$350 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack (Re-Entry)
Level 1: 50/100

While we were watching the color up and counting process from 1A, the evening flight of Event 1 kicked off around them. The entrants from 1B will add on top of the 135 who joined in 1A earlier today and they’ll play the same format.

Players sit down to 16,000 stacks and play 30-minute levels throughout the day. Late registration is open until the end of Level 9, approximately 12am, and unlimited re-entries during that time. Play will end for the night after Level 14 and the survivors will return on Sunday for Day 2.

There’s also an end-of-flight bonus for the chip leader. The player with the most chips when they bag up after Level 14 will earn a $2,500 seat into the $1,000,000 GTD Coco Poker Open Championship.

$350 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack (Re-Entry)
End of Level 14: 2,000/4,000/400 Ante

It was neck-and-neck at the end of the flight with Kenneth Bruno and Casey Kaplan keeping an eye on each other at separate tables. Bruno went on a little heater at the end to barely nudge the $2,500 Coco Poker Open Championship seat for ending the flight with the most chips.

Hyndi Khomutetsky and Lisa Teebagy were the last break leaders and remain among the top of the counts of the 16 players making it through to Day 2 on Sunday.

This is a “best stack forward” tournament so the smaller stacked players can try again tonight or the next two days to build one better.

Flight 1A chip counts (returning to 2,500/5,000/500 Antes):

Kenneth Bruno – 256,000 (51 bb)
Casey Kaplan – 237,000 (47 bb)
Hyndi Khomutetsky – 204,000 (41 bb)
Lisa Teebagy – 193,000 (39 bb)
Matthew Matlock – 166,500 (33 bb)
John Domey – 165,500 (33 bb)
Joelle Guarino – 147,500 (30 bb)
Colby Covington – 142,500 (29 bb)
Karin Powsner – 133,000 (27 bb)
Jeff Silverstein – 115,000 (23 bb)
Bienvenido Santiago – 91,000 (18 bb)
David Hass – 85,500 (17 bb)
Mark Warren – 78,000 (16 bb)
George Berindei – 69,500 (14 bb)
Ronald Campillo – 51,000 (10 bb)
Mike Chang – 32,500 (7 bb)

$350 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack (Re-Entry)
Level 14: 2,000/4,000/400 Ante

The clock is paused for the final level of Flight 1A and they will play four more hands before bagging up. They are down to two tables and it’s a tight race for the chip leader bonus.

We’ll return with the final counts and our leader.

$350 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack (Re-Entry)
Level 12: 1,500/3,000/400 Ante

Players are back in their seats with an hour of action left before they color off the black chips and bag up the remainder for the Sunday return.

We have two women leading the last 26 players of Flight 1A with Hyndi Khomutetsky pacing the field. Her 229,700 is far away the biggest stack with only a handful of players over 100,000. Lisa Teebagy is next in line at 195,400 but plenty of time for anyone to catch them for the $2,500 Championship seat leader bonus.

$350 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack (Re-Entry)
Level 12: 1,200/2,400/300 Ante

Players are off on their final break of the opening flight with 26 players left in contention for the chip leader bonus.

We’ll gather the last round of counts and post them when they return.

$350 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack (Re-Entry)
Level 10: 800/1,600/200 Ante

The field count for 1A locked in at 135 entrants and most of those are gone by now. They broke a table midway through Level 10 to leave just four tables, and 36 players, remaining with a chance to advance to Day 2.

One of those 36 will walk away with a free entry into the $1 Million GTD Championship on October 1. The same is true for every end-of-flight leader for the next five.

$350 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack (Re-Entry)
Level 10: 800/1,600/200 Ante

Level 9 is complete, and with it the registration desk is shutdown for the first flight of Event 1. It looks like the unofficial number will be 134 entrants for the morning session, a fine start to the $250,000 GTD tournament.

This will be the least populated starting day with it building up as the weekend grows.

$350 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack (Re-Entry)
Level 9: 600/1,200/200 Ante

Players are coming back from the second break of the flight with 134 entrants in the game. Several players have fired off multiple times but there are still a few one-shot wonders in the bunch.

With a handful of tables in action, it was easy to pick a few of the top stacks out of the bunch. The biggest belongs to John Domey in the front of the room.

He’s run his 16,000 starting stack up to an impressive 111,500 over the first eight levels putting him in contention for the Championship chip leader bonus. Ronald Campillo may have something to say about it in the end as another one of the top stacked players.

$350 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack (Re-Entry)
Level 6: 300/600/75 Ante

TJ Shulman is a fixture in the Seminole poker tournament rooms whenever something big is running. He’s back with us as we hit 125 players in the first flight.

Shulman has two tournament victories to go with his $370,000 in career earnings and his first came right her during the WPT Regional series in 2012 at Seminole Coconut Creek. He’s looking to repeat that performance and add a Coco Poker Open trophy to his case.

$350 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack (Re-Entry)
Level 3: 150/300/25 Ante

The player count ticked over 100 for the first flight of Event 1, a fine showing so far with many more expected today and the next five flights.

Jay Romano hasn’t had much luck at all today, the local is on at least his third bullet of the day and he’s getting a tour of the tables in play today. Romano is fresh off the plane after a run at the Borgata series in New Jersey where he represented South Florida poker very well, including a 4th place finish in Event 4.

Players are about to head off on their first break of the day with more than four hours left to register.