2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood
Event #20
$1,100 No Limit Hold’em Turbo
Total Entries: 147
Total Prizepool: $147,000
Jake Schwartz is a well-known high-stakes professional poker player with over $1.1 million in career tournament earnings, but a live title has eluded him for his entire poker playing career.
That all changed on Friday night.
He bested a field of 147 players to take down the $1,100 No Limit Hold’em Turbo event. He took home his first trophy along with adding $42,628 to his career earnings.
“It’s kind of embarrassing, but this is my first live win.” said Schwartz after the tournament. “So it’s cool and I’ll take it in this high variance turbo .”
The turbo format pushed the action throughout the day and in about five hours the 147 was down to the unofficial final table of 10. It’s a format that favors players who are well-versed in short stack poker.
Schwartz doesn’t generally prefer the turbo formats, but used his poker prowess to outlast the competition.
“It’s actually probably a disadvantage for me,” said the 25-year-old poker professional. “I’m not that familiar with turbos, but I’m a poker player and I know how to play them. I know push/fold better than a lot of people, so I figure that probably propelled me to victory.”
About two hours after the players redrew for seats at the unofficial, 10-handed final table, Schwartz had amassed all the chips in play and earned the title.
It wasn’t an easy road for Schwartz en route to his victory. He bested a final table that featured SHRPO Team member Cate Hall, Darren Rabinowitz, Joe Kuether, and Ben Heath. Schwartz defeated Dermot Blain heads-up to finish off the final table.
The timing was good for Schwartz as well. He had been on a cold stretch of cards in the previous preliminary events and hadn’t picked up a cash in the series before today.
The extra cash in his pocket helps both of his bank account and his future buy-ins, since he is expecting to play the “Big 4 events” which start up on Saturday with the $5 million guaranteed main event.
Schwartz is a New York native, but recently moved down to the South Florida area, and considers the Seminole Hard Rock his new poker home.
“I live like 10 minutes from here now,” said Schwartz. “So technically this is like my home casino. So it’s nice to win one at my home casino.”
After everything was over and the photos were taken, Schwartz just wants the public to know how much he loves his grandmother.
“I want to give a shout-out to my grandman, Gagi,” said Schwartz. “She’s my favorite person.”
Here is a look at the final table results:
1st: Jake Schwartz – $42,628
2nd: Dermot Blain – $24,990
3rd: Alexander Khanas – $14,700
4th: Gregory Marcus – $11,760
5th: Ben Heath – $8,820
6th: Darren Rabinowitz – $7,350
7th: Anthony Lombard – $5,880
8th: Cate Hall – $4,410
9th: Staffan Lind – $3,308
10th: Joe Kuether – $2,940