2016 Rock n’ Roll Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
Hollywood, FL
Event 10: $360 No Limit Hold’em 
Entries: 178
Prize Pool: $53,400
November 27, 2016

With his son Andrew on the rail, having already bagged chips for Day 3 of the Rock n’ Roll Poker Open Main Event, Alan Phillips continued his family’s poker success in South Florida by taking down the $360 no limit hold’em in the early hours of Monday morning.

Phillips topped a field of 178 entries to take home the trophy and $15,484 after a long ,16-hour day of poker. At several points throughout the final table, there were brief discussions of a chop. Alik Sitnyakovsky wanted more money than the ICM or chip chop numbers were giving him and a deal was never agreed upon.

The lack of a deal eventually led to a Phillips/Sitnyakovsky heads-up match. Phillips started the heads-up battle with a sizable chip lead and he won the heads-up battle without much stress to add another title to his poker resume.

“It feels good,” said Phillips after the win. “It’s been a while since I won one. I’ve had a lot of deep runs and a lot of final tables, but the win feels good.”

The New York native grew up playing poker and has been playing some version of the game his whole life. He owned several delis in New York and Connecticut before moving down to Florida in 2002. It was around the Moneymaker boom in 2003 that Phillips took up no limit hold’em.

His son, Andrew, took up the game and started playing no limit hold’em online. It was his son who introduced him to the game and taught him a lot of what he knows now.

“I’ve been playing poker my whole life and I always thought no limit [hold’em] was a redneck game,” said Phillips. “For a guy who ran businesses his whole life, I’ve done pretty well in poker.”

Poker talent runs in the Phillips bloodline. Andrew has two World Series of Poker Circuit rings to his name and is still vying for a Rock n’ Roll Poker Open Main Event title when play resumes on Monday afternoon.

Alan is retired from running his delis and bagel shops, which allows him to spend more of his time at the poker tables. He’s got multiple WPT prelim final tables and can probably best be described as a semi-professional player.

When it comes to his success both on and off the felt, Phillips puts it pretty succinctly.

“What can I say?” said Phillips. “I’m a pretty lucky guy I guess.”

Here are the final table results:

1st: Alan Phillips – $15,484
2nd: Alik Sitnyakovsky – $9,078
3rd: Cameron Collins – $5,340
4th: Ronald Higgins – $4,272
5th: Vicki Holmes – $3,204
6th: Wally Maddah – $2,670
7th: Eric Rivkin – $2,136
8th: David Ward – $1,602
9th: Augusto Cavazzini – $1,202