2020 Lucky Hearts Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Event 26 $400 Six-Max PLO (Single Re-Entry) Entries: 67 Prize Pool: $22,780 January 20, 2020
Event 26 Champion Ken Aldridge
The first thing you notice about Ken “Teach” Aldridge is his signature yellow jacket and hat, which is easy to spot in a tournament field. But when you find yourself at a table with him, you quickly realize that he is one of the nicest people in poker, chatting up the table not for information and potential reads, but for the joy he has for the social aspects of poker.
“Everyone at this final table was great,” said Aldridge, a retired teacher from North Carolina. “The social part of poker just keeps a smile on my face.”
Though he’s ending on a high note, Aldridge had a rough start to the Lucky Hearts Poker Open.
“When I got here, I was the bubble in my first tournament,” said Aldridge. “And I was the bubble for a mega-satellite into the high roller. I’ve had some really close ones, and I did cash for a little in one event. It’s ironic, but I only jumped in this PLO event because this was the only thing I could play and still make my flight tomorrow.”
Now Aldridge is flying home with a trophy.
“It’s nice to get first place in something,” said Aldridge. “It doesn’t matter what the size of the tournament is. It’s nice to know that your efforts are paying off, not only monetarily, but at my age you need to feel like you still do something well.”
Aldridge also had high praise for the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino.
“The staff runs these tournaments wonderfully,” said Aldridge. “I can’t say enough positive things about the Hard Rock Casino, and the way everything is run.”
Final Results:
1st: Ken “Teach” Aldridge – $6,950 2nd: Artem Maksimov – $4,495 3rd: Carlos Garcia – $2,995 4th: Tom Guedj – $2,050 5th: Andrei Mitsiuk – $1,445 6th: David Levy – $1,055 7th: Eric Kolodny – $790 8th: Anthony Cousineau – $790 9th: Rafael Rodriguez Arango – $615 10th: Yuval Bronshtein – $615 11th: Michael Rosenberg – $490 12th: Kevin Love – $490
2020 Lucky Hearts Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Event 24 $600 Big Stack NLH (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed Entries: 150 Prize Pool: $79,500 January 20, 2020
Event 24 Champion Ory Hen
Ory Hen won his fourth trophy here at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood in a heads-up deal with Event 14 champion Michael Lim.
“It always feels good to win,” said Hen. “It was tough, but it worked out.”
After the elimination of Jason Gooch in third place, Hen held a nearly 2-to-1 chip lead over Lim (1.47 million to 780K), and they agreed to make a deal for the remaining prizepool. As chipleader, Hen won the title and the trophy, along with an even $20,000.
Hen is a fixture at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood, and was the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Player of the Year. This victory takes him over the $940K mark in career earnings for the property, and it won’t be too long before he reaches the $1 million mark.
What keeps Hen coming back?
“I love the place. I love the people,” said Hen. “I’ve lived here for a long time, and everybody treats me nice. Beautiful people in this place, and it’s a beautiful property.”
Final Table Results:
1st: Ory Hen – $20,000* + LHPO Trophy 2nd: Michael Lim – $15,858* 3rd: Jason Gooch – $8,189 4th: Gregory Baird – $4,971 5th: Omer Nagar – $3,856 6th: Shlomi Bracha – $3,184 7th: Justin Harvell – $2,783 8th: John Gorsuch – $2,484 9th: Christopher Ryan – $2,195
$25,500 High Roller NLH (Re-Entry) $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 16: 10,000/20,000 with a 20,000 ante Players Remaining: 7 of 41
Chipleader Jared Jaffee
The final eight players battled for about two-and-a-half hours before bursting the Money Bubble when Jared Jaffee knocked out Alex Turyansky on a bad beat.
With nine players left, Jaffee himself was knocked down to just nine big blinds when his ace-king couldn’t catch up to Ping Liu’s pocket aces, but Jaffee slowly worked his way back, and when he won the last hand of the night, it gave him a big chip lead heading into Day 2.
Here are the official chip counts, with the players returning to their same seats tomorrow:
Seat 1. Jared Jaffee – 1,325,000 (66 bb) Seat 2. Jonathan Jaffe – 730,000 (37 bb) Seat 3. Ping Liu – 765,000 (38 bb) Seat 4. Kevin Rabichow – 240,000 (12 bb) Seat 5. Byron Kaverman – 155,000 (8 bb) Seat 6. Arkadiy Tsinis – 655,000 (33 bb) Seat 7. Maria Ho – 230,000 (12 bb)
