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The 13-day long 2018 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) that began on August 2 has already crowned a plethora of winners.
One of the prime tournaments of the series, the $50,000 Super High Roller event saw some epic action on the felts. Besting a field of 25 entries, seasoned poker pro Elio Fox won the title for a glittering top prize of $500,000. The tournament win is Fox’s fifth title this year. At the 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Fox claimed his career-second gold bracelet in the $10,000 Turbo Bounty event.
The series opened with the $570 Deep Stack NLH event that obliterated its $1 Million guarantee by attracting a massive 3,064 participants that generated a whopping prize pool of $1,532,000. After a 5-day run, Matt Edge won the title for $196,150. Edge entered a three-way deal with John Miller and Ray Romano who locked up $191,788 and $159,813 respectively, for their second and third place finishes.
Meanwhile, Mark Dube has picked up two titles at the ongoing series. Dube outlasted a 231-entry field to win the $570 Six-Max NLH (Single Re-entry). He bagged a payday of $25,120 for his win. Dube then went on to win the $360 PLO Six-Max where he bested a field of 114 runners to walk away with the top prize of $34,200.
Alongside these tournaments, the Jeff Conine Charity Poker Classic concluded, with Randall Fernandez from Florida picking up the trophy along with $5,000 in prize money and a seat worth $5,250 to the Championship event.
With the $3 Million GTD Championship Event kicking off today, action will be intense and exciting enough at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, in Hollywood, Florida this weekend!
The $50,000 Super High Roller featured a $1,000,000 guarantee this year and with 25 players in the field, the guarantee was surpassed by close to a quarter of a million. Eliminations sent most of the players out of the field on the first day itself and only the top three finalists resumed play on Day 2.
The top five places made it in the money. Many big high stakes names were in the mix, including Eric Seidel, Stephen Chidwick, Jake Schindler and Sean Winter. However none of them could advance to the final day.
Christopher Hunichen was sent packing by Dan Shak in a hand where Shak raised to 30,000, Hunichen moved all in for 97,000 and Shak called with the . Hunichen tabled and he was clearly at risk. On the board, Shak flopped a set of jacks and Hunichen couldn’t improve. He was eliminated in fifth place.
Following the elimination of Almedin Imsirovic in fourth place, the play was halted for the day. High roller Dan Shak bagged the overnight chip lead on the three-handed table, followed by Fox. Giuseppe Iadisernia was the shortest stack among the three.
Final Day Recap
Action on the final day saw the three contenders giving it all that they had to grab the title. Giuseppe Iadisernia was the first player to exit, after he called Shak’s all in move from the small blind. Iadisernia held the against Shak’s . Shak’s hand was superior and with the board missing both players, Iadisernia exited in third place.
The heads-up began with Dan Shak trailing Fox closely with 1,350,000 in chips against Fox’s 1,150,000. The final showdown didn’t last long. Fox was able to take a dominating lead, and in the final hand, on a board of , Shak checked to Fox who led out for 80,000. Shak check-raised all-in and Fox made the call holding the for an ace-high straight. Shak who tabled had a chance to make a full house but the on the river locked up the title for Fox and Shak had to settle for a runner-up finish.
Final Table Results (USD)
1. Elio Fox – $500,000
2. Dan Shak – $305,000
3. Giuseppe Iadisernia – $190,000
4. Almedin Imsirovic – $130,000
5. Christopher Hunichen – $100,000
The opening event of the series, $570 Deep Stack NLH ran its course over five days of poker action between 3,064 runners. Proving his mettle on the felts, Matt Edge took down the title along with a payday of $196,150 for his efforts. On the final table, Edge entered a three-way deal with John Miller and Jay Romano.
“Day 1 was rough. I was down to 10K early,” Edge said, talking about his run in the event.“But I played steady and progressed through the day and was able to bag up a top ten stack at the end of the day.”
This is Edge’s best live tournament win yet. Prior to the title, Edge had $76,472 in tournament earnings that included $18,150 for his 15th place finish in the 2015 World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Harrah’s Cherokee $1,675 Main Event.
A total of 300 players made it in the money in the event including Daniel Fuhs (13th for $9,958), Chad Eveslage (23rd for $6,385), Tony Utnage (100th for $2,298), Will ‘The Thrill’ Failla (121st for $1,838), Dan Heimiller (154th for $1,409), and Nancy Birnbaum (275th for $1,057).
Final Table Recap
Ido Ashkenazi, Domenico Albano and Jeff Trudeau exited the final table in quick succession in 10th, ninth and eighth place respectively.
Don Vu’s ace-jack lost to Jay Romano’s pocket eights and he fell in seventh place.
Tom Nguyen followed him in sixth place after losing a flip with pocket tens to Romano`s king-queen, who rivered a straight to double up.
Noah Muallem ran his ace-nine into Edge’s ace-queen and fell out in fifth place. Edge then sent Andre Rakusa out in fourth place with pocket kings against the latter’s ace-jack.
The final three players then struck a deal based on their stack sizes, and Edge who held the biggest stack, was declared the champion while John Miller was declared runner-up and Romano took third place in the official results.
Final Table Results (USD)
1. Matt Edge – $196,150*
2. John Miller – $191,788*
3. Jay Romano – $159,813*
4. Andre Rakusa – $94,601
5. Noam Muallem – $76,983
6. Tom Nguyen – $60,514
7. Don Vu – $44,428
8. Jeffrey Trudeau – $29,874
9. Domenico Albano – $21,448
10. Ido Ashkenazi – $13,788
*denotes a three-way deal
A total of 231 players entered the $570 Six-Max NLH (Single Re-Entry) event and beating the challenges on the field, local player Mark Dube won the title to earn the top prize of $25,120.
“I ran really well, especially early on and throughout the tournament, I hit a ton of sets,” Dube said, after the win.“It went better than I could have asked for. Most hands went my way.”
Final Table Recap
Dube entered the final table holding only a medium sized stack but doubled up through Jason Young.
Kharlin Sued was eliminated in the seventh place and Manual Suarez, who bounced out in sixth place, followed him to the rail. Dube then eliminated Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi in fifth place.
Over the final two hours, the four finalists kept at it in pursuit of the title. Dube later sent Jason Young out in fourth place and was responsible for the elimination of Dewey Raines in third place.
He confronted Brock Wilson in the heads-up match where in the final hand, Wilson went all in with nine-seven suited but was beat by Dube’s ten-seven. The board ran out clean and just like that Dube claimed the title.
Final Table Results (USD)
1. Mark Dube – $25,120
2. Brock Wilson – $17,095
3. Dewey Raines – $11,850
4. Jason Young – $8,385
5. Michael Mizrachi – $6,055
6. Manuel Suarez – $4,465
7. Kharlin Sued – $3,360
The $360 Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Max event drew 114 participants creating a $34,200 prize pool. It was the second event taken down by Mark Dube at the ongoing series. Though Dube entered the final table with a short stack, he went on an upward swing and never looked back.
“I think I only had about 50,000 at that point,” Dube recalled later. “And I got aces in versus kings and flopped quad aces. So that was good. Obviously, if I lose that, I’m out.”
As the eliminations on the final table narrowed the field down to the final two, Dube went on to defeat Dewey Raines in heads-up play to win his second title of the series.
Final Table Results (USD)
1. Mark Dube – $9,140
2. Dewey Raines – $5,940
3. Gabriel Ramos – $3,980
4. Tyler Denson – $2,750
5. Manuel Suarez – $1,960
6. Seth Weinberg – $1,440
7. Josh Zur – $1,095
The seventh annual Jeff Conine Charity Poker Classic attracted a total of 382 participants that broke its previous year’s participation record of 307 runners. Of the prize pool, $106,960 went to the Conine Clubhouse at the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and the remaining $30,000 was given away as payouts. A live auction and donations by local businesses also formed part of the proceedings.
The event was eventually won by Florida local Randall Fernandez, who defeated Johny Pham in the final moments of the event to claim the trophy and the top prize of $5,000. Fernandez is a recreational player and along with the win, he has also won a $5,250 seat to the SHRPO Championship event.
Pham, who is the tournament director at the Bestbet Casino in Jacksonville, Florida and co-hosts the bestbet poker show on 1010XL AM Radio, collected the runner up cheque worth $2,000 along with a Hard Rock Atlantic City vacation package.
It promises to be a cracker of a weekend at the SHRPO Series this weekend with another headline tournament, the $3 Million GTD Championship Event opening on August 10 running all the way through August 14.
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2. Jason Koon Wins 2016 SHRPO Championship For $1 Million
3. Marvin Rettenmaier Wins 2016 SHRPO High Roller for $787,497; Daniel Colman Finishes Runner-Up