2018 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino 
Hollywood, FL 
Event 16 
$5,000 No-Limit Hold’em 
Entries: 98 
Prize Pool: $465,500 
April 16, 2018 

For a long time, Pete Walsworth’s job at a major financial firm precluded him from playing a lot of poker tournaments. He’s since made a career shift and began working for himself.

Now, running his own cyrptocurrency hedge fund, he has more freedom to play and it’s shown in his results. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Walsworth defeated a field of 98 entries to earn $141,976 in the $5,000 no-limit hold’em.

“The last year I’ve been kind of limited in the amount of tournaments I’ve been able to play,” said Walsworth after the win. “So, it feels really good to play a full series and get a victory. I think my last big win was two years ago.”

His win didn’t come easy. He was battling against some of the game’s best. He defeated a final table that featured Joe Kuether, Ben Yu, Tony Sinishtaj, Tim Reilly and Dylan Linde. He defeated Jonathan Poche heads-up for the title.

Battling the best players he can find is just the way Walsworth wants it.

“I actually prefer to play against some of the best in the world,” said the 37-year-old. “Because they like to bluff and I don’t like to fold top pair. So, it kind of works into my game. If I’m playing a $350 or a smaller tournament, I tend to call down a little too much and I pay them off. In this tournament, it’s a lot more likely that they are bluffing.”

It’s been a recurring theme in some of the higher stakes events that everybody is laughing, joking, sharing some drinks and just overall having a good time.

Walsworth feeds that atmosphere and tries to keep most of the tournaments he plays on the looser, funner side of the spectrum.

“I try to be friendly with everybody at the table,” said Walsworth. “I enjoy that atmosphere more than when it’s too serious.”

Now that he works for himself and not for Morgan Stanley, the Sarasota native will likely be at more series and in more events.

“Part of the reason that I didn’t play much poker was because they were not okay with the idea of poker tournaments,” said Walsworth. “When I left Morgan Stanley and started a crypto hedge fund, it kind of loosened me up in terms of poker because I didn’t have to explain to my employer that I played a poker tournament.”

Regardless of whether or not Walsworth puts in more volume at the poker table, he’s building his own business based on his own interests.

“Crypto is a passion of mine,” said Walsworth. “And I think it’s something that over the next 10 years, it’s going to get really big and I decided to make it a career move and hopefully it pays off.”

Results:

1st: Pete Walsworth – $141,976
2nd: Jonathan Poche – $89,281
3rd: Joe Kuether – $53,533
4th: Ben Yu – $34,913
5th: Filipp Khavin – $27,232
6th: Sam Ganzfried – $21,762
7th: Tony Sinishtaj – $18,504
8th: Tim Reilly – $16,060
9th: Almedin Imsirovic – $14,198
10th: Dylan Linde – $12,801
11th: Sergi Reixach – $12,801
12th: Adam Singer – $12,801
13th: David Malka – $11,638