Last week, we told you about the upcoming Maryland State Poker Championship being conducted at Maryland Live! in Hanover. This week, we take a trip down the Atlantic seaboard to Pompano Beach, FL, and Harrah’s, where the Florida State Poker Championship is also in action. Over the next ten days, the biggest events on the FSPC schedule will be played out and almost $1 million in guaranteed tournaments will take place.
Final Four Flights of $300,000 Guaranteed No Limit Hold’em Event on Friday and Saturday
The next two days are going to feature the final two flights of the massive $400 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament that opened action on Wednesday. This tournament, which has a $300,000 guaranteed prize pool, has witnessed forty (40) players already make their way through the A-D Flights of the event, with a Top Five leaderboard that currently looks like this:
1. Cristian Rodriguez, 551,000
2. Ramzi Dagher, 505,000
3. Stephen Ibrahim, 477,000
4. Joseph Rossi, 472,000
5. Andrew Jones, 456,000
Players will come to the felt for the unlimited reentry tournament with a stack of 30,000 chips for their usage. Levels through Day One – whatever flight a player is on – will be thirty (30) minutes in length and move up to forty (40) minutes beginning on Day Two. Over the course of the next two days and four more flights, you can expect that this field will at least double, if not triple, as the weekend players are able to make their way to the tables.
On Sunday, the remaining players will come together, where only the final fifty (50) players will earn a cash from the tournament. A min-cash in the tournament will earn a player $2500, while the top prize of $50,000 will go to the eventual champion. It isn’t known what the impact will be should the guarantee be broken.
$500K Main Event Finishes Off Festivities
The tournament that players are waiting for is, of course, the Main Event. The $1700 buy-in tournament will feature three Day One flights, with the first beginning on Thursday, August 17, and the other two running on the subsequent days. This tournament looks to be promising a bit of play for the runners coming to the line.
Over those three flights, the players will receive a stack of 50,000 chips for action. It isn’t stated if players can reenter on the same day, but it does look as if the players can reenter on subsequent days should they bust out of the first or second flight (info is murky on this). Through the first day action, blinds will be at forty (40) minutes, with a kickup to sixty (60) minutes once the three-Day Ones are in the books. Sunday, August 20, will bring the tournament to a close as Day Two action in the $500,000 guaranteed Main Event will play down to a champion.
The action will be about as hot as the Florida weather, so be sure to check out Harrah’s Pompano Beach for all the details on the Florida State Poker Championship. If you are unable to get to the tables, there will be coverage of the tournament through the Harrah’s Pompano Beach Poker Room blog.