$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 9:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Flight E Entries:  696

Registration has closed for Flight E, and the tournament clock shows an unofficial number of 696 entries. When we get the official number, we’ll know exactly how many players will finish in the money (12.5%), and how many will advance to Day 2 (7%).

Shortly after the break, James Calderaro raised from the hijack, and the player in the cutoff moved all in for 10,300.

Calderaro pointed out that he never wins hands when a particular poker reporter who may or may not be writing this post is watching the hand, but he says he’s calling with a weak hand anyway.

The cutoff shows , and Calderaro turns over . Calderaro’s hand may be weak, but he’s ahead at the moment, and the cutoff needs to improve to stay alive.

The board came — the player in the cutoff turned a gutshot Royal Flush draw, but missed his outs on the river. Calderaro won the pot with king high to eliminate his opponent from Flight E.

“I can’t believe it,” said Calderaro. “Mark the time that this happened.” (It happened 9:34 pm on Friday, June 11th, 2021.)

James Calderaro  –  120,000  (120 bb)

$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 20:  6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 ante
Flight D Players Remaining:  49 of 702

Flight D came to an end during Level 20, though since one of the earlier flights ended near the start of Level 19, Day 2 will begin no later than that, when the blinds were 5,000-10,000 with a 10,000 ante.

Action was scheduled to end when the field reached 50 players, but when that happened, another player was eliminated from a hand that was already in progress. So this flight ended with 49 survivors.

Phil Hernz  –  1,016,000
Mihaly Lukacs  –  909,000

Two players bagged up monster stacks, though neither of them finished with more than Flight C chipleader Simeon Knafo, who is still the overall chipleader with 1,050,000.

The full list of official chip counts can be found below. Flight E is still underway, with registration about to close.

$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 19:  5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 ante
Flight D Players Remaining:  49 of 702

Here are the rest of the players who were eliminated from Flight D and finished in the money:

50th:  Sebastian Gallego  –  $800
51st:  Chad Folkens  –  $800
52nd:  Aric Pluskat  –  $800
53rd:  Karim Baruque  –  $800
54th:  John D’Arcangelis  –  $800
55th:  Maurice Paradis  –  $800
56th:  Francisco Gomez  –  $800
57th:  Keith Eidschun  –  $800
58th:  Ivory Williams  –  $800
59th:  Yasin Ahmady  –  $800
60th:  Martin Carnero  –  $800

Action ended when the field reached 50 players, but Sebastian Gallego was eliminated from a hand that was already in progress. Like everyone else who survived the Money Bubble but didn’t reach Day 2, Gallego earned $800.

$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 19:  5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 ante
Flight D Players Remaining:  60 of 702

Flight D is down to 60 players, and the final 50 will advance to Day 2, which begins Sunday at 2:00 pm.

Here are the players who have been eliminated since the Money Bubble burst, along with their payouts:

61st:  Leonard Sande III  –  $800
62nd:  Salvatore Iommelli  –  $800
63rd:  Ronald Johnston  –  $800
64th:  Jeffrey Morzella  –  $800
65th:  Kim Branco  –  $800
66th:  Kyle Shirey  –  $800
67th:  Michael Richards  –  $800
68th:  Gabriel Garcia  –  $800
69th:  Sheng Han  –  $800
70th:  Dean Martin  –  $800
71st:  Sedarrien Coley  –  $800
72nd:  David Hirschler  –  $800
73rd:  Jonathan Byrd  –  $800
74th:  Carlos Barbosa  –  $800
75th:  Chen-Wei Hua  –  $800
76th:  Anh Lu  –  $800
77th:  Eric Moffett  –  $800
78th:  Ronald Dunn  –  $800
79th:  Benjamin Kramer  –  $800
80th:  Istvan Szabo  –  $800
81st:  Lewis Gallo, Jr.  –  $800
82nd:  Igor Evseev  –  $800
83rd:  Nicholas Zivolich  –  $800
84th:  Harold Angle  –  $800
85th:  Joseph Mole  –  $800
86th:  Mack Hill  –  $800
87th:  Juan Rodriguez  –  $800
88th:  Andrew Cohen  –  $800

$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 18:  4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 ante
Flight D Players Remaining:  88 of 702

When the field reached 89 players, hand-for-hand play began on the Money Bubble. But it went on for a while without anyone busting out.

Chipleader Phil Hernz continued to build his stack even higher, and he was up over 600,000 as the bubble continued.

Eventually, player in the small blind open-shoved all in for more than 150K, and Tonia Williams called all in from the big blind for 79,000. At that point, they had to wait for the action to complete at the other nine tables before they could turn over their cards.

After a couple of minutes of waiting, they finally got to reveal their hole cards — Williams turned over , and the player in the small blind turned over .

The board came , and there was little drama as Williams was well ahead the entire way, clinching the victory on the turn to double up in chips.

Tonia Williams  –  166,000  (21 bb)

Shortly after that, somebody busted at another table, and Williams was in the money along with 87 of her fellow players, guaranteed at least $800 each, but hoping for a larger chunk of the prizepool that is already worth more than $1.1 million (with two more starting flights running tomorrow).

Action will continue this evening until there are 50 players remaining (7% of this field), and they will bag up their chips as they advance to Day 2, which begins Sunday at 2:00 pm.

$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Flight E Entries:  578

Flight E has returned from its first break with 578 entries, which brings the total field size up to 2,660, and the total prizepool up to nearly $1.15 million.

Registration remains open with a single re-entry per starting flight until the end of the second break, around 9:30 pm.

$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 17:  3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 ante
Flight D Players Remaining:  103 of 702

The players return from break to begin Level 17, with increased blinds of 3,000-6,000 with a 6,000 ante. With 103 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 136,000 (23 big blinds).

A scan of the field during the break turned up three players with at least 400K in chips, creating an unofficial leaderboard:

1.  Phil Hernz  –  533,000  (89 bb)
2.  Mihaly “Lumi” Lukacs  –  467,000  (78 bb)
3.  Shahab Mazaheri  –  434,000  (72 bb)

The final 88 players (12.5% of this field) will finish in the money, guaranteed at least $800 each, while the final 50 (7% of this field) will advance to Day 2.

$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2:  100/100 with a 100 ante
Flight E Entries:  352  (Total:  2,434)

Flight E hit another milestone for WPT Tampa Event 1 not long after it started. The entry count hit 352 to put the combined total at 2,434 and that is good enough to make Event 1 the biggest field in our history. The previous record was 2,433 for our WSOP Circuit opening event that had five flights of the $600 tournament to make that number.

And we still have two more huge flights to go along with late registration for Flight E until 9:30 pm.

This is going to be huge.

$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1:  100/100
Flight E Entries:  254  (Total:  2,336)

Cards are in the air for Flight E of WPT Tampa Event 1 and the $1,000,000 guarantee was reached the moment they were underway. The 254 entries at the start put the combined total at 2,336 for a $1,004,480 prize pool.

But it won’t stop there. Registration will remain open for Flight E until 9:30 pm and we have two more flights tomorrow.

$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 13:  1,500/2,500 with a 2,500 ante
Players Remaining:  180 of 702

Flight D players enjoyed another break from the tables and returned with 180 players remaining. That leaves them less than 100 eliminations from the money bubble and putting some cash in their pockets.

Rod Johns is the latest player to top the counts and came back to a stack worth 239,000. That’s a good distant away from the overall lead but a fine place to sit this late.