$1,700 Winter Poker Open Championship
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 7:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Day 1C Entries: 195

The stack sizes ramped up a bit over the previous three levels and we found a couple of stacks towering over the rest. Mark Koeln is the new leader in the room with a healthy barrel of 5Ks and stack worth 233,000.

Josh Adkins is also over 200K with 208,100 and a handful getting up there.

$1,700 Winter Poker Open Championship
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 6:  400/800 with a 800 ante
Day 1C Entries: 185

It’s time for another break and players are leaving the tables to catch a breather from the action. They will return to play three more levels before the dinner break and the closing of registration for the Championship.

$1,700 Winter Poker Open Championship
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 6:  400/800 with a 800 ante
Day 1C Entries: 180

The Championship draws players from around the country, some looking for the action, others for great weather, and some for both.

We ran into Northeast legend Gerry Aiello in today’s field and he was giving a Poker Room tour to his brother-in-law Jim last night during Day 1B.

But today it’s all about grinding his stack and Aiello is right around average heading into the second break.

$1,700 Winter Poker Open Championship
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  300/600 with a 600 ante
Day 1C Entries: 160

Players are definitely being more conservative with their stacks today, there are no other opening days and they need a bag today if they want to win. Because of that, we are seeing less huge stacks at this point than in earlier starting days.

Charles Montalvo and Josias Santos are among those moving in the right direction. Montalvo is among the leaders with 85,200 and Josias Santos topped 70K over the last level.

$1,700 Winter Poker Open Championship
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  300/600 with a 600 ante
Day 1C Entries: 153

As we move deeper into the afternoon, more players are in seats. Day 1C is up to 153 entries for 393 total and a prize pool of nearly $600,000.

Tom McDonald and Peter Hsu are in the field, trying for another big score. McDonald went deep in two tournaments during the 2022 Tampa Poker Classic; he finished runner-up out of 1,463 in the opening $400 Deep Stack and closed the series with a third place in the Championship.

On top of that, he finished 14th in the WSOP Super Seniors and 41st in our WPT Tampa Championship a few months ago.

Hsu’s score was a little more recent, two weeks ago in Hollywood, when he turned one bullet in their huge RRPO $400 opening event into a $191K when he won the title in the 6,134-entry field.

$1,700 Winter Poker Open Championship
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  300/500 with a 500 ante
Day 1C Entries: 135

Cards are back in the air after the first break and we have a familiar face at the top of the counts. Tampa regular Wally Maddah leads the field with 82,300 with a whole lot of players not far behind. They’ll be trying to chase him down while he tries to build.

$1,700 Winter Poker Open Championship
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Day 1C Entries: 120

Day 1C players are about to take their first break of the day with an even 120 entries in the mix and more expected with late registration open for more than five hours.

We will walk the tables and see who had a good run over the first two hours.

$1,700 Winter Poker Open Championship
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2:  200/300 with a 300 ante
Day 1C Entries: 94

Before Level 2 wrapped up, entry number 94 joined Day 1C to put the combined total of entries at 334 for the Championship. The prize pool reached $501,000 to surpass the guarantee and each new player will push it higher.

Thanks for another great turnout!

$1,700 Winter Poker Open Championship
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2:  200/300 with a 300 ante
Day 1C Entries: 90

The first level cruised right by and the WPO Championship is on the verge of pushing the prize pool over the $500,000 guarantee and it should get there before too long.

Some early friends include Event 1 champ Julio Delgado, last year’s 11th place Championship finisher Eric Valerio, Wally Maddah, Joe McCray, Brian Arbaugh, and Joel Deutsch among in the game.

$1,700 Winter Poker Open Championship
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1:  100/200 with a 200 ante
Day 1C Entries: 69

Day 1C jumped up to 69 entries shortly after cards went in the air and we are starting to keep a tighter eye on the clock. The guarantee is not far away.

We ran a ton of satellites and a lot of seats were awarded into the Championship over the last week. Many of our regulars took part and we found Jeremy Becker and Terri-Anne Crawford booking their seats last night in the five-seat guarantee satellite.

Good luck to both!