$570 Deep Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 8: 300/600 with a 75 ante
Entries: 78

The reigning winner of the Winter Poker Open Championship is in the house. Just about 12 months ago, John Templeton defeated a field of 453 entries in the $1,650 buy-in, $300,000 guaranteed finale. He ended up chopping three ways with David Lappano and Seminole Hard Rock Poker team member Sheddy Siddiqui. In the end, Templeton went down as the champ and earned $134,000.

The champ recently picked up on a board to scoop a nice pot. His stack currently sits at about 43,000.

$570 Deep Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 7: 250/500 with a 75 ante
Entries: 73

Seminole Hard Rock Poker regular Ryan Dunn was in the big blind. A player had opened to 1,700 from middle position and a late-position player called. Dunn three-bet, making it 5,500 to go. The middle-position raiser took a minute, but mucked. The late-position player called and they saw a flop of . Both players checked.

The turn was the and both players checked again.

Dunn lead for 7,500 on the river. The player in late position called and Dunn turned over for top-top to take a nice pot.

$570 Deep Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 6: 200/400 with a 50 ante
Entries: 67

Mike Laake put the Seminole Hard Rock Poker team on the board during last year’s Winter Poker Open winning this very event for $54,756. Laake defeated a field of 634 entries and recorded what was then his eighth major tournament victory.

“It feels great,” Laake said back then. “I kind of let the tournament come to me. I didn’t press too many edges […] Everything kind of fell my way.”

Laake is back and his title defense begins in Flight C. He chipped up recently after C-betting a flop, but is still under starting stack.

$570 Deep Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 5: 150/300 with a 50 ante
Entries: 62

Level 5 is off and running and the first break is officially behind us. It appears Mohammad Affaneh leads the way. Affaneh sits on over 40,000 chips and has more than doubled his starting stack in the first four levels of play.

$570 Deep Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 4: 100/200 with a 25 ante
Entries: 60

Just about three weeks ago, Rafael Reis turned a modest $360 investment into more than $155,000. The super-sized return came at the hands of an equally super-sized, 5,018-entry field in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open’s $360 buy-in, $1,000,000 guaranteed opener in Hollywood. The event went down in the books as the largest tournament in Florida state history and Reis’ win came following a nine-way chop.

With a fat wallet, Reis made his way to Tampa and has taken a shot in a few of the prelim events. He’s searching for that next score and hopes it comes in the Winter Poker Open $570.

$570 Deep Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 3: 75/150 with a 25 ante
Entries: 57

Anthony Astarita was long a staple of the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa cash games, but he’s becoming quite the tournament regular in recent months. Astarita broke through for his first major score during June’s WPTDeepStacks-Tampa Main Event. He carded victory good for a $131,000 score and has followed it up with a handful of other cashes including a fourth-place finish in October’s Deep Stack series for $18,000.

Astarita is off to a slow start here in the $570, below starting stack toward the end of Level 3.

$570 Deep Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 2: 50/100
Entries: 36

Level 2 is underway and the field has doubled in size in the first 45 minutes of play. Flight C is pretty much on pace with yesterday’s 11am Flight A and should grow up toward 80 players by the time registration closes at 3:30pm.

Among those in the early action is Michael Scott. Scott already carded a deep run and notable score at this year’s Winter Poker Open following a fifth-place finish in the $150 Deep Stack Turbo. He earned $1,226 for that performance.

$570 Deep Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 1: 25/50
Entries: 18

Flight C of the Winter Poker Open $570 buy-in, $200,000 guaranteed event is underway. As is the field stands at 152 entries with 26 having advanced to Day 2. Jerry Silva bagged a monster in last night’s Flight B turning his 20,000 starting chips into massive holdings of 473,000.

Today’s action continues the event and marks the third of six starting flights. Cards went in the air just moments ago and players are filing in taking their seats. Play is scheduled to include 14, 30-minute levels with late registration and re-entry available until about 3:30pm.

Here are the details:

11AM: Event 7 Day 1C – $570 Deep Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)

• $200,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
• Players begin with 20,000 in chips and 30-minute levels
• Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
• Day 1 will end after Level 14 or Tournament Director discretion
• Event 7 Structure Sheet

Updates throughout the day will be available right here at SHRTPoker.com.

Main Event Schedule

11AM: Event 7 Day 1C – $570 Deep Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)

• $200,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
• Players begin with 20,000 in chips and 30-minute levels
• Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
• Day 1 will end after Level 14 or Tournament Director discretion
• Event 7 Structure Sheet

6PM: Event 7 Day 1D – $570 Deep Stack NL Hold’em (Re-Entry)

• $200,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
• Players begin with 20,000 in chips and 30-minute levels
• Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
• Day 1 will end after Level 14 or Tournament Director discretion
• Event 7 Structure Sheet

Secondary and Satellite Schedule

2PM: Event 19 – $65 Satellite into Event 7 (1-in-10)

• 5 seats guaranteed into $570/$200K GTD Event 7
• Players begin with 10,000 in chips and 20-minute levels
• Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
• This is a one-day tournament and plays until completion
• Event 19 Structure Sheet

After a busy day in the poker room yesterday, with three new WPO trophies awarded, today was more laid back with two flights of the $570 buy-in/$200,000 Guarantee Event 7.

Both flights hit the exact same number of entries, 76 in each, to put a total of 152 into the tournament with four more flights to run. Those numbers put us on an easy pace to hit the guaranteed money with the weekend grinders ready to hit the felt.

Seminole Hard Rock Tampa ambassador Wally Maddah (pictured above) seemed like he was ready to put a bag together but he crashed out late when his AJ was four-flushed by KJ.

Tom Nguyen led the latter parts of the day but most of his stack ended up in front of Jerry Silva. The Tampa regular put an incredible 473,000 away for Day 2, nearly double second place Nicholas Williams. Also advancing were Karl Manouchakian, Marvin “Flying Duckman” Karlins, Mark “Bud” Wider, Stevie Tziris, and the aforementioned Nguyen.

Tomorrow brings the next two flights, the first at 11am and the second at 6pm, and we’ll cross into six-digit prize pool territory before they are done.

There will also be one last satellite into Event 7 that will run at 2pm. The $75 buy-in satellite has five seats guaranteed into the $200,000 Guarantee event with 1-in-10 grabbing one.

• 11AM: Event 7 Flight C – $570 buy-in/$200,000 Guarantee
• 2PM: Event 7 Satellite – $75 buy-in/5 seat Guarantee
• 6PM: Event 7 Flight D – $570 buy-in/$200,000 Guarantee