Coco Poker Open Championship
Level 6: 200/400/50 Ante
Day 1A Entrants: 127

Earlier we mentioned David Prociak’s late night southern run after finishing tenth in the WPT Borgata event. Ryan Van Sanford is another player back down in South Florida after a successful run of his own in Atlantic City.

Van Sanford was already the owner of a WPT title, WSOP Circuit ring, and a Coco Poker Open title from last year when he went north and participated in something called the PokerNews Cup (that oddly did not feature a cup for a trophy). Van Sanford outlasted 119 other players in the $2,150 buy-in to bring nearly $70,000 into the Florida poker economy.

Coco Poker Open Championship
Level 5: 150/300/50 Ante
Day 1A Entrants: 122

We’ve had our fair share of WSOP bracelet winners in today’s field and Loni Harwood was one of the later entrants today. But her time was short and she’ll have to fire another bullet in the game if she wants a piece of the $1 million guaranteed prize pool. Harwood was short at the last break and her seat is no longer occupied.

Harwood came to everyone’s attention during the 2013 World Series of Poker. She cashed six times that summer with three final tables and her first WSOP bracelet. She followed that up last summer when she won her second in the WSOP National Championship. Harwood cashed five more time at the WSOP this past summer including yet another final table appearance.

While she gained national attention for her 2013 WSOP run, Harwood already owned two WSOP Circuit rings and a Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown title before she hit the big time in Vegas.

Coco Poker Open Championship
Level 5: 150/300/50 Ante
Day 1A Entrants: 120

Chris Agnello’s time atop the leaderboard lasted until the second break, but he’s still in no real danger with his 258 big blinds in Level 5. Seminole Hard Rock Poker regular Erik Christensen nearly doubled his starting stack by the time he went on the first break and he doubled it once again over the second two-hour shift.

He’s a few 1K chips shy of 100,000 for a nice, comfortable lead as the Championship creeps closer to the dinner break and closing registration.

Vanessa Rousso was the notable exit in recent action but we noticed SHRP Player of the Year David Prociak making his way out the door as well.

Top stacks and notable names:

Erik Christensen – 96,000 (320 bb)
Chris Agnello – 77,425 (258 bb)
Michael Lewin – 71,950 (240 bb)
David Ring – 69,150 (231 bb)
Isiah Goldman – 60,825 (203 bb)
Jack Hirshchman – 56,850 (190 bb)
Chris Bolek – 56,100 (187 bb)
Paul Gallenbeck – 51,025 (170 bb)
Lascelles Peart – 49,500 (165 bb)
Jacob Snider – 48,375 (161 bb)
Brian Hastings – 43,950 (147 bb)
Marsha Wolak – 42,425 (141 bb)
Stuart Paterson – 40,350 (135 bb)
Aaron Massey – 40,200 (134 bb)
John Dolan – 28,325 (94 bb)
Ian O’Hara – 17,775 (59 bb)
Neil Blumenfield – 14,525 (48 bb)
David Diaz – 13,650 (46 bb)

Coco Poker Open Championship
Level 4: 100/200/25 Ante
Day 1A Entrants: 118

Championship players are on their second break of the day, this time around it’s a 15-minute breather away from the tables. We’ll take another walk amongst the empty seats and see if anyone was able to chase down Chris Agnello over the last two hours.

Coco Poker Open Championship
Level 4: 100/200/25 Ante
Day 1A Entrants: 116

The entrant count slowed down over the fourth level but there’s still plenty of time to run it up higher with more than three hours remaining to register with a deep starting stack.

Former HPT Player of the Year Aaron Massey is part of the Day 1A and he continues to push his stack higher. He went from 25,000 to 40,000 over the first two levels and he’s closing on 50,000 a few hours later.

Tournament staff announced that single table satellites are now available and will award seats into the $1 Million Guaranteed Coco Poker Open Championship.

The buy-in is $565 and two seats are up for grabs on each run. The games will kick off as soon as ten players are registered and will continue to run as long as there is interest.

Information is available at the tournament desk.

Coco Poker Open Championship
Level 3: 75/150/25 Ante
Day 1A Entrants: 105

Players are back in their seats and they are all chasing Chris Agnello in early action. While walking among the empty tables, it was pretty clear Agnello was coming back to the top stack in the room with nearly twice his closest competitor. He was the other player in the hand when Vanessa Rousso had her kings cracked and that set him on the path to more than 80,000 at the first break.

SHRP regular Erik Christensen also had a nice first two levels and is closing in on a double starting stack.

Notable Championship stacks:

Chris Agnello – 82,000 (547 bb)
Erik Christensen – 46,200 (308 bb)
Aaron Massey – 40,000 (267 bb)
John Dolan – 29,700 (198 bb)
Marsha Wolak – 27,500 (183 bb)
Paul Balzano – 25,700 (171 bb)
Ian O’Hara – 24,850 (166 bb)
Neil Blumenfield – 24,700 (165 bb)
David Prociak – 24,600 (164 bb)
Victor Figueroa – 24,500 (163 bb)
Mike Beasley – 24,300 (162 bb)
John Depersio – 22,800 (152 bb)
Stuart Paterson – 20,725 (138 bb)
David Diaz – 19,700 (131 bb)
Zoltan Czinkota – 18,300 (122 bb)
Vanessa Rousso – 18,100 (121 bb)
Brian Hastings – 16,500 (110 bb)

Coco Poker Open Championship
Level 2: 75/150
Day 1A Entrants: 101

Championship players are on their first break of the day shortly after the entrant count hit triple digits.

We’ll take this opportunity to get our first look at some chip counts while they’re away from the tables.

Coco Poker Open Championship
Level 2: 75/150
Day 1A Entrants: 90

The entrant count continues to climb as we move deeper into the afternoon hours and the Championship should hit 100 players before the first break.

John Dolan isn’t the only former November Niner in today’s field. 2015 WSOP Main Event final table member Neil Blumenfield has been a regular presence in South Florida since his 3rd place finish in the big game and would be happy to duplicate Dolan’s Championship win after his November Nine appearance.

Coco Poker Open Championship
Level 2: 75/150
Day 1A Entrants: 75

Vanessa Rousso is a multi-talented individual and today she is putting her poker skills to work. Last night was a different story, she was the guest DJ at the player’s party as she continues to make her name in that field.

It wasn’t a kind first level for the former Big Brother cast member. We caught the action at her table with the board reading and she was facing an all-in bet for 13,600. After several minutes of thinking/talking it through, she called with kings only to have her opponent table for the turned flush. Rousso still has chips but has some work to do to build her stack back up.