2016 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open”
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, FL
Event 6: $570 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em
Entries: 807
Prize Pool: $403,500
November 21-23, 2016
Marc Levy is the champion of Event 6 at the 2016 Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open. Levy defeated a field of 807 entries in the $570 Deep Stack event, winning his third Hard Rock trophy and the top payout of $49,910 in an eight-way deal.
Levy is a 50-year-old part-time player from Boynton Beach, Florida. Over the course of the past few years, his medical marketing business has taken up more and more of the free time he used to dedicate to the game, but he still finds plenty of opportunities to hit the tables, particularly here at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood.
“Honestly, playing in this room is awesome,” Levy said in his postgame interview. “The temperature is perfect, the staff is good — I’m always very calm here. It’s very comfortable, and I think that has a lot to do with my success. Everyone does a great job.”
Levy is a true grinder, with dozens of tournament results on his stat sheet over the past few years, including 30 cashes in this “comfortable” building. This result is his largest on record, though, and his total career tournament earnings are now approaching $400,000.
Day 2 almost wasn’t for the eventual champion. Finding himself short on chips near the end of Day 1, Levy moved all in blind, and he was called by a player with pocket sevens. Levy rolled over ace-six and promptly flopped trip aces to double up on one of the final hands of the night.
The rest, as they say, is history. Levy climbed the leaderboard steadily throughout Day 2, only finding himself at risk one time, against then-chip-leader James Dorrance. Levy won a race with king-queen against Dorrance’s pocket eights, doubling back into contention with 15 players remaining.
By the time the field combined around the final table, Levy was the chip leader and the only player with more than 3,000,000 chips. Dorrance was hot on his heels at that point, but a couple false steps left the former leader on the rail in ninth place. The final eight players decided to stop and talk numbers, and a deal was quickly reached, with Levy earning the top prize and the title of champion.
Final Table Payouts
1st: Marc Levy – $49,910 + trophy
2nd: Charlemagne Benjamin – $39,865
3rd: Michael Abitbol – $38,805
4th: Wally Maddah – $37,361
5th: Joseph Duchman – $32,433
6th: David Diaz – $30,367
7th: David Maslowski – $24,135
8th: Daren Stabinski – $20,803
9th: James Dorrance – $7,667