$350 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 7: 300/600 with a 75 ante Flight A Entries: 126
Daniel “Soulja Boy” Castillo
The clock is ticking down on Flight A with 126 entries and one hour left to increase the count. Even if we don’t see another player join, that’s a great start to the tournament and nearly a 30% jump from 2017.
Among the big crowd, we found Tampa favorite son Daniel “Soulja Boy” Castillo. He’s still looking for his second Tampa win and he makes a good showing at our recurring nightly tournaments.
$350 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 6: 200/400 with a 50 ante Flight A Entries: 125
Bill McKown
Bill McKown is part of the huge opening flight field and trying to make his mark here in Tampa. He hails from this area but his biggest results have come at our sister property in Hollywood including his top two. McKown went deep in the $10 Million Guarantee Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship in 2016 and last year he almost made a Big 4 final table.
He’s in a large flight today and they still have more than 90 minutes left with registration open.
$350 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 5: 150/300 with a 25 ante Flight A Entries: 115
Brandon Byars
Flight A players returned from the first break and the crowd continues to surge. They passed over 100 entries before the break and we have 115 shortly after the restart. There were 98 entries in this flight last year so we’re looking at a big number before the four flights are complete.
Brandon Byars had a rough start to his day, dropping down to 7,000 from his starting 20,000 but he’s moving back in the right direction. He cashed in this event two years ago but had his run ended shorter than expect when his aces were cracked late in the day.
$350 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 4: 100/200 Flight A Entries: 99
Russell Waggoner drags a huge pot
Whilst writing the previous post about Bill Isbell, Bill McKown gave us a yell to come and check out a hand. And it was crazy.
It was impossible to tell the preflop betting action but the carnage was visible. There were four players all in, the cards were tabled, and the dealer was working out the various side pots. Russell Waggoner had the biggest stack and the biggest hand.
His was ahead of and and . Most of the players favored the ducks but since Marvin “Duckman” Karlins was not around, the queens held on the board. The fives and deuces were playing the board and the queens topped them all to give Waggoner the scoop, a triple knockout, and 70,000 before the first break.
Bill Isbell had the fives and will have to try again.
$350 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 3: 75/150 Flight A Entries: 88
Bill Isbell
Bill Isbell was having a great run in Flight E of the Event 1. At one point his was the massive chip leader and nothing seemed to stand in his way from coming back for Day 2 among the leaders. Then everything fell apart and a series of unfortunate hands dropped him out short of bagging.
He’s hoping today duplicates the first part and not the last.
$350 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 2: 50/100 Flight A Entries: 76
Karl Manouchakian
We continue to see a nice run of players entering Event 3 on a Monday morning. We are only 20 entries away from topping last year’s first flight number and it should be no problem hitting triple digits.
Karl Manouchakian took his seat in the first level and he’s already pushing players around. With a board reading , he moved all in to test his opponent. He thought for a few moments before folding the hand and sending the pot to Manouchakian.
$350 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 1: 25/50 Flight A Entries: 52
We are underway in the poker room with the first flight of Event 3 already running ahead of the pace last year. We had 37 entries at the start in 2017 and that flight topped out at 98 entries. It looks like we will continue the series trend with bigger numbers year-to-year.
Monday morning hits the reset button on the WPTDeepStacks series. The first two events are complete and we start a brand new one with another multi-day tournament.
Event 3 is a $350 buy-in tournament with four starting flights over two days featuring a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool. It kicks off at the top of the hour and the second flight runs this evening at 6pm.
Each entrant will start out with a 20,000 stack and all Day 1 levels last 30 minutes. Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 9 at 3:30pm and they will continue through 14 full levels. Anyone with chips at that point will put them in a bag for a return on Wednesday for Day 2.
We are set to go in the poker room and anticipate a fine start to the week.
$100,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Players begin with 20,000 in chips
Day 1 levels last 30 minutes; Day 2 levels last 40 minutes
Late registration available until start of Level 9
Day 1 will end after Level 14 or Tournament Director discretion
Players participating in multiple Day 1’s may choose their best stack for start of Day 2
2018 WPTDeepStacks Tampa Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa, Florida Event 1 $200,000 Guaranteed $570 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Entries: 797 Prize Pool: $398,500 June 7-10, 2018
Andrew Pacifico
The 2018 Seminole Hard Rock Tampa WPTDeepStacks series kicked off with a multi-day tournament that hit big marks along the way. Event 1 crushed the $200,000 Guarantee and Andrew Pacifico took home the biggest piece of the prize pool after going from short stack to final table domination. He earned more than $60,000 along with a seat in the $1,100 WPTDeepStacks Main Event.
Pacifico was down to only a half dozen big blinds late in the day but ran it up, hit the final table with the chip lead, and rode it to the victory.
“When you’re down to that short of a stack it’s very easy to play,” he commented after his win. “The first all-in I was behind but the next four all-ins I was ahead.”
“It put me in a position to kind of chill out and pick my spots.”
Event 1 featured six starting flights over the first three days of the series and they combined to put 797 entries into the game. The players generated a prize pool just shy of $400,000 and the last 100 players shared some of that money.
Day 2 saw 152 players return and each had a shot at the title. Pacifico held a top ten stack for the return after bagging the Flight E chip lead but there were plenty of tough players trying to chase him down. Wally Maddah, Vitor Coelho, Carlos Loving, Derek Bowers, and 2016 WPTDeepStacks Tampa Main Event champion Anthony Astarita were among those vying for the title.
The tournament quickly made into the money before the first Day 2 break and there was a steady parade to the payout desk. Event 1 was down to 16 players at the dinner break and the final table not long after they returned.
Pacifico had the lead to start the final table but Yong Liu was not far behind. One big hand swung even more chips to Pacifico while it was a shocking end for Liu. His turned set ran into Pacifico’s turned straight sending Pacifico further out in front. He held 6.6 million of the 16 million in play with eight players still in contention.
“I had to recheck my cards,” Pacifico said of the hand. “I had to make sure I had the nuts. And I did.”
“I was actually pretty shocked that he had out. I thought he was drawing dead, I’m glad the board didn’t pair.”
Liu wasn’t drawing dead but he was out in ninth and Pacifico held 6.6 million of the 16 million in play with eight players remaining.
Paul Lenkeit saw his aces get cracked with seven players remaining and that set the table for some negotiations. Pacifico earned the title along with the lion’s share of the prize pool courtesy of his huge lead. His official payout was $60,395 plus his WPTDeepStacks Main Event seat.
“I guess I have to drive back down,” Pacifico laughed.
Pacifico transitioned from playing Magic the Gathering into poker after meeting some players who were involved with both. He’s been playing for two decades and was a professional for six years. Now he does real estate and poker training when he’s not at the tables.
It was a great start to the WPTDeepStacks series and we expect to maintain the momentum as we head into the three remaining tournaments.
Congratulations to Pacifico on his biggest career win and thanks to our players for kicking things off with a bang.
Final table results:
1st: Andrew Pacifico – $60,395 + $1,100 Main Event seat* 2nd: Nick Avena – $35,255 * 3rd: Charlie Kapetanakos – $34,111 * 4th: Juan Rodriguez – $30,779 * 5th: Oscar Lindo – $29,811 * 6th: Nick Luczyk – $18,755 * 7th: Paul Lenkeit – $11,902 8th: Ahmad Hamoush – $9,466 9th: Yong Liu – $7,098 10th: Robert Urspruch – $5,842 * – denotes results of a six-way deal
was ahead of 
and 
and 
. Most of the players favored the ducks but since Marvin “Duckman” Karlins was not around, the queens held on the 
board. The fives and deuces were playing the board and the queens topped them all to give Waggoner the scoop, a triple knockout, and 70,000 before the first break.
, he moved all in to test his opponent. He thought for a few moments before folding the hand and sending the pot to Manouchakian.
