$10,000 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Finale
Level 18: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 25 of 349
2015 RRPO champ Jake Bazeley opened to 23,000 from the cutoff and four-bet shoved for 320,000 after Jonathan Jaffe raised. Jaffe quickly called to put Bazeley at risk.
Jaffe: 
Bazeley: 
Bazeley was in danger and the 
could not stop his exit in 26th place.
Jonathan Jaffe – 920,000 (92 bb)
Jake Bazeley – Eliminated in 26th place ($24,259)
$10,000 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Finale
Level 18: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 25 of 349
Anthony Spinella opened to 20,000 and Noah Vaillancourt three-bet to 55,000 from the cutoff. Spinella called and checked the 
flop. Vaillancourt bet 43,000, Spinella raised all-in for 210,000 and Vaillancourt called.
Vaillancourt: 
Spinella: 
Both flopped tens up but kickers were playing. The 
turn and 
river changed nothing to send Spinella out in 26th place.
Noah Vaillancourt – 830,000 (83 bb)
Anthony Spinella – Eliminated in 26th place ($24,259)
$10,000 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Finale
Level 18: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 26 of 349
In one of the first hands of the day, Mark Sandness was all-in for ~350,000 against Ryan Riess with the dominant hand.
Sandness: 
Riess: 
Sandness was ahead but jumped out of his seat with Riess hit the 
flop. Neither the turn nor the 
river gave him a reason to sit back down.
Ryan Riess – 1,500,000 (150 bb)
Mark Sandness – Eliminated in 27th place ($24,259)
$10,000 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Finale
Level 18: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 27 of 349
With no delay, we are underway with 27 players remaining and carrying on until we have the live-stream final table six.
$360 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Level 1: 25/50
The next big one-day tournament on the schedule kicks off soon with a $360 buy-in and $50,000 guaranteed prize pool tournament. Event 27 will bring out players of all bankroll levels for the shot at some nice money before the end of the day.
Entrants will start with 10,000 starting stacks and levels last 30-minute levels from start to finish. Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 9 at 4:30pm followed by a dinner break at 6:30pm. They’ll return and play down to the Event 27 champion later this evening.
Action gets rolling at noon and we’ll keep track of their progress during the major parts of their day.
$10,000 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Finale
Level 18: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 27 of 349
Only 27 players remain in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Finale and they return today to play down to the live-streamed final table six.
There are no soft spots on the last three tables. There are WPT Champions Club members, WSOP bracelet winners, top poker pros, and one WSOP Main Event champ sitting among the leaders. Ryan Riess returns with the third biggest stack behind Alan Sternberg and Terry Schumacher.
The structure will give them plenty of space to make moves with the average stack over 50 big blinds and 90-minute levels. The only guarantee is we will have a very talented final table when they play in front of the live-stream cameras on Thursday.
Players will unpack their bags and dealers will put cards in the air at the top of the hour. We will follow all the action as the WPT Finale works its way down to the final table.
Top ten stacks:
Alan Sternberg – 1,600,000 (160 bb)
Terry Schumacher – 1,591,000 (159 bb)
Ryan Riess – 1,056,000 (106 bb)
Josh Kay – 842,000 (84 bb)
Tim West – 828,000 (83 bb)
Cliff Josephy – 746,000 (75 bb)
Pat Lyons – 656,000 (66 bb)
Marvin Rettenmaier – 611,000 (61 bb)
Alex Keating – 608,000 (61 bb)
Noah Villancourt – 500,000 (50 bb)
Main Event Schedule
12PM: Day 3 – $10,000 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Finale
12PM: Event 27 – $360 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
2PM: Event 28 Day 1 – $25,500 High Roller No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
5PM: Event 26 Day 1B – $150 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
5PM: Event 29 Day 1 – $2,200 Deep Stack PLO (Re-Entry)
Secondary and Satellite Schedule
9AM: Event 98 – $90 Turbo Satellite into Event 27 (1-in-5)
8PM: Event 99 – $130 Survivor No Limit Hold’em (1-in-10)
——————-
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood Property Update
Preparations are underway for the development of an iconic hotel tower and resort:
For additional construction updates, please visit TheNewHardRock.com
2017 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
Hollywood, FL
Event 24
$570 No Limit Hold’em
Entries: 290
Prize Pool: $145,000
April 3, 2017
Ryan Dunn added a second Seminole Hard Rock trophy to his mantle in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
His first Seminole Hard Rock win came at the 2016 Rock n’ Roll Poker Open when he won $140,000 in the $2,650 no limit hold’em. His second came when Dunn defeated a 290-entry field and won $31,963 in the $570 no limit hold’em event.
“I’m going to win my third tomorrow in the PLO event,” said Dunn after his win. “I love the way they run their series. I think it’s great. I try and play every single time.”
The win comes near the end of what was previously a rough series for the 30-year-old professional poker player. But he’ll be able to share his latest win with his wife and son when they get into town on Tuesday.
“She is going to be super excited to see the trophy because she knows I’ve had a tough time and I haven’t been winning anything at this series,” said Dunn. “Hands weren’t going my way. It was a very frustrating series, but this is good for my mind. A ‘W’ is good for that.”
Dunn makes his home in Tallahassee with his wife and 4-year-old son, Declan Bear. With his family based in the sunshine state and another son on the way in two months, Dunn doesn’t travel as much as other tournament grinders.
He opted to travel mostly within Florida, which gives him the ability to spend more time with his family than most professional poker players do.
“Traveling outside of Florida right now isn’t practical,” said Dunn. “I try and play in Florida so that I can bring my family with me. Getting on a plane to go to California or Atlantic City and stuff. It just gets expensive and it’s hard to bring your family. Florida is busy as it is.”
Before poker, Dunn was running a company that would do a lot of environmental work through the state. The business started to go south and he looked towards what was once a casual hobby as his main source of income.
“The business was collapsing, so I had to find other means to make the money,” said Dunn. “I started playing PLO cash games and actually winning substantial amounts of money. I started taking that more seriously. I have a lot of good friends that I’m able to talk strategy and talk hands with. I just tried to become better and improve.”
Dunn made a name for himself by earning a fifth place finish in a televised WPT final table in Jacksonville. At the time, he was a fledgling pro, but has turned into a fixture at all of the big series that take place in the state.
“That was it. When I played that $5K, I hadn’t played anything that big and I wasn’t even considering myself a pro,” said Dunn. “From then til now, I’ve basically been playing basically as a pro.”
While Dunn’s second win at the Seminole Hard Rock wasn’t a six-figure score, he still had to beat out a very talented final table.
Dunn came into the final table with the chip lead and came out on top of a final table that featured WPT Champion Shawn Cunix, and fellow pros Henry Tran and Nancy Birnbaum. He defeated Alex Greenblatt heads-up to earn the series-saving title.
Final Table Results:
1st: Ryan Dunn – $31,963
2nd: Alex Greenblatt – $22,475
3rd: Pavel Hordan – $14,457
4th: Shawn Cunix – $9,026
5th: Richard Aguirre – $6,967
6th: Jason Gooch – $5,771
7th: Nancy Birnbaum – $4,850
8th: Gloria Jackson – $3,988
9th: Henry Tran – $3,196
2017 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
Hollywood, FL
Event 25
$1,100 Turbo No Limit Hold’em
Entries: 119
Prize Pool: $119,000
April 3, 2017
Sam Phillips achieved a lot in his poker career. He has a successful online tournament resume, a seven-figure live score at a European Poker Tour main event in Barcelona, and fairly long list of live cashes.
The one thing that eluded Phillips was a live tournament win. Phillips earned his first trophy on Monday evening by defeating a field of 119 entries to win $35,102 in the $1,100 turbo no limit hold’em.
“It feels great to take one down,” said Phillips. “I’ve wanted a trophy so bad. I’ve even played some smaller events just to try and get one. Now, I’ve got something to put on the mantle.”
The 28-year-old professional poker player left the United States after Black Friday to continue his online poker career in Mexico. Phillips lives with a bunch of friends in Playa Del Carmen where they spend most of their time grinding online tournaments for a living.
He feels his online background gave him an edge in the turbo format.
“I feel so comfortable in turbos,” said Phillips. “I’ve played so many of them. Probably thousands of them where I’m in short-stacked scenarios all the time. My online background definitely gave me an advantage in that aspect of the game.”
Over the last two years, however, Phillips has gotten away from the virtual felt and inside brick and mortar rooms more often. He’s started traveling a little more to play some bigger live tournament series.
“I just travel to some of the bigger events,” said Phillips. “Usually just the WPTs and WSOP Circuits and stuff like that. It’s mostly online, but probably about half and half now.”
With a 5 p.m. start time for the event and the $10,000 WPT Finale event running alongside the one-day turbo event, it drew some of game’s best players that were busting out of the event and taking another shot in the turbo.
That kind of competition didn’t faze Phillips. He stayed focused, played his game and used a little bit of luck to outlast the competition.
“I probably came in like two out of nine and then lost a big flip with jacks versus ace-king early,” said Phillips. “Then from there, I just ran good from then out out. And I just coolered the guy heads-up with trip fives against trip fives and I had a better kicker.”
As soon as the final card was dealt, one of his friends on the rail jokingly said he won the satellite to the $25,000 buy-in on Tuesday. Phillips said he won’t partake in that, but he does have plans for the money.
“I got to go buy my rail a bunch of drinks, so we’ll see how that goes.”
Results:
1st: Sam Phillips – $35,102
2nd: Alexander Haber – $21,718
3rd: Upeshka De Silva – $12,971
4th: Santiago Nadal Sordo – $8,330
5th: Nick Pupillo – $6,307
6th: Gregory Baird – $5,236
7th: Sameer Aljanedi – $4,522
8th: Arkadiy Tsinis – $3,987
9th: Harry Cullen – $3,511
10th: Tim Reilly – $3,094
11th: Benjamin Ector – $3,094
12th: Adrian Matoes – $3,094
13th: Diego Sanchez Serrano – $2,678
14th: Rodrigo Rishmauge – $2,678
15th: Sorel Mizzi – $2,678
$10,000 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Finale
Level 18: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 Ante
Players Remaining: 27 of 349
| First | Last | Chips | Table | Seat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kunal | Patel | 327,000 | 1 | 1 |
| Yevgeniy | Timoshenko | 399,000 | 1 | 2 |
| Cliff | Josephy | 746,000 | 1 | 3 |
| Ubaid | Habib | 214,000 | 1 | 4 |
| Ryan | Riess | 1,056,000 | 1 | 5 |
| Mark | Sandness | 379,000 | 1 | 6 |
| Jason | Wheeler | 424,000 | 1 | 7 |
| Pat | Lyons | 656,000 | 1 | 8 |
| Jake | Cody | 228,000 | 1 | 9 |
| Jake | Bazeley | 369,000 | 2 | 1 |
| Terry | Schumacher | 1,591,000 | 2 | 2 |
| Tim | West | 828,000 | 2 | 3 |
| Jonathan | Jaffe | 429,000 | 2 | 4 |
| Ken | Einiger | 263,000 | 2 | 5 |
| Will | Failla | 182,000 | 2 | 6 |
| Mimi | Luu | 158,000 | 2 | 7 |
| Alex | Keating | 608,000 | 2 | 8 |
| Marvin | Rettenmaier | 611,000 | 2 | 9 |
| Ray | Qartomy | 245,000 | 3 | 1 |
| Jason | Koon | 240,000 | 3 | 2 |
| Anthony | Spinella | 276,000 | 3 | 3 |
| Matthew | Haugen | 188,000 | 3 | 4 |
| Noah | Vaillancourt | 500,000 | 3 | 5 |
| Alan | Sternberg | 1,600,000 | 3 | 6 |
| Harrison | Gimbel | 186,000 | 3 | 7 |
| Josh | Kay | 842,000 | 3 | 8 |
| Richard | Rice | 404,000 | 3 | 9 |