Friday, July 28th: FSPC Main Event Started Strong, Continues On Today

ICYMI: Yesterday was the opening flight of the 2017 Florida State Poker Championships $1,500 Main Event, with a total of (125) entries making up the field.  That total equates to $168,750 towards the overall prize pool, which is guaranteed to be $500,000.  The first flight is most always the smallest when it comes to multi-day tournaments, so that half-million guarantee should be in the rear-view mirror at some point tomorrow morning.

The field was more of a "who's who" when it comes to the Florida poker community, with names like Ian O'Hara, Dominique Mosley, Joshua Kay, Jake Schwartz, Joey Couden, Daniel Pearlman, and Anthony Astarita in action (just to name a few).  We also saw some winners from earlier in the series looking to parlay they scores, with Diane Linke (Event #7 winner) and Alexandre Fradin (Event #14 runner-up) playing in the flight, but unsuccessful in bagging chips.

The day belonged to Danny Shiff (Miami, FL), who assumed the flight's chip lead during Level 6, and never looked back.  While players across the field did their best to draw closer to Shiff, he seemingly pulled away every time it mattered.  Shiff ended up bagging an astounding Day 2 stack of 535,600, which will be over (223) big blinds when play resumes on Sunday (12:00pm).  To put things in perspective, the player who bagged second in chips (Michael Amato), put just over 298,000 in the bag to end the night.  

Other players to bag chips for Sunday's Day 2 included Salomon Cohen (264,700), Al Schein (175,000), Austin Peck (153,800), satellite winner William Underdown (132,700), Justin Fawbush (109,300), and Jake Schwartz (45,600).  

Tournaments: This afternoon marks the second starting flight of the FSPC $1,500 Main Event, with the cards getting in the air at 12:00pm.  In mirroring yesterday's structure, players will sit down to starting stacks of 30,000 units, and levels lasting (50) minutes in length (those will transition to 60 minutes on Day 2).  Registration is open throughout the flight, including on Day 2, until the first cards are in the air.

This evening is also the final satellite of the series, with the $175 Super Satellite into the Main Event kicking off at 6:00pm.  There are (10) seats guaranteed, but from what we've seen the past few days, a couple more could be available once registration closes.

Promotions: The weekend kicks off with a day that's full of bonus high hands, starting the moment the doors open.  From 9:00am-12:00pm, $100 will be awarded every (10) minutes to qualifying high hands, with rollovers.  This promotion is very exciting, as we've seen rollovers that are worth between $500-$1,000 on a consistent basis.  

That period is followed by some "richer" high hands, with $250 awarded every (20) minutes from 12:00pm-4:00pm, and $500 awarded every (20) minutes from 4:00pm-12:00am.  Rollovers apply with this promotion as well, but with so many tables in play, it's not something that happens as often.

12:00pm - FSPC Event #20 (Flight 1B): $1,500 No Limit Hold'em ($500,000 GTD) 

- Players start with 30,000 in tournament chips

- Late and re-entries for the first (12) levels, to include before the 1st card on Day 2

- Alternates and late entries will start with a full stack

- Level will last (50) minutes (Day 1), transitioning to (60) minutes Day 2+

- All Day 1's will play (12) complete levels or until 13% of the field remains (whichever comes first)

6:00pm - $175 No Limit Hold'em Super Satellite Into Event #20 (10 Seats Guaranteed)

- Players start with 12,000 in tournament chips

- Late and re-entries for the first (8) levels

- Alternates and late entries will start with a full stack

- Level will last (20) minutes throughout the event