$50,000 Super High Roller (Re-Entry)
Level 15: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 5 of 28

A familiar cast of characters turned up at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood for the series’ most expensive event, the $50,000 Super High Roller.

There were a total of 28 entries, creating a prizepool close to $1.4 million. The final five players share that money, and that’s where they ended for the night after play was suspended at the end of Level 14.

Here’s who’s left:

Seat 1: Jason Koon – 640,000 (64 bb)
Seat 2: Rainer Kempe – 354,000 (35 bb)
Seat 3: Dietrich Fast – 984,000 (98 bb)
Seat 4: David Peters – 364,000 (36 bb)
Seat 5: Adrian Mateos – 1,158,000 (116 bb)

South Florida hero Jason Mercier is foremost among those who are not still left; he came and went before the dinner break, opting to enter just once.

Stephen Chidwick and Justin Bonomo both battled with short stacks for a long while before succumbing shortly after dinner, and they were soon followed out by Scott Seiver, Stefan Schillhabel, Tom Marchese, and Jake Schindler. Schindler twice, in fact, but he wasn’t alone in that category, by any means. David Cohen, Kathy Lehne, and Erik Seidel also tried more than once, unsuccessfully.

The day was particularly unkind to Byron Kaverman, though.

Kaverman ran premium hands into opponents’ pocket kings twice within the span of 90 minutes or so — once with ace-king and once with pocket queens. Jason Koon eliminated him the first time, Bryn Kenney the second, and Kaverman fired one more bullet before deciding to take the rest of the night off. Kenny was eliminated in eighth place later in the day, incidentally.

Adrian Mateos, on the other hand, won two of the largest pots of the day, and he more or less rode those two hands to his end-of-day chip lead.

It was a set-flopping sort of day for the Spaniard. Mateos flopped a set of queens against Sean Winter’s ace-eight, and Winter ended up trapped in a big pot with a two-pair hand that he couldn’t get away from. Then in the last level of the night, Mateos flopped a set of nines to crack Kathy Lehne’s pocket aces, eliminating her in seventh place and giving him the tournament’s first seven-figure stack.

That elimination also put the field on the money bubble, and Erik Seidel was bleeding chips. Down to just a few big blinds, Seidel actually had a chance to sneak into the money as he sat on the sidelines of an enormous pot that was brewing between Jason Koon and Dietrich Fast.

Fast had four-bet shoved for something like 85 big blinds effective against Koon, who squirmed in his seat for several minutes before surrendering with ace-king. The pot fizzled out preflop much to Seidel’s chagrin, and he was eliminated a few hands later.

The final five players finished out the level and called it a night. All’s well that ends well for Koon and Fast, who both have playable stacks heading into tomorrow’s action.

Fast and his fellow German superstar Rainer Kempe were two of the very last entries into the field, joining during the dinner break in the minutes prior to the close of registration. Kempe also advanced to Day 2, virtually tied in chips with the fifth member of the table, David Peters.

It’s a deep battle right now, with an average stack of 70 big blinds and 90-minute levels that should allow for plenty of play at the start of Day 2. Cards go in the air at 12 p.m.

Here’s what they’re playing for:

1st: $552,160
2nd: $345,100
3rd: $220,864
4th: $151,844
5th: $110,432