Field Heads to Dinner on Day 1 at $10k WPT SHR Poker Finale with Field Size at 320

NOTE: Today’s main focus of WPT Live Updates will remain on the crucial play-down stretch in the $3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown (21 players currently remain), but there will be summary reports from the $10,000 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale at the breaks. When the $3,500 event gets down to the final two tables later this evening, coverage of the $10,000 event will increase.

The field is now on dinner break on Day 1 at the $10,000 buy-in WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale, and the field size has grown to 320 players in this single-entry event. Registration remains open until the start of Day 2 at 12:00 noon ET on Monday, so players still have time to join the field in this prestigious event.

The new batch of players that have joined the field include Kevin Eyster, Alex Queen, Paul Volpe, Jake Bazeley, Sam Panzica, Chris Klodnicki, Mike Shariarti, Keven Stammen, and the defending champion in this event, Chino Rheem (holds 44,500 at the dinner break).

Here is a look at some of the big stacks around the room when the field headed to dinner.

Eric Afriat – 171,000
Ben Tarzia – 148,000
Matt Haugen – 143,000
James Romero (pictured above) – 140,000
Ray Qartomy – 122,100
George Dolofan – 117,000

Ben Tarzia (pictured above) is seated at a tough table with Matt Haugen and Chance Kornuth that probably has more chips on it than any other table in the room, but the tough table draw hasn’t stopped him from accumulating one of the largest chip stacks in the tournament at the dinner break. We caught up with him for a few minutes at the break, and he filled us in on his first half-dozen levels.

“I started off at a table of death, it was a rough, rough table, but I ground it out to about 65k there. And then they moved me over and I got caught in between Matt and Chance. They were going back and forth because they both had big stacks. I sat down with about 70, and got blinded out to about 50, stole a pot here and there, ran it back up to 60-65,” said Tarzia when he was asked how the early going went for him today.

“And then I woke up with a tricky little hand. I was on the button and I looked down at two black aces. It’s raised, called, called. And Matt goes to 7k, so I’m in a tough spot, and I end up just flatting. I want to see what the flop looks like. I mean it’s early in the tournament, we’re still really deep. One guy folded, one guy called. The flop is 9-8-3 rainbow, check, Matt leads out 7,800, I went to 16,800. Fold, Matt basically just snap-jammed, put it all in. I went into the tank for a few minutes. I said, ‘If I walked into pocket nines, I walked into pocket nines.’ I call with aces and he had J-10. Bricks the king on the turn, and the 4 on the river,” said Tarzia about the hand that sent him to the top of the chip standings.

“I think the caliber of players is great here, I think there is a good mix of maybe not-so-knowledgeble players, and a big mix of really super-knowledgable players. I prefer playing higher buy-ins, shorter fields, there’s a lot less landmines to dodge. Florida has always been good to me, I run pretty good here,” said Tarzia when he was asked it he had a preference between the $3,500 event and the $10,000 events held this week at the Seminole Hard Rock.

The field will return at 10 p.m. tonight, and then they will play two more levels before the end of the day.