Friday, June 2nd: Amaro And Shaw Chop The $20,000 GTD, "Fast" Start To The Weekend

ICYMI: A total of (37) entries made up Thursday's $100 No Limit Hold'em "Monster Stack" ($3,000 GTD), which had a $1,230 posted first place, and was scheduled to pay four spots.  When play reach five-handed, discussions of a deal (and potential "bubble" being paid) began.  These were five players that know each other very well from playing tournaments here at the Isle, so it didn't take long before an agreement was made.

1. Daniel Genachte (Deerfield Beach, FL) $690
2. David Licht (New York, NY) $690
3. Ian Cohen (Pompano Beach, FL) $690
4. Jean Chery (Ellenton, FL) $690
5. Nancy Thomas (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) $240

The players have made one things clear...they favor these $20,000 guaranteed tournaments, as ($239) entries made up last night's $23,183 prize pool.  The $130 buy-in tournament brought out flocks of notable "daily" tournament players, with many grabbing one of the top (30) spots that reached the money.  Some of those to notch another live tournament score on their resume included: Yigal Hen, Robert Transue, Daniel Miller, Willie Wiggins, Robert Kessler, and Francis Margaglione.  The final table ended up being a "who's who" of Isle Poker regulars, and they wanted to play.  The talks of a chop did amount successful, but it wasn't until play was heads up between Manuel Amaro Alvarez and David Shaw.  

1. Manuel Amaro Alvarez (West Palm Beach, FL) $5,000
2. David Shaw (Boca Raton, FL) $4,229
3. Bradford Greeley (Lake Worth, FL) $2,376
4. Earl Gallegos (West Palm Beach, FL) $1,445
5. Tom Millward (Boca Raton, FL) $1,116
6. Karin Powsner (Pompano Beach, FL) $925
7. Ramon Gonzalez (Miami, FL) $788
8. Pantelis Hatzikontos (Boca Raton, FL) 672
9. Yigal Hen (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) $542
10. Steven Cabas (Miami, FL) $464

Tournaments: Those who follow the "daily tournament schedule" each month may have already noticed a few different wrinkles in June.  One of those changes takes place this evening, as the $100 No Limit Hold'em ($10,000 GTD) is replaced with a $75 No Limit Hold'em ($5,000 GTD).  This new event sees players sitting down to starting stacks of 15,000 units, and playing (20) minute levels throughout.  The action gets underway at 6:00pm, and should eventually wrap up shorty after midnight (for those that are interested in timing of the event).

Promotions: From the moment the doors to the poker room open at 9:00am, the high hand promotions begin this Friday. From 9:00am-12:00pm, qualifying high hands will be awarded $100 every (10) minutes.  These "turbo high hands" usually see four or five rollovers in a row, making this one of the more exciting promotions for the players who are in the room "early."  The promotion then transitions to $250 every (20) minutes (from 12:00pm-4:00pm), followed by another jump from 4:00pm-12:00am.  That last jump sees those with the qualifying high hand earn $500, with rollovers applying throughout both time periods.

6:00pm - $75 No Limit Hold'em ($5,000 GTD)

- Players will begin with a 15,000 starting stack

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

- Alternates and late entries will receive full stacks

- Levels are (20) minutes in length throughout