$570 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 9: 500/1,000 with a 100 ante
Flight A Players Remaining: 63 of 113

Players are back in their seats and registration is closed for Flight A. They picked up another half dozen during the bring the final total to 113 with five more flights to go.

The $200,000 Guarantee will be bested before the weekend is through. Flight B rolls out at 6pm with late registration till 10:30pm

$570 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 8: 400/800 with a 75 ante
Flight A Entries: 107

Level 8 is underway and this is the last chance for players to hop in Flight A. We are sitting on 107 entries and it should go up a few before the break is over. Or players are waiting for Flight B to kick off at 6pm.

There are seven tables remaining, ten-handed at the extra comfy wide tables, and they will drop quickly once registration is closed.

$570 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 7: 300/600 with a 75 ante
Flight A Entries: 107

There has been no movement on the entry count going up but the player remaining count is going down. The previously mentioned Brandon Byars hit the rail shortly after his blog mention and we expect to see him fire off once again.

Susan MacPherson is still around and cruising at the same table abandoned by Byars. She still has to deal with Herbert Woodbery on her right but she’s grinding.

MacPhearson had a nice Winter Poker Open series a few years ago. She made the final table and finished fifth in the Ladies Event on the first day then bookended the series with a ninth-place finish in the Championship.

Both of those were her first reported tournament cashes, not a bad way to kick things off.

$570 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 6: 200/400 with a 50 ante
Flight A Entries: 107

Flight A crossed over 100 entries during the first break and they beat last year’s number soon after. The 2017 version of this event drew 103 entries in the first flight and ultimately ended up with 738 to crush the guarantee. We expect the big rate to continue over this flight and the five remaining.

Tampa regular Brandon Byars didn’t wait to get in his seat. He was one of the first the check into his table this morning and he’s still cruising on a single shot.

$570 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5: 150/300 with a 25 ante
Flight A Entries: 100

The first break is over and everyone is chasing Nick Costarelis after four levels. He ran his 20,000 starting stack up to 89,000 and he was the clear leader heading into Level 5. Costarelis is riding a heater at the moment after a final table bubble 11th place finish in the 1,896-entry May Little Slick event a few weeks ago.

Flight A has four more levels of late registration plus the break and there are more than a few exercising their re-entry option.

$570 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4: 100/200
Flight A Entries: 99

Flight A players are about to take off on their first break of the day with 95 in the game and more expected over the next two hours. Once they return, Flight A will move through four more levels before closing registration.

$570 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4: 100/200
Flight A Entries: 90

We have a bit of SHR Tampa poker royalty in the field this afternoon. Anthony Astarita recently grabbed his seat in Event 1 and aiming for another win.

He only owns one career title but it was a big one. Astarita was the last player standing in the 2016 WPTDeepStacks Main Event and walked away with more than $130,000 for the major victory.

$570 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3: 75/150
Flight A Entries: 83

The poker room is filling up as Event 1 leaves the morning hours behind. More familiar faces are putting up their buy-in and the entry count is nearing triple digits after the first hour. That puts Flight A on an easy path to topping the last year’s number of 103.

Tampa regular Herbert Woodbery was an early entrant and he’s dragging pots and stacking chips. Woodbery made the final table of last year’s Event 3 and he picked up his biggest career cash when he won the 2016 Seminole Casino Immokalee Poker Challenge Main Event.

$570 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2: 50/100
Flight A Entries: 71

We don’t often see massive hands in the first ten minutes of the first flight of the first event of a series. But Felix Nunez found it.

We missed the early action but it was blind versus blind with two flopped monsters. The small blind player flopped sevens full with on the board but Nunez in the big blind had a bigger boat with .

A tough cooler for the small blind and he was down a single quarter chip when he couldn’t find the case seven on the turn or river. Nunez doubled his starting stack and his opponent was gone after the next hand.

$570 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1: 25/50
Flight A Entries: 47

After a short delay to get everyone in their proper spots, cards are in the air for the start of the WPTDeepStacks series.

They’ll move through the first four levels of the day before taking a break.