Only a two more days remain in the 2016 Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Winter Poker Open and today was the penultimate starting flight of the Championship. The second of three starting days drew 112 entrants to push the past the $300,000 guaranteed prize pool with a full flight tomorrow to run it up.
Zo Karim (pictured above) earned his seat in the game thanks to his top twenty place in the 2016 Seminole Hard Rock Player of the Year campaign and he used it well. He was the leader for much of the day when he went on self-described “lock down mode”. Karim finished among the leaders and put 223,500 in his bag.
Defending champ John Templeton spent his entire day seated next to Karim and will return with 214,000. Seminole Hard Rock Poker team member Michael Laake also finished well and his 245,500 is good enough for a top five returning stack so far.
The overall flight leader was SHRP regular Jacobo Fernandez as he quietly pushed his stack up to 260,000 for end-of-day honors. A big bag but everyone is still chasing Flight A leader Matthew Leechy and his 339,000.
The final flight of the Championship kicks off at 11am on Saturday and we expect another great crowd. We’ll push the prize pool over $400,000 and see how high it can go.