2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
$570 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guarantee

April 9th-13th, 2015

Total Entries: 2,474
Total Prize Pool: $1,237,000

Recap:

Event 5 had a guaranteed prizepool of $1 million, and it was scheduled to cover four days — three starting days (six flights total), and a fourth day to play to a winner.

But the field attracted 2,474 entries to exceed the guarantee, creating a prizepool worth more than $1.2 million, and by the end of that fourth day, there were still 14 players remaining.

So those 14 players returned on Monday, and they played down to eight players before agreeing to a chip-chop that made chipleader Leonard Benitez the trophy winner.

The big story from the night before was Kyle Sorel, who had the chip lead — sometimes a monstrous chip lead — from the final four tables to the final table. At one point, Sorel had twice as many chips as anyone else, and more than four times the average stack.

While Sorel eventually lost the chip lead at the final table (and finished fourth), he was still among the big stacks and never in much danger, even as the average stack dropped to 15 big blinds.

As for Benitez, he was actually the short stack with 10 players remaining, and then doubled up twice in three hands, with holding up against , and then his flopping a jack against Sorel’s . Benitez never looked back from that point, and had the chip lead at the end of Level 33, when they agreed to an eight-way chop, shortly after the elimination of Benjamin Zamani in ninth place.

Congratulations to Leonard Benitez!

Final Table Results:

1st:  Leonard Benitez  –  $113,357
2nd:  Richard Zipes  –  $112,080
3rd:  Sam Panzica  –  $109,326
4th:  Kyle Sorel  –  $91,266
5th:  Michael Tufaro  –  $87,765
6th:  Rafael Reis  –  $87,421
7th:  Manfred Rosenow  –  $59,805
8th:  Bradley Hinson  –  $51,499
9th:  Benjamin Zamani  –  $21,648