WPT Seminole Hard Rock Open Draws 1,207, Alejandro Duque Leads

The World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $3,500 Main Event kicked off Friday and drew an impressive 1,207 entries with a single Day 1 flight. Following 10 levels of action only 476 players return to action with Alejandro Duque leading the field with 320,600.

Kelly Minkin, WPT Champions Club member Jonathan Little and Zo Karim finished in the top 10 stacks. Minkin spoke with the WPT after play and said, “I fired two bullets, my first bullet didn’t go well at all. I wasn’t playing great, I wasn’t hitting flops, I was card dead. So, I really just trickled down to nothing and lost a flip to bust. I re-entered and just ran really well, played really well. I made a lot of thin value-bets on the river, which really helped increase my stack significantly.”

Jeff Gross returned to mainland after spending time with Bill Perkins on the Streamboat in the Caribbean and returns to Day 2. Gross was with Jaime and Matt Staples when Perkins proposed another high stakes prop bet.

The enormous field juiced the prize pool to $3,862,400 for the top 151 finishers. The top seven players earn six-figures with the winner earning $661,283 plus entry to the upcoming Tournament of Champions.

Play for Day 2 resumes at noon local time and they’re scheduled to play another 10 levels before bagging up.

Top Ten Chip Counts

1. Alejandro Duque – 320,600
2. Dantonio Brown – 317,000
3. Kelly Minkin – 280,700
4. Daniel Mijac – 224,100
5. Jonathan Little – 182,200
6. Jean Gaspard – 181,500
7. Phong Vip Nguyen – 181,200
8. Alexander Turyansky – 178,800
9. Zo Karim – 170,000
10. Ubaid Habib – 168,000