Dylan Drazen Earns Final RRPO Trophy In 10-Way Chop

2016 Rock n’ Roll Poker Open 
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
Hollywood, FL 
Event 12: $150 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry 
Entries: 1,611
Prize Pool: $193,320
November 28-30, 2016

Dylan Drazen takes home the final event of the 2016 RRPO in a 10-way chop
Dylan Drazen takes home the final event of the 2016 RRPO in a 10-way chop

Dylan Drazen was having a horrible month of poker until Wednesday night. Drazen took home the final trophy of the 2016 Rock n’ Roll Poker open in a 10-way chop of the $150 no limit hold’em re-entry event.

Drazen got credit for the win and topped a field of 1,611 entries to take home $25,011 along with his second career tournament win. Even though it is just his second career tournament win, he understands the variance that comes with tournament poker.

“It’s really, really hard to win a tournament and beat all those players,” said Drazen. “You have to play so many tournaments to find a spot to have actual success. It takes incredible volume and patience. Inhuman patience.”

The win comes at the tail end of a terrible month. After grinding the whole tournament series and coming up empty, this event put him back in the black.

“I had a really rotten month this series,” said Drazen. “It was awful for me. So to do this in the last final event and actually show a profit for the month is something I didn’t expect. But pleasantly surprised.”

Drazen has been a professional poker player for several years now, but before he made his transition to poker, Drazen spent his time as a techno DJ in New York.

After spending more than a decade behind the turn tables, Drazen discovered poker in his late twenties during the Moneymaker boom. Drazen found himself wanting to spend less time spinning tracks and more time at the card table.

After slowly increasing his win rate and steadily beginning to earn more money from poker than as a DJ, he decided to take the plunge and go pro in 2011. He left New York and headed down to South Florida to play live.

Drazen cut his teeth as an online limit hold’em pro, but tried to play live no limit hold’em after deciding to move to Florida and play for a living. The first stage of his live professional career didn’t go very well for him.

“When I moved down here in 2012, I had a really hard time,” said Drazen. “I hit a losing streak the moment I moved here. I moved down here and immediately started losing.”

After enduring a downswing, he opted to go back to his bread and butter.

“I decided to go back online and do what I do best,” said Drazen. “Which is play limit hold’em online.”

Drazen left the live arena for several years before he had enough of the limit variant of the game. Earlier this year, he had enough of sitting in front of a computer screen and came back to sit at the live felt.

“It was only a couple months ago where I started to just hate limit hold’em,” said Drazen. “I decided to give live another shot. And here I am.”

Drazen feels that as he gets older, live poker is more suited for him. This transition back to the live arena has gone much smoother.

“As I get a bit older, my concentration wanes,” said Drazen. “To play online, it requires incredible sustained concentration. When you play short-handed and the games are getting more aggressive and tougher, it’s extremely intense. It’s hard to describe.

“So transitioning back to live is relaxing.”

The extra $25,011 in his pocket will also help him relax a little bit.

Here is a look at the final table results:

1st: Dylan Drazen – $25,011
2nd: Sebastian Andres – $20,000
3rd: Austin Rattet – $14,256
4th: Ben Robinson – $13,619
5th: Hagai Stein – $12,901
6th: Adam Morck – $11,823
7th: Elliott Zaydman – $11,062
8th: Dejan Petkovic – $10,111
9th: Spencer Champlin – $7,966
10th: Devond Marshall – $4,905