Escalator VII Series
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 5
$1,700 No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$500,000 Guarantee
Entries:  559
Prize Pool:  $838,500
March 9-13, 2023

Event 5 of the Escalator VII Series was a multi-flight $1,700 No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry). Across three starting flights, a field of 559 entries generated a prize pool of $838,500, easily besting the $500,000 guarantee.

A heads-up deal was reached at the final table, and as the chip leader it was Aaron Stefansky who was the official Event 5 champion for $135,733.

There were 175 players who returned on Day 2 and Stefansky was sixth in chips. He consistently stayed near the top of the leader board and once the field was in the money at 70 players, Stefansky vaulted to the top of the counts, and it wasn’t particularly close. From about seven tables down, Stefansky was running away with the chip lead as no player was within 25 big blinds of his lead.

When the final table was reached, Stefansky sat comfortably with 30% of the chips in play. He scored two eliminations to add to his lead and a third day of the tournament was needed as the final four players reached a hard stop. When play resumed, Stefansky picked up where he left off and had the lead entering heads-up play. Things tightened up from there and when eventual runner-up Dmitry Savelyev proposed a deal, Stefansky agreed and was the official Event 5 champion.

Stefansky mainly plays cash games and recently moved to South Florida from Chicago with his wife. This was amazingly Stefansky’s first live tournament played and it was one for the ages, finishing with a victory and a six-figure score.

*denotes heads-up deal