2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
$1,650 Purple Chip Bounty No Limit Hold’em (Freeze-out)
$100,000 Guarantee

April 12th-13th, 2015

Total Entries: 85
Total Prize Pool: $85,000

Recap:

Kazu Oshima got all the Day 2 eliminations except the one he wanted the most as Pete Malkoun stormed back from a large chip deficit to win a three hour heads-up battle and the Event 8 title.

Event 8 reached the final table last late in Day 1 with top pros Brett Bader going out in 9th and Brian Hastings bubbling the tournament in 10th. After play resumed on Monday, it was a table filled with hilarious table talk led by Oktay Altinbas and Travell Thomas with some Alon Yahudi mixed in for fun. But the real story was the devastation of the table by Kazu Oshima and an amazing comeback by Pete Malkoun on his way to the Event 8 title.

Kazu Oshima was a wrecking machine on Day 2 as proceeded to eliminate every player on the table leading into heads-up play. His first victim was Lawrence Paden in 8th followed by Joseph Elia in 7th. John Brody fought all the way playing short-stacked but fell in 6th. Travell Thomas was his next victim in 5th after Oshima hit a flush to end his night and then Oshima continued to build his stack and open up a solid lead having the rest of the table covered.

The hand of the final table was Oshima’s elimination of Alon Yahudi. Yahudi holding flopped the nut straight on a board but Oshima also had a straight draw with which then turned into a king-high flush crushing Yahudi’s hopes of winning the tournament.

Oktay Altinbas brought his lucky dragon with him on Day 2 which managed to drag him into third as he had been nursing a short stack since the tournament was down to two tables. But he finally ran out of luck as the Oshima steamroller finished him off and heads-up play was under way between him and Pete Malkoun.

Oshima had a near 4-1 chip lead but Malkoun was not detered.  With the players still stacked very deep, Malkoun kept the pressure on and had closed the gap significantly by the time the players hit a dinner break.  Upon their return, Malkoun won a huge hand extracting 150,000 chips without a showdown and took the chip lead.  Malkoun continued the pressure and Oshima could not find the answer eventually leading to his elimination.

On the final hand, Malkoun’s held up against Oshima’s as Malkoun hit an ace on the turn and captured the title after a little over three hours of heads-up play.

After the tournament, Malkoun gave what he thought were the keys to his victory.  “I think I was being more patient than he was.  He was raising every button and I wasn’t defending every one of them like he was.  I think he was calling light a little more than I was.  I was trying to be patient not calling out of position.  On the big hand where I was all-in, I had ace-ten and hit two pair and was pretty sure it was the best hand and it was the key swing.”

Despite being so far behind and watching Oshima eliminate player after player, he commented on if he felt like he could still win the tournament.  “Of course. It was a really good structure and I was happy people were dropping.  I really wanted to make it to heads-up and he cleared the way for me.  I ran pretty good heads-up and held up at the end.”

Malkoun was very humble and gracious in speaking of taking the title. “I feel pretty good.  Haven’t won a live one before so I’m very happy.”

He also had some terrific words for the staff.  “It’s great here.  They set us up with two very fast dealers for the heads-up.  The staff and you guys were great and everyone here are really nice people.”

Congratulations to our Event 8 Champion – Pete Malkoun!

Results:
1st – Pete Malkoun (Brookhaven, PA) – $29,750
2nd – Kazu Oshima (Temecula, CA) – $17,000
3rd – Oktay Altinbas (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) – $11,050
4th – Alon Yahudi (Ft. Lauderdale, FL) – $7,650
5th – Travell Thomas (Buffalo, NY) – $5,950
6th – John Brody (Davie, FL) – $4,675
7th – Joseph Elia (Buffalo, NY) – $3,825
8th – Lawrence Paden (Chester Springs, PA) – $2,975
9th – Brett Bader (Jerricho, NY) – $2,215