$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 7: 250/500 with a 75 ante
Entries: 208

The Flight C field crossed 200 entries and with that, the Winter Poker Open Championship has officially experienced year-over-year growth. Last year’s field sat at 453 while this year’s is at 462 and growing.

Late registration and re-entry are available until 7:15pm.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 7: 250/500 with a 75 ante
Entries: 199

The second break of the day is freshly wrapped. The field continues to grow with late registration and unlimited re-entry available until about 7:15pm. Among the recent entries is Chino Rheem. Rheem recently claimed the WPT Finale title as part of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown series in Hollywood. That strong performance earned Rheem more than $700,000.

Also doing his part to help the entry count is Brian Reinert who’s on his second bullet of the day.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 6: 200/400 with a 50 ante
Entries: 189

Seminole Hard Rock Poker team member Jessica Dawley arrived in the Tampa area yesterday, but took a day away from the felt before entering the Winter Poker Open Championship. After spending yesterday on Siesta Key, Dawley is one of the newest entries here in the finale.

She recently picked up some chips winning a nice pot against Event 1 champion Rob Manjura. Dawley’s stack sits at about 40,000.

Playing @SHRTPoker $1650/300k Main 🙂 lots of new faces..gonna be a great day! ???????????????????????? @888pokerNJ @shrpo @kowatches

— Jessica Dawley (@JessicaDawley) December 17, 2016

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 5: 150/300 with a 50 ante
Entries: 171

The previously-abandoned Seat 2 and its big stack has some ownership. Ralph Dyer has claimed his seat and recently let staff know his stack sits at about 140,000 after the set versus set versus set battle.

It appears that puts him at or near the top of the counts.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 5: 150/300 with a 50 ante
Entries: 163

According to the table, action was limped nine ways preflop and the dealer burned and turned a board. A shortstack got all-in while an unknown player in Seat 2 got all-in for more. Andy Leadbetter and Carl Carodenuto called. The complete action is unclear, but here’s how the hands broke down:

Seat 2: for top set
Leadbetter: for middle set
Carodenuto: for bottom set
All-in player: for top pair

With that, it was set versus set versus set versus top pair. The set of jacks held, the shortstack busted and the player in Seat 2 raked a pot worth about 150,000 chips. He promptly stood from the table and has not returned.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 ante
Entries: 154

Marsha Wolak put together a great run during the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek Coco Poker Open Championship. Wolak finished fourth in the property’s $2,500 finale and pocketed $70,000 along with 70 points in the new Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year race. The race takes into account the 10 SHRP Championships and Wolak currently sits 12th on the leaderboard. She’s in action here in Tampa and is looking to gain some more traction in the race.

The SHRP POY received a makeover for the2016/2017 season. Players must finish in the money to earn points with the top earners following the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship in August each being awarded prizes valued at $32,450 and lower. Additionally, the points model awards a set number of points based on tournament buy-in and place finished.

On top of the cash prizes up for grabs, each winner of an SHRP Championship will go home with an added seat in the aforementioned $5,250 SHRPO Championship.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 ante
Entries: 144

Cards are back in the air following the first 45-minute break of the day. It appears to Josh Lowing who leads the way with a stack of 84,000 chips.

Lowing came out on the good end of some sporadic play from Carl Carodenuto. After busting a player early and owning about 600 big blinds, Carodenuto was eliminated with the majority of his chips heading to Lowing.

The clock currently shows 144 entries putting the prize pool at $600,000. Late registration and unlimited re-entry are available until 7:15pm.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 3: 75/150 with a 25 ante
Entries: 125

Brandon Byars earned today’s Championship bullet in one of last night’s satellites. He’s a new entry in the field and finds himself seated next to fellow Seminole Hard Rock Tampa regular Cheri Beatty.

Byars claims nearly $70,000 in career earnings, much of which came during an impressive $30,000 victory in last April’s Spring Little Slick series.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 3: 75/150 with a 25 ante
Entries: 125

Former professional basketball player and Hall of Fame member Dennis Rodman made a brief appearance during Flight C of the Championship. It’s unclear whether we’ll see him among the field at some point, but he did stop by for a quick photo shoot.

$1,650 WPO Championship (Re-Entry)
Level 3: 75/150 with a 25 ante
Entries: 122

With three flights and unlimited re-entry, it’s sometimes difficult to keep track of who’s playing on what bullet. Two of the more notable players we do know are giving it another go after busting previous flights are 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Greg Raymer and 2010 November Niner John Dolan.

Both fired at least one entry but are on their first here in Flight C.