$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 19:  5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 ante
Flight A Players Remaining:  41 of 463

The remaining players are in the money and guaranteed at least $800 each, and the final 33 players (7% of today’s field) will advance to Day 2, which begins Sunday at 2:00 pm.

Here’s the most recent batch of players who have finished in the money from Flight A:

42nd:  Justin Lal  –  $800
43rd:  Julian Foster  –  $800
44th:  Alexander Brown  –  $800
45th:  Philip Toister  –  $800
46th:  name to come  –  $800
47th:  Marco Townsend  –  $800
48th:  Bryce McVay  –  $800
49th:  Harry Binda  –  $800
50th:  Tung Nguyen  –  $800

Action will continue tonight until there are 33 players remaining. There will be two more starting flights tomorrow, with Flight B beginning at 10:00 am, and Flight C beginning at 5:00 pm.

$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 18:  4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 ante
Flight A Players Remaining:  50 of 463

The remaining players are in the money and guaranteed at least $800 each, and the final 33 players (7% of today’s field) will advance to Day 2, which begins Sunday at 2:00 pm.

Here’s the first batch of players who have finished in the money so far from Flight A:

51st:  James Snell  –  $800
52nd:  Scott Hartmann  –  $800
53rd:  Seth Bobet  –  $800
54th:  Fernando Acosta  –  $800
55th:  Kenneth Sohl  –  $800
56th:  Glenn Blumberg  –  $800
57th:  Kirk Newman  –  $800
58th:  Austin Fowler  –  $800

Action will continue tonight until there are 33 players remaining. There will be two more starting flights tomorrow, with Flight B beginning at 10:00 am, and Flight C beginning at 5:00 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 A Players Remaining:  58 of 463

The final 60 players returned from break only two spots away from the money, and it took about seven minutes to lose the first player. But the next elimination came from a hand that was already in progress, so by the time all the tables had stopped for hand-for-hand play, they were already in the money.

The remaining 58 players are all guaranteed at least a min-cash of $800, and the final 33 will advance to Day 2, with larger payouts waiting. (We won’t know the Day 2 payouts until all seven starting flights have concluded.) Day 2 begins Sunday at 2:00 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 A Players Remaining:  60 of 463

The final 60 players return from break to begin Level 17, with increased blinds of 3,000-6,000 and a big blind ante of 6,000. The field is only two spots away from the money, with an average chip stack around 154,000 (26 big blinds).

A scan of the field during the break turned up four players with at least 300K in chips, creating an unofficial leaderboard with Hassan Hakim at the top:

1.  Hassan Hakim  –  419,000  (70 bb)
2.  Saed Amireh  –  355,000  (59 bb)
3.  Mahmoud Bidarin  –  319,000  (53 bb)
4.  Mike Halprin  –  317,000  (53 bb)

The final 58 players in this field (12.5%) will finish in the money, guaranteed at least $800 each, and the final 33 players (7%) will advance to Day 2.

$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 9:  600/1,200 with a 1,200 ante
Flight A Entries:  463

The official numbers are in, and with 463 entries in Flight A, the final 58 (12.5%) will finish in the money, guaranteed at least $800 each, and the final 33 players (7%) will advance to Day 2.

$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 9:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Flight A Entries:  463

A scan of the field during the break turned up four players with at least 130K in chips, creating an unofficial leaderboard:

1.  Tuan Pham  –  168,100  (168 bb)
2.  Nathaniel Galliford  –  146,300  (146 bb)
3.  Guoan Pan  –  135,000  (135 bb)
4.  Mark Donly  –  133,100  (133 bb)

Tuan Pham picked up a lot of his chips in a key hand where he got it all in with after a flop of , and they held up against his opponent’s to give Pham a big double-up — and the chip lead.

Registration has closed, and as soon as official numbers are released for this flight, we will post them here in the updates.

The final 12.5% of the players in each starting flight will finish in the money, earning $800. The final 7% of each starting flight will 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 A Entries:  378

A scan of the field during the break turned up Long Nguyen as the clear chipleader with 93,000 in chips (233 big blinds), well ahead of Joe Santoro, who appears to be second with 68,900 (172 big blinds).

Registration remains open with a single re-entry option until the start of Level 9 (~9:30 pm). Players are allowed one entry and one re-entry in each starting flight, and this event is a best-stack-forward format.

The final 12.5% of the players in each starting flight will finish in the money, earning $800. The final 7% of each starting flight will 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 A Entries:  378

Flight A is back in action with a few more players jumping in during the break. We still have more than two hours to run that up for a really good start to the day.

We found our most recent Tampa champ in the field. James Kerr was the last player standing in the $1,700 Tampa Poker Classic Main Event and earned $228,038 after a three-way final table deal.

$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  200/300 with a 300 ante
Flight A Entries:  369

Level 4 came to an end and Flight A players were sent on a 15-minute break away from the tables. They will return to play four more levels, take another break, and then we will close registration for Flight A.

$500 Double Stack NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3:  100/200 with a 200 ante
Flight A Entries:  347

The steady march of players into the Event Center continued into the new hour with nearly 350 in Flight A so far. With roughly 332 needed per flight to top the $1,000,000 guarantee, it’s safe to say they are headed in that direction.

Tony Miles was here early with one of the better résumés in the room, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone else who earned $5,000,000 from a single tournament. But Miles managed that feat when he finished runner-up at the 2018 WSOP Main Event final table.