With the last of the preliminary events wrapping up on Wednesday night, attention is turning toward the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Winter Poker Open $1,650 No Limit Hold’em Championship.
The Championship event carries a $300,000 guarantee on the total prize pool and the first of three starting flights puts cards in the air at 11 am Thursday. Players may enter (or re-enter) multiple flights. If a player survives a flight to bag chips and wants to enter a later flight, he/she may do so and take the biggest stack into Day 2.
The second starting flight will take off on Friday at 11 am and the third flight gets underway Saturday morning at 11 am. The survivors of all three flights will be back on Sunday at 12 noon to play down to a winner.
Players will start with 30,000 tournament chips and levels last 45 minutes on Day 1. The levels will increase to 60 minutes on Day 2.
Satellites are running Wednesday, Thursday and Friday with a total of 27 seats guaranteed. Check out the schedule here.
During the 2013 Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Winter Poker Open, the $1,650 No Limit Hold’em Championship event drew 301 players, which generated a prize pool of $451,500.
Stephen Diamantas defeated Ryan Sponaugle heads-up to take home the $121,900 first place prize money, the trophy, and the guitar that goes to the winner of every Seminole Hard Rock Tampa main event. Sponaugle took home $72,240 for his efforts.
Diamantas topped a final table that featured well-known pros Allen Kessler and Cord Garcia to earn that six-figure payday.
Final table results from the 2013 Winter Poker Open:
1. Stephen Diamantas – $121,900
2. Ryan Sponaugle – $72,240
3. Stephen Korfonta – $47,408
4. Lance “Cord” Garcia – $32,734
5. Joshua Miller – $24,155
6. Allen Kessler – $19,189
7. David DeBoer – $14,674
8. Brandon Vasapolle – $10,610
9. David Tuthill – $7,676
