been little major activity over the last level but we see Moe Affaneh is not sitting with the biggest stack in the room. He sits with 262,000 and most of that looks to have come from recent resident/former leader Chase Madden.

Affaneh has three cashes in the first 12 events of the series including a fourth place result in the $250 Deep Stack Event 9.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 12: 800/1,600 with a 200 ante
Players Remaining: 52 of 142

Table 42 keeps churning out the tough beats and Seminole Hard Rock Tampa ambassador was the next to catch one. He was heads up to the flop when Paul Dlugozima three-bet shoved into Maddah’s top two .

Dlugozima had a gutshot/backdoor flush draw with and got there on the turn. Maddah needed to boat up but the river improved his opponent to an overkill flush.

Maddah was down under a starting stack and eliminated soon after.

Dlugozima has some success in SHRP events, he finished fourth on the televised WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown final table in 2013.

Paul Dlugozima – 82,000 (51 bb)
Wally Maddah – Eliminated

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 11: 600/1,200 with a 200 ante
Players Remaining: 61 of 142

WPTDeepStacks Tampa champ Anthony Astarita was in danger of joining Matt Stout and Paul Stanechewski as victims of our tough table. He put all chips his in the middle with the board reading and his opponent called.

Astarita:
Opponent:

Astarita needed to catch a club, queen, or a seven to avoid the rail and it was the river sending him up to 87,000.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 10: 500/1,000 with a 100 ante
Players Remaining: 64 of 142

Post-dinner action has not been kind to our Seminole Hard Rock team members. We noticed Sheddy Siddiqui’s seat was empty soon after the restart, we’re not sure if Kirsten Olieberg finished what she started but she’s now sitting with more than 120,000 out front.

Matt Stout was the second player busted off the tough front table. We caught the action with Matthew Leecy leading out for 5,100 with the board reading . Stout moved all-in for 16,000 and Leecy called after a minute in the tank.

Leecy:
Stout:

Stout had five outs to stay alive but blanked the river for the late exit.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 10: 500/1,000 with a 100 ante
Players Remaining: 73 of 142

Championship players are back in their seats and registration has closed on the first flight of the WPO Championship. It drew a huge, 142-entry opening field to get them more than $200,000 towards the $300,000 Guarantee with two more flights to go.

Flight B kicks off at 11am tomorrow morning and the final runs at 11am on Saturday. We expect huge crowds on both of those days so the prize pool will be huge when registration is shut down complete for the Championship Saturday evening.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Returning to Level 10: 500/1,000 with a 100 ante
Entries: 139

Championship players are on their 45-minute dinner break, a time to take a breather from the big game and they’ll return to play five more levels. Registration will close when they restart and we’ll have our first official numbers.

Chase Madden continues to lead the way with Lewis Gallo over the 100K mark as well. Seminole Hard Rock team member ran into a cooler shortly before dinner, his pocket kings in the newly re-entered Kirsten Olieberg’s aces.

Notable counts:

Chase Madden – 194,000 (194 bb)
Lewis Gallo – 119,000 (119 bb)
John Racener – 95,000 (95 bb)
Peter Walsworth – 77,600 (78 bb)
Ryan Van Sanford – 77,000 (77 bb)
Tony March – 73,000 (73 bb)
John Holley – 69,000 (69 bb)
Justin Fawcett – 69,000 (69 bb)
Anthony Astarita – 58,200 (58 bb)
Dimitry Agrachov – 58,000 (58 bb)
Sheddy Siddiqui – 55,500 (56 bb)
John Dolan – 52,700 (53 bb)
Kirsten Olieberg – 50,200 (50 bb)
Justin Zaki – 49,000 (49 bb)
Wally Maddah – 41,900 (42 bb)
Matt Stout – 30,800 (31 bb)
Allen Kessler – 25,000 (25 bb)
Paul Stanechewski – 24,500 (25 bb)
Jonathan Borenstein – 13,500 (14 bb)