Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 10: 800/1,600/200 Ante

Level 9 comes to an end, and Level 10 begins with increased blinds of 800-1,600 and a 200 ante. This will be the last level of the night, and action should end around midnight.

With 369 players remaining from an official field of 907, the average chip stack is about 73,750 (46 big blinds).

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 9: 600/1,200/200 Ante

A player moves all in UTG+1 for 10,200, the player in the hijack calls, and SHRPO Event 16 winner Rick Alvarado reraises from the big blind to 30,000. The hijack folds.

The UTG+1 player turns over , and he needs to improve to survive against Alvarado’s .

The board comes — the UTG+1 player pairs his jack on the turn, but improves no further as the pocket aces hold up for Alvarado to win the pot and bust the short stack.

Rick Alvarado  –  118,000  (98 bb)

After the eliminated player leaves, the players at the table talk about how that was the second time that has happened — somebody moved all in, and Alvarado was in the big blind and looked down to find aces. Alvarado said he even looked at the UTG+1 player as he moved all in and said, “Hope I don’t have aces again.” (Alvarado didn’t check his hand until the action reached him.)

In our Event 16 recap, we mistakenly listed Alvarado as being raised in Ontario, Canada, but it was actually Ontario, California — oops. You can check out the corrected recap on Alvarado’s SHRPO trophy win (where he refused to chop) by clicking here.

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 9: 600/1,200/200 Ante

Busted @shrpo main event, but loved this structure and the old school dog fight one bullet

— John Racener (@racener) August 16, 2015

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 9: 600/1,200/200 Ante

A careful scan of the field during the break revealed only two players with at least 200,000 in chips. The current chipleader is Ari Engel.

Ari Engel  –  235,300  (196 bb)
Ryan Rivers  –  228,100  (190 bb)

A longer list of chip counts from the break will be posted soon.

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 9: 600/1,200/200 Ante

The players return from break to begin Level 9, with increased blinds of 600-1,200 and a 200 ante.

Registration is now closed. The field size is 907 players, and with 426 players remaining, the average chip stack is a little less than 64,000 (53 big blinds).

Action will continue tonight until the end of Level 10, right around midnight.

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 8: 500/1,000/100 Ante

With the board showing on the river, Ryan Tepen moved all in UTG+1, and his opponent (UTG) thought for a while before calling.

Tepen turned over for runner-runner quad deuces, and his opponent sat there stunned for a few moments, reluctant to show his cards. (Though it seemed pretty clear he didn’t have pocket fours.) Tepen’s opponent eventually tried to muck, but since it was an all-in situation, the dealer flipped over his cards so everyone could see — for a full house, fours full of deuces. Tepen won the pot to double up in chips.

Ryan Tepen  –  170,000  (170 bb)

Across the room, a player moved all in under the gun for 10,100, and Brian Yoon called from the button with . The short stack turned over , and he needed to improve to stay alive.

The board came , and the pocket queens held up for Yoon to win the pot and bust the other player.

Brian Yoon  –  132,000  (132 bb)

Meanwhile, Ari Engel, who was among the chipleaders at the dinner break, has only increased the size of his chip stack to about 240,000 since then.

The always-talkative Travell Thomas, sitting at the same table, said Engel has their entire table covered, and said we just missed a big hand where Engel cracked aces with aces or something like that. Engel just smiled behind his big chip stack.

Ari Engel  –  240,000  (240 bb)

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 8: 500/1,000/100 Ante

The player appreciation party @shrpo looked like so much fun I decided to bust. Gonna go see if I can eat and drink 5k worth

— Ray Henson (@Ray_Henson) August 16, 2015

ALMOST wish I didn’t have 64k @ 800 in $5k/$5MM so I could go at the players’ party @ Kuro at 9! Free food/open bar pic.twitter.com/IpU04O6SB6

— Matt Stout (@MattStoutPoker) August 16, 2015

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 8: 500/1,000/100 Ante

Level 7 comes to an end, and Level 8 begins with increased blinds of 500-1,000 and a 100 ante. With 540 players remaining from a field of 905, the average chip stack is about 50,300 (50 big blinds).

Registration remains open until the beginning of Level 9, around 10:00 pm.

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 7: 400/800/100 Ante

There’s been a recent trend in big events for some of the women to create a pool among themselves as a Ladies’ Last-Longer, and that modern tradition is continuing here at SHRPO:

With the last longer ladies on dinner of the @shrpo main. @e_tay @abbeydaniels1 @AdventuresPoker @JessicaDawley pic.twitter.com/KnWBE1KRmK

— Xuan Liu (@xxl23) August 16, 2015

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 7: 400/800/100 Ante

Chipleader Brian Phillis was the only player above 200,000 at the dinner break — he had 204,700. Nobody else even had 160,000.

Krystal Seiling was fifth in chips at the dinner break with 142,800. At the inaugural SHRPO event two years ago, Seiling finished 12th in the $10 million guarantee, earning $116,350.

Ari Engel is a familiar face on the tournament circuit, with more than $2.1 million in live earnings, an HPT title, and seven WSOP Circuit rings. At the dinner break, Engel was fourth in chips with 153,200.