$150 Big Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 13: 1,000/2,000 with a 300 ante
Flight D Players Remaining: 23 of 153

Quads are flowing as Flight D is about to head into the final level of the day. We’ve seen a lot of quads get flopped, turned, and rivered today including John Holley’s beaut with . He value-towned his way near 150,000 with roughly 30 minutes remaining in the day.

$150 Big Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 12: 800/1,600 with a 200 ante
Flight D Players Remaining: 27 of 153

The tough Table 31 broke to get Flight D down to three but they created another rough stretch of road for some players at Table 42.

With only three tables remaining, it’s bad luck to find John Holley, Tom Nguyen, Carlos Loving, Tony March, Greg Osborne, and chip leader Onder Ekinci as six of the ten players.

Flight D players are now on their final break of the day and they will return to play two more levels before bagging up.

$150 Big Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 12: 800/1,600 with a 200 ante
Flight D Players Remaining: 31 of 153

We mentioned that tough table at the front of the room and Table 31 got a little rougher at the close of registration.

Tony March was knocked out earlier and his seat was taken by poker pro Ryan Dunn who is making his first 2016 WPO appearance. The 2016 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open trophy winner jumped in late and still grinding away. Dunn said he’s here for the duration and plans to play straight through until the Championship.

$150 Big Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 11: 600/1,200 with a 200 ante
Flight D Players Remaining: 40 of 153

The Flight D field is quickly dropping down with only four tables remaining in play and four more levels left in the day.

2015 WPO winner Eric Wert was one of the latest to exit after he went to a flop in a four-way pot. He moved all-in for 19,400 and picked up two folds before the last opponent called.

Wert was behind with against and was down to eight stay-alive outs after the turn. Wert missed the river and joined the others on the rail.

Things continue to go nicely for chip leader Onder Ekinci, another quick look at his stack shows he moved it up to 250,000 from 170,000 in only two levels after the break.

$150 Big Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 10: 500/1,000 with a 100 ante
Flight D Players Remaining: 45 of 153

The official numbers were released and the 508 entries in Event 4 created a prize pool worth $59,310. The last 54 players will earn a piece of the money with a min-cash taking home $237, the last nine players cashing for at least four figures, and the winner pocketing $14,768 along with the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa guitar trophy and $1,650 WPO Championship seat.

2016 Winter Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Tampa, FL
Event 4
$150 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em
Entries: 508
Prize Pool: $59,310
December 5 – 7, 2016

$150 Big Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 9: 400/800 with a 100 ante
Flight D Players Remaining: 57 of 153

Registration has closed for good on Event 4 and Flight D drew 153 entries for the last session. That pushed the combined total to 508 over the four flights for a nice total to easily surpass the $50,000 guaranteed prize pool

Onder Ekinci is the runaway leader at the moment and returned from break with 170,400 in his stack after eight levels of action. That would be good enough for a top ten Day 2 stack if play came to a close right now.

Ekinci also has some success here in the past year. He won the $150 buy-in event during the Summer Deep Stack Poker Series in August and followed that up by winning the same event during the Fall Deep Stack Poker Series in October.

$150 Big Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 8: 300/600 with a 75 ante
Flight D Entries: 152

Flight D players are on their second break of the day and registration will close on Event 4 when they return. There are 152 entries in the mix at the moment, with more than half of them gone already, and we might pick up a few more over the next 15 minutes.

$150 Big Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 8: 300/600 with a 75 ante
Flight D Entries: 147

Flight D is in the last level for players to get a piece of the big prize pool and we’re seeing more people get in the field for their shot.

The front table seems to have a rotating gang of tough competitors. We found Carlos Loving in the lineup early as the two-time SHRP champion tries to add a Seminole Hard Rock Tampa title to his credit. But it won’t be easy going early as he was surrounded by Event 1 winner Rob Manjura, 2015 WPO champion Eric Wert, and Tampa regular Tony March.

$150 Big Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 7: 250/500 with a 75 ante
Flight D Entries: 145

With our 145th entry in Flight D, the Event 4 prize pool officially hit the $60,000 prize pool on the nose. But it won’t stay there with more than an hour left to register. We will be awarding some big money for a small buy-in later tomorrow.

$150 Big Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 6: 200/400 with a 50 ante
Flight D Entries: 135

Wally Maddah has plenty of documented success in this room, including a final table appearance in Event 1 for more than $14K, but he was unhappy with his run in last night’s Flight C.

The Seminole Hard Rock Tampa ambassador made it through 14 levels with chips to put in a Day 2 bag. But he had only 47,000 which was good enough to put him 29th out of 29 through the first two flights.

Because of a unique feature in this event, players can enter as many flights as they wish. If they manage to bag up more than once, the bigger stack will be put into play on Day 2 while the other will be removed.

Maddah is back this evening trying to build a bigger, fatter bag in Fight D and if he fails, he still has that 47,000 waiting for him tomorrow.