$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2: 100/200 with a 200 ante
Total Entrants: 309
Darryll Fish is a regular fixture in our big events and today is no different. He won his first career WPT title here in January in the Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship and that gave him the lead in the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year race.
SHRP regular Brett Bader sits in second and this is the last tournament where the lead can change.
$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2: 100/200 with a 200 ante
Total Entrants: 303
Maria Ho has a busy schedule this week. The pro has been hosting our video updates over the last few days but now she gets to sit down at the table to use her poker skills.
Ho recently moved her stack a little higher after taking her opponent to Value Town with 
on the 
board. She does not have an easy table with Northwest friends Tyler Patterson and Matt Affleck on one end and Harrison Gimble in the six-seat.
$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2: 100/200 with a 200 ante
Total Entrants: 283
We get our fair share of poker champions in the field and today we have the latest to win the top honor in poker.
John Cynn is in today’s flight and the last tournament he won happened to be the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event. He outlasted the second biggest field in WSOP Main Event history to walk away with $8,800,000 and a massive piece of jewelry.
We expect to see other WSOP Main Event champ before the day is though. Joe McKeehen has been here for most of the series and Scott Blumstein showed up a few days ago. Jonathan Duhamel pops in from time to time and Carlos “The Matador” Mortensen, Greg Merson, and Ryan Riess should be here at some point.
$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1: 100/100
Flight A Entries: 229
There are two mainstream ways to enter the Championship; direct buy-in or pick up a seat via satellite. Vincent Cami took a different path to the big game.
We run random drawings where players can win a seat into the Championship by only entering their name. For the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship, we gave away three seats and Cami is the first to join this afternoon.
The Northeast grinder made his way to sunny South Florida looking for his first cash with us.
$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1: 100/100
Flight A Entries: 180
Players began taking their seats 15 minutes prior to the start of the Championship and most were settled at noon.
Promptly at the top of the hour, Tournament Directory Tony Burn (along with Matt Savage and Director of Poker Operations William Mason) instructed the dealers to “shuffle up and deal.”
$5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1: 100/100
The Hard Rock Event Center is empty now but in 30 minutes players will begin piling in to take their seats for Day 1A of the 2018 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship.
The $5,250 buy-in Championship has a $3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool and headlines the Big 4 tournaments which will play out their final tables at the same time on the same stage surrounded by the Poker Night in America cameras.
Championship players will start out with 40,000 deep stacks and levels will run 60 minutes long until only 27 players remain later in the weekend. Late registration is open until 10pm this evening and players are limited to a single Championship re-entry if they lose their first stack.
They have a 75-minute dinner break scheduled at 6:30pm and Day 1 will come to an end after Level 10. Those with chips will have their ticket punched for Day 2 on Sunday.
This is the sixth running of the SHRPO Championship and we look forward to crowning our next Champion.
Primary Event Schedule
12PM: Day 1A – $5,250 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
Secondary and Satellite Schedule
10AM: Event 53 – $555 Super Turbo Championship Satellite (1-in-10)
3PM: Event 54 – $570 Championship Mega Satellite (1-in-10)
8PM: Event 55 – $570 Championship Mega Satellite (1-in-10)
10:30PM: Event 56 – $555 Super Turbo Championship Satellite (1-in-10)
We’ve run five Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championships in the past and it’s almost time for number six. The $3 Million Guarantee Championship kicks off tomorrow at noon and it is the beginning of the Big 4 tournaments on the schedule.
This tournament has produced some great champions over the past five years and we’re ready to add another name to the list.
2013 – Blair Hinkle
2014 – Dan Colman
2015 – Omar Zazay
2016 – Jason Koon
2017 – Martin Kozlov
2018 – ?????
The Championship features two starting flights, on Friday and Saturday, with late registration open until 10pm. Players are restricted to a single re-entry into the Championship so they must be careful to stick around.
The tournament will start players with 40,000 deep stacks and it will also utilize a “big blind ante” structure where a single ante is paid by the big blind for the entire table.
The rest of the Big 4 tournaments begin running on Sunday and include the $25,500 High Roller, $2,650 No Limit Hold’em Single Re-Entry, and $1,100 No Limit Hold’em. All four final tables will play on the same day on the same stage in front of the Poker Night in America cameras.
But up first is the Championship and it will be an exciting moment as it runs for the first time in the new Hard Rock Event Center.
2018 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event #14
$50,000 Super High Roller
$1,000,000 Guarantee
Entries: 25
Prize Pool: $1,225,000
August 8-9, 2018
The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Super High Roller is always a highlight event on the schedule and the $50,000 buy-in tournament did not disappoint. We had 25 entries take a shot and Elio Fox outlasted them all to win the title for $500,000 while extending his summer hot streak.
The Super High Roller had a $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool and the players piled it up to $1,225,000 by the time registration closed. They battled it out across two tables for most of the tournament, made it down to the final table late on Day 1, and three players returned for Day 2 to play it out for the title.
But making the final table did not lock up any money with five spots being paid. High Roller regular Bryn Kenney was the unfortunate bubble player when he ran pocket nines into the queens of Giuseppe Iadisernia.
Chris Hunichen was going to play this tournament one way or another and he put himself in at a discounted cost. We hosted a Super High Roller satellite on Tuesday and he won his way into the tournament along with Ian O’Hara. Hunichen rode that satellite seat to a fifth-place finish for $100,000.
Ali Imsirovic was the chip leader for most of the latter parts of Day 1 but ran into a tough spot. The former Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown trophy winner went out in fourth place for his third payout of the year over $100,000.
Day 1 then came to a close with only three players remaining. Businessman and WSOP Europe Super High Roller champ Dan Shak had the lead coming back with Fox only one small blind behind. Seminole Hard Rock regular Iadisernia rounded out the last three and he was the shortest.
Iadisernia went out early on Day 2 when he could not pair his live cards and the heads-up match for the title did not last long.
Fox took the lead early and knocked Shak out in second place when his turned Broadway straight bested Shak’s two pair. Shak earned $305,000 for two days of work at the table while Fox walked away with $500,000 plus the big SHRPO Super High Roller trophy.
This result continues a great summer for Fox with four tournament wins since the start of the WSOP. He kicked things off by winning his second WSOP bracelet in the second tournament of the series and followed that up by winning the Aria $10K, the Aria $25K High Roller, and the WPT Gardens $25K Six-Max High Roller.
The biggest score for Fox this summer wasn’t even a win; he finished second to Nick Petrangelo in the $100,000 WSOP High Roller for nearly $1.8 million. Now he can add another trophy to his mantle and another $500,000 to his bankroll.
Congratulations to Elio and a special thanks to all of our Super High Roller players. It was a well-played, talented field and worthy of the big buy-in.
Super High Roller results:
1st: Elio Fox – $500,000
2nd: Dan Shak – $305,000
3rd: Giuseppe Iadisernia – $190,000
4th: Ali Imsirovic – $130,000
5th: Chris Hunichen – $100,000
$50,000 Super High Roller
$1,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 17: 10,000/20,000 with a 20,000 ante
The heads-up battle did not last long. Elio Fox took the lead and then the title in less than fifteen minutes.
Fox was on the button and the board was reading 
. Shak checked, Fox bet 80,000 and Shak announced all in.
He had 825,000 and Fox quickly called after one quick look at his cards to confirm.
Fox: 
Shak: 
Fox was far ahead with the turned Broadway straight and Shak was looking for four outs. The river could not upgrade his two pair to a boat and the match was over.
Shak earned $305,000 for his runner-up finish and Fox walked to the cage to pick up his $500,000 first place prize. This is the fifth time Fox earned a six-digit payout in the last month including a WSOP High Roller bracelet.
Super High Roller recap to come soon.
1st: Elio Fox – $500,000
2nd: Dan Shak – $305,000
