Event 13: Ari Engel Wins After Heads-Up Deal

2018 Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino 
Hollywood, Florida
Event 13
$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Entries: 232
Prize Pool: $225,040
January 17, 2018

                                                                                   Ari Engel

Event 13 of the 2018 Lucky Hearts Poker Open was an $1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) tournament. A total of 232 entries generated a prize pool of $225,040, more than doubling the $100,000 guarantee. The final table produced several of poker’s best, and in the end it was down to Loni Harwood and Ari Engel. The two accomplished professionals agreed to a deal and as chip leader, Engel was officially declared the winner.

“Chopping with Loni, who’s a friend, is really cool,” Engel said afterward. “We’ve been playing for so long together, so it’s always fun to both do really well.”

Engel is no stranger to winning poker tournaments. In fact, this marks his 24th official live tournament win according to Hendon Mob, and his second at the Seminole Hard Rock.

He scored the elimination on the money bubble to propel the remaining 29 players into the money, won a crucial hand with pocket aces to seize a hefty chip lead, and began the final table on top of the chip counts.

“I came into the final table with a huge chip lead, and usually, I mess those up. So it’s cool not to mess it up this time.”

Still, It was a tumultuous final table for Engel, one that saw him go from chip leader to the short stack with five players remaining. However, he battled back to retake the chip lead, thanks to a dramatic hand in which the odds of winning outright were less than 6%.

“I can’t believe I beat ace-king with ace-king, and also earlier in the tournament king-jack against king-jack. Earlier this week I also won with ace-king against ace-king suited, so that’s three times this week against the same hand that I won.”

For Engel, the victory pushes him above the $5.3 million mark in career live poker tournament winnings.

“I don’t even know what’s happening, I’m just running amazing. It’s ridiculous.”

Results 
1st: Ari Engel – $45,688*
2nd: Loni Harwood – $44,582*
3rd: John Richards – $23,067
4th: Haim Toorgeman – $14,031
5th: Michael Pearson – $10,836
6th: Kelly Minkin – $8,979
7th: Paul Balzano – $7,651
8th: Maria Ho – $6,526
9th: Jeremy Ausmus – $5,304
10th: David Finkelstein – $4,631
11th: Ira Schwartz – $4,631
12th: Scott Efron -$4,631
13th: Stephen Song – $3,972
14th: Jake Bazeley – $3,972
15th: Eduardo Christ – $3,972
16th: Tajesh Patel – $3,313
17th: Philipp Kampf – $3,313
18th: Vladislav Varlashin – $3,313
19th: Jeffrey Soffer – $2,653
20th: Arunas Sapitavicius – $2,653
21st: Dylan Linde – $2,653
22nd: Darren Rabinowitz – $2,082
23rd: Ryan McKnight – $2,082
24th: Roland Israelashvili – $2,082
25th: Kenneth Slater – $1,771
26th: Aaron Massey – $1,771
27th: Almedin Imsirovic – $1,771
28th: Shea Smith – $1,555
29th: Bienvenido Santiago – $1,555

*denotes heads-up deal