$300 No Limit Hold’em $25,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 9: 1,000/1,500 with a 1,500 ante Flight B Entries: 72
Registration closed for the final flight of the $250 No-Limit Hold’em tournament with 72 entries, putting the combined field at 114 and creating a prize pool worth $28,500.
The last nine players will advance to Day 2 tomorrow at 6 pm. Player must bag chips to cash in the tournament.
We will post the payout information and seat draw tomorrow.
With two events in the books, we have our first look at the Signature Poker Series Tournament Leaderboard.
No surprise that last night’s big Event 1 champ, Huicun Qiao, sits at the top, thanks to his outright $82K win against a tough field. The rest of that final table, plus a few spots lower, earned a lot of points, with Event 2 winner Michael Gross in 13th.
We have one more trophy event this evening, and those numbers will move around again.
Up for grabs at the end of the series, the top spot on the leaderboard will win a Denago Rover XL6 LI golf cart to show off to their friends. Second through tenth place on the leaderboard will earn some cash.
$600 Mega Stack No-Limit Hold’em $75,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 14: 3,000/5,000 with a 5,000 ante Flight B Players Remaining: 5 of 35
Roberto Mello
Flight B could have dragged out for a while, with very deep stacks and plenty of time. But Cheri Ivan lost a big flip after the third break and the five remaining players advanced to Day 2 on Wednesday.
Roberto Melo ran hot late and bagged 582,000 for the overall chip lead with one more flight to go.
We need 63 in the final flight on Tuesday to reach the $75,000 guarantee, so we need a nice turnout to get there.
Roberto Melo – 582,000 (116 bb) Richard Leyberman – 340,000 (68 bb) Jeffrey Uligian – 182,000 (36 bb) Ori Remen – 179,000 (36 bb) Randy Raji – 114,000 (23 bb)
$300 No Limit Hold’em $25,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 1: 100/200 with a 200 ante
The second and final flight of SPS Event 4 gets underway at 6 pm and we have a little work to do. The $300 buy-in tournament has a $25,000 guaranteed prize pool, picked up 42 entries yesterday and we need 58 today to reach the mark.
Might be some added value here.
Players sit with 25K stacks and all levels last 30 minutes. Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 9 at 10:30 pm.
They will continue until 12.5% of the field remains and survivors will come back tomorrow at 6 pm to play it out for the title.
$25,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Players begin with 25,000 in chips
Levels last 30 minutes
Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9 (10:30pm)
2026 Tampa Signature Poker Series Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa, Florida Event 5 $400 Omaha 8/Stud 8 Entries: 63 Prize Pool: $20,790 July 20, 2026
Registration closed for the $400 Omaha 8/Stud 8 tournament with 63 entries, creating a prize pool worth $20,790. The last eight spots will be paid with $800 for a min-cash and $7,370 up top plus the SPS trophy to the winner.
Another great turnout for another non-hold’em event with 56 entries in the mix. Registration closes at 4:30 pm after the second break and we’ll see another big number.
A few friends in the field include Chris Labrie, Cary Rosenthal, Nick Scholz, AJ Kelsall, Wally Maddah, John Kennedy, John Alegria, and Event 2 champ Michael Gross.
$600 Mega Stack No-Limit Hold’em $75,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 9: 1,000/1,500 with a 1,500 ante Flight B Players Remaining: 18 of 35
Registration closed for Flight B of the $600 Mega Stack with 35 new entries, putting the combined total at 82 for the tournament. We still need another 63 entries for the final flight tomorrow to surpass the $75,000 so there might be some added value.
Action will continue until only five players remain and survivors return on Wednesday at 11 am for Day 2. Players must bag chips to cash in the tournament.
2026 Tampa Signature Poker Series Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa, Florida Event 1 $500 No-Limit Hold’em $250,000 Guaranteed Entries: 1,181 Prize Pool: $496,020 July 15 – 19, 2026
Huicun Qiao, 2026 SPS Event 1 Champion
The opening event on the 2026 Signature Poker Series schedule was a $500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament that attracted 1,181 entries over seven starting flights. After a long, tough battle, Huicun Qiao took the top spot outright for $82,090.
Our players turned the $250,000 guarantee into a prize pool worth $496,020 and 151 players made Day 2 in the money. Andreas Prinsen took advantage of the best-stack-forward format; he min-cashed his smaller bag and rode his bigger bag to a 17th-place finish.
The tournament created a deep, talented final table that took more than five ours to decide the title. Qiao started behind in the heads-up against John Dolan but quickly doubled up and flopped a set of eights against Dolan’s flopped paired ace to win the title.
Congrats to Huicen on the win and thanks to everyone for starting off the series on a great turnout.
2026 Tampa Signature Poker Series Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa, Florida Event 2 $400 Limit Omaha 8 Entries: 73 Prize Pool: $24,090 July 19, 2026
Michael Gross, 2026 SPS Event 2 Champ
The first trophy of the 2026 Signature Poker Series schedule was awarded in Event 2, the $400 Limit Omaha 8 tournament that drew 73 entries for a prize pool worth $24,090. Michael Gross cruised through the long final table and took the top prize of $5,127 after a five-way deal.
