2018 Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 18
$360 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em
Entries: 122
Prize Pool: $36,600
November 27, 2018
Sergio Grosso claimed the second of three Hard Rock trophies being awarded on Tuesday. Grosso earned his trophy from the Seminole Hard Rock by taking down the 122-entry $360 seniors no-limit hold’em event.
Grosso defeated Marvin Brantley heads-up to earn the title and $10,615.
“It feels great,” said Grosso after his win. “I’ve been at this a long time and it’s nice to win my first seniors event.”
Grosso has scored a couple other wins in his career, including a victory in a Rio Daily Deepstack event during the 2017 World Series of Poker for just shy of $28,000, but it’s the first time he’s earned a title in the senior division.
According to Grosso, he is retired and just enjoying life. He currently resides just outside of Toronto, but traveled down to Florida to play in the $3,500 RRPO WPT Championship event. He’s taking poker as a serious hobby in his life after work, and will be taking more shots at WPT events in the short-term.
He is leaving South Florida tomorrow morning and heading straight to Las Vegas for the next WPT stop at Bellagio.
He’ll get there riding high, going nearly wire-to-wire with the chip lead at the final table. Grosso came into the final table with the chip lead, lost it briefly to David Albertson before regaining it for good.
“I was playing pretty solid the whole time,” said Grosso. “I just kind of popped up for like 15-20 minutes and they just kind of ran into me.”
Grosso won a massive pot to eliminate Albertson in fourth place when he flopped trip queens and got it all in on the turn against Albertson’s pocket sevens. He faded a two-outer on the river and had two-thirds of the chips in play with three players remaining.
Jerome Hyafil busted in third to Brantley before Brantley went heads-up against Grosso.
Brantley put a small dent in Grosso’s heads-up chip lead, but then he rivered a flush after Grosso turned a full house. All the chips got into the middle and Grosso left with the trophy.
Results:
1st: Sergio Grosso – $10,615
2nd: Marvin Brantley – $6,588
3rd: Jerome Hyafil – $3,935
4th: David Albertson – $2,471
5th: Fariborz Zojaji – $1,830
6th: Juan Carlos Diaz – $1,574
7th: Orlando Maldonado – $1,363
8th: Bruce Freedman – $1,208
9th: Nir Peleg – $1,061
10th: Robert Williamson – $933
11th: Alexander Orlov – $933
12th: Tony Guglietti – $933
13th: Neil Blumenfield – $814
14th: Truyen Nguyen – $814
15th: Brian Wilson – $814
16th: Gregory Anda – $714