Day 2 of the ongoing Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $5,250 Championship was just as action-packed as the tournament’s Day 1A and Day 1B, during which its starting flights were played. During the second official day of action, the field of 266, who returned at Seminole Hard Rock Casino Hollywood, was reduced to just 30 players.
Aaron Mermelstein headed the pack of survivors at the tables of the host venue sometime in the second half of the day and never looked back. The player secured his leading position by eliminating his table mate Ashton Griffin in 45th place. Mermelstein won a huge pot that saw his stack swell up to over 1.8 million. From that point in play onwards, the poker pro from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania did nothing else but extend his advantage and grow his momentum.
Mermelstein is a known name in the live poker field. The player has more than $2 million in live tournament earnings, accumulated over the course of several years and through in-the-money finishes in some of the world’s most prestigious tournaments. Here it is interesting to note that Mermelstein is a two-time WPT Main Tour Main Event winner.
He won his first title, which came with his largest live cash, back in 2015 when he topped the fiercely competitive field of the WPT Borgata Winter Open $3,500 Main Event for $712,305. Title number two came several month later, when Mermelstein bested the WPT Maryland Live! $3,500 Main Event, good for $250,222. The poker professional has the chance to increase his bankroll substantially, as he is vying for the $754,083 payout the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship has in stock for its future champion.
A total of 887 entries paid the event’s buy-in to contend for a portion of the $3-million guaranteed prize pool. The huge interest in the tournament eventually grew the prize money to $4,301,950. The prize pool was split in 111 payouts for the top 111 finishers. The bubble burst on Day 2 and three players busted at the same time afterwards to split the min-cash of $7,528.
As mentioned above, Mermelstein will be leading the remaining 30 players into Day 3 of play. The player was the only one to accumulate a 2-million-plus stack, entering Day 3 action with a total of 2,706,000 and well ahead of what had remained of the tournament’s field. Adam Levy bagged and tagged the second largest stack last night with a total of 1,960,000 in chips. Yi Chi Li will enter Day 3 competition third in chips with a total of 1,816,000.
Notables still in contention include Shannon Shorr, Scott Clements, Joel Harwood, father of popular female poker pro Loni Harwood, and Odie Dardon, among others. Several of the popular players who failed to make it through Day 2, but made their way to the payout desk were Jonathan Jaffe, Ari Engel, Shaun Deeb, and Neil Blumenfield.
Day 3 play is set to resume at noon local time at Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The remaining hopefuls will play down to the official nine-handed final table.
