All posts by BJ Nemeth

2019 LHPO Live Updates

Event 1: Chip Counts Through Flight C

January 11, 2019 @ 9:00PM by BJ Nemeth

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 17: 4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 ante
Players Remaining: 132 of 1,428

Flight A: 483 Entries; 48 Advanced
Flight B: 417 Entries; 41 Advanced; 5 Multi-Stack Payouts
Flight C: 528 Entries; 52 Advanced, 5 Multi-Stack Payouts
Flight D: Friday at 5pm
Flight E: Saturday at 11am
Flight F: Saturday at 5pm
Flight G: Sunday at 11am
Flight H: Sunday at 5pm
Day 2: Monday at 1pm

RANK	FIRST NAME	LAST NAME	CHIP COUNT	FLIGHT	MULTI-STACKS
1	Frank	Flowers	578,500	B	1
2	Bret	Grebow	557,500	A
3	Rayden	Abreu	535,500	B
4	Paulius	Bikus	497,000	C
5	Jacob	Naumann	493,000	C
6	Constantinos	Liapis	447,500	B
7	Ginold	Cham	446,000	B
8	James	Salmon III	429,500	A
9	Dejan	Petkovic	388,500	A
10	Sheldon	Gross	382,000	C
11	Cesar	Mendoza Gomez	371,500	B
12	Jason	Young	361,000	A	1
13	Jose	Reyes	336,000	C
14	Raminder	Singh	322,000	C
15	David	Bradshaw, Jr.	317,000	A
16	Michael	Dudik	308,000	C
17	Thomas	Bielecky	298,000	C
18	Paul	Pantoja	292,500	A
19	Kyle	Carino	243,000	A
20	Matthew	Humphrey	239,500	A
21	David	Pain	238,500	C
22	David	Nathaniel, Jr.	238,500	C	2
23	Jonathan	Sanchez	235,500	B
24	Anthony	Stampalia	224,500	C
25	Courtland	Twyman	222,500	C
26	Matthew	White	222,000	B
27	Lawrence	Mazauskas	222,000	C
28	Tomislav	Krizanic	222,000	C
29	Gheorghe	Pop	214,500	C
30	Paul	Domb	213,500	A
31	Antonio	Delacruz	212,000	B
32	Jeffrey	Boden	203,500	A
33	Igor	Evseev	200,500	B
34	Peter	Jacobson	191,500	C
35	Mathieu	Gaudette	191,000	B
36	Raymond	Millard	188,500	C
37	Justin	Levy	180,500	C
38	Michael	Merisier	178,000	A
39	Eric	Kolodny	177,500	C
40	Ian	Holt	177,000	C
41	Norman	Zapczynski	174,500	A
42	Lawrence	Klur	169,000	B
43	Jose	Reyes	168,000	A
44	Luke	Owens	166,500	A
45	Michel	Dubreuil	165,500	A
46	Angel	Bracho	165,000	B
47	Yannick	Tessier	164,000	B
48	Daniel	Couzens	162,500	B
49	Ismael	Cabrera	161,500	C
50	Luis	Mantilla	160,000	A
51	Richard	Katz	158,500	A
52	David	Shmuel	154,000	B
53	Christopher	Smallwood	153,500	B
54	Rafael	De Lima	151,000	C
55	Oniel	Mccalla	150,000	B
56	Daniel	Quesada	146,000	C
57	Cangir	Elcin	142,500	A	1
58	Alex	Faynshteyn	138,000	C
59	Rene	Esquivel	130,000	C
60	James	Hamburger	129,500	A
61	Stephen	Ibrahim	129,000	C	2
62	James	Rovezzi	127,000	C
63	Samir	Desai	127,000	C
64	Kevin	Glenn	126,000	C
65	Eric	Snyder	125,000	C
66	Alvaro	Perez Garcia	121,000	B
67	Brian	Gelrod	121,000	B
68	Kenneth	Bruno	120,500	A
69	Matan	Yehudai	120,000	B
70	Brian	Hastings	118,000	C
71	Donald	Williams	117,500	A
72	Willie	Wiggins	111,500	A
73	Daniel	Navarrete	109,000	A
74	Mark	Wiser	108,000	C
75	Marcin	Plewinski	108,000	B
76	Prashray	Rai	105,500	C
77	Scott	Zakheim	105,000	A
78	Stuart	Paterson	104,500	A
79	Frederico	Dabus	104,000	B
80	Sebastian	Gallego	101,000	A
81	John	Spadavecchia	100,000	C
82	George	Mazauskas	100,000	C
83	Michael	Loynd	98,500	A
84	Jason	Hopkins	94,000	A
85	Justin	Obront	93,000	A
86	Maurice	Lightner	92,500	B
87	Richard	Whitebrook	92,000	A
88	Gregory	Kolo	91,000	B
89	Michael	Ortiz	89,500	B
90	Lazaro	Dubrocq	83,000	C
91	Joviel	Gonzalez	81,000	C
92	Anthony	Carbone	81,000	B
93	Evgeniy	Catane	80,500	B
94	Philip	Consolo	79,000	C
95	Jorge	Ramirez	76,500	B
96	Fred	Li	73,000	A
97	Matthew	Zarcadoolas	72,000	A	1
98	David.john	Milbrand	67,000	C
99	Kimberley	Kusser	64,500	A
100	Yves	Bohemier	64,000	C
101	Isaac	Kratcham	61,500	A
102	Marc	Alan	61,000	A
103	James	Gibson	59,000	C
104	Jason	Squillace	58,500	B
105	Scott	Jordan	58,000	B
106	Brian	Guzman	58,000	A
107	Jonathan	Shapiro	57,000	A
108	Daniel	Chess	55,000	A
109	Charles	Lilly	53,000	B
110	Tracy	Scala	50,500	A
111	Dagoberto	Rios	50,000	C
112	Donald	Maloney, Jr.	49,500	C
113	Ross	Willner	49,000	C
114	Jay	Convente	49,000	A
115	Jonathan	Dobson	45,000	B
116	Syed	Shah	43,500	A	1
117	Luciano	Nardi	42,000	B
118	Philippe	Knapic	42,000	C
119	Massimo	Dirienzo	41,500	C
120	Richard	Davis	40,000	C
121	Kevin	Scarola	34,500	C
122	Hagai	Stein	34,000	A
123	Gil	Aboodi	32,000	A
124	Yuan	Shen	31,500	C
125	Andrew	Frier	31,000	B
126	Solange	Lucas	25,500	B
127	Michael	Monaco	21,000	C
128	Jack	Shea	18,000	B
129	Jorge	Soto	16,000	A
130	Neal	Corcoran	16,000	A
131	Antonio	Arencibia Monduy	10,500	B
132	Bill	Oderat	8,500	C

2019 LHPO Live Updates

Event 3: Mark Robinson – 9th Place

January 11, 2019 @ 8:55PM by BJ Nemeth

$360 H.O.R.S.E. (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 15: 4,000/8,000 Limits
Players Remaining: 8 of 59

During the Stud Hi-Lo round, Mark Robinson was all in on third street against Dale Phillips and Adam Walter, who continued the hand all the way thru seventh street.

Dale Phillips:
Adam Walter:
Mark Robinson:

4th Street: Phillips bet 4,000 with his pair of aces, Walter raised to 8,000, and Phillips called.

5th Street: Phillips checked, Walter bet 4,000, and Phillips called.

6th Street: Phillips checked, Walter bet 8,000, and Phillips called.

7th Street: Phillips checked, Walter bet 8,000, and Phillips called.

At that point, all three players turned over their holecards:

Dale Phillips: (trip aces, no low)
Adam Walter: (eight-high straight, 7-6 low)
Mark Robinson: 10c (two pair, no low)

Walter scooped the entire pot with his straight and the only qualifying low hand to eliminate Robinson in ninth place.

Adam Walter – 255,000 (32 BB)
Dale Phillips – 30,000 (4 BB)
Mark Robinson – Eliminated

2019 LHPO Live Updates

Event 3: Final Table is Set with Adam Zeltser in the Lead; Adam Walter Goes for Two in a Row

January 11, 2019 @ 8:35PM by BJ Nemeth

$360 H.O.R.S.E. (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 15: 4,000/8,000 Limits
Players Remaining: 9 of 59

Event 3 Final Table — Event 3 – Final Table

The field in the $360 H.O.R.S.E. event got down to the final nine players less than 10 minutes before a color-up break, and nobody busted in that time. Here is the official lineup for the final table coming back from that break to begin Level 15:

Seat 1. Phil Hui – 41,500 (5 BB)
Seat 2. Dale Phillips – 83,000 (10 BB)
Seat 3. Michael Dreese – 41,000 (5 BB)
Seat 4. Adam Zeltser – 176,000 (22 BB)
Seat 5. Mark Robinson – 29,000 (4 BB)
Seat 6. Cory Zeidman – 102,000 (13 BB)
Seat 7. James Gunter – 43,500 (5 BB)
Seat 8. Michael Barry – 27,000 (3 BB)
Seat 9. Adam Walter – 125,000 (16 BB)

Adam Zeltser leads with 176K, followed by last night’s Event 2 winner Adam Walter, who has 125,000. Michael Dreese is also here, after finishing slightly behind Walter last night in third place.

With nine players remaining, only the final eight will finish in the money. Here is the prizepool:

1st: $5,790 + LHPO trophy
2nd: $3,860
3rd: $2,570
4th: $1,785
5th: $1,295
6th: $980
7th: $775
8th: $645

2019 LHPO Live Updates

Event 1 Flight C: Paulius Bikus and Jacob Naumann Lead 52 Survivors

January 11, 2019 @ 8:25PM by BJ Nemeth

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 17: 4,000/8,000 with a 8,000 ante
Flight C Players Remaining: 52 of 528

The surviving 52 players from Flight C have verified their chip stacks for Day 2. The full list of official chip counts will be posted later tonight, but here are the top five:

1. Paulius Bikus – 497,000 (62 bb)
2. Jacob Naumann – 493,000 (62 bb)
3. Sheldon Gross – 382,000 (48 bb)
4. Jose Reyes – 336,000 (42 bb)
5. Raminder Singh – 322,000 (40 bb)

Flight D is currently in progress, with registration open until the start of Level 13 (11:45 pm). There will be another two flights tomorrow (Saturday), with Flight E starting at 11:00 am (registration until 5:45 pm), and Flight F starting at 5:00 pm (registration until 11:45 pm).

2019 LHPO Live Updates

Event 1 Flight C: Raminder Singh Knocks Out a Player to Burst the Bubble

January 11, 2019 @ 8:10PM by BJ Nemeth

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 17: 4,000/8,000 with a 8,000 ante
Flight C Players Remaining: 52 of 528

When the field got down to 53 players, Tournament Director Tony Burns announced that all tables should finish the hands currently in progress so hand-for-hand play could begin on the end-of-day Money Bubble.

But one of the hands already in progress would lead to an all-in situation.

A player limped preflop for 8,000, Raminder Singh raised from the button to 29,000, and his opponent called. The flop came , his opponent bet 24,000, and Singh called.

The turn card paired the board with the , and Singh’s opponent moved all in for about 45,000.

Singh quickly called with for a flopped king-high flush, and his opponent turned over for trip queens.

The short stacked needed to improve to stay alive, but the river card was the 10c . Singh won the pot with his flush to eliminate his opponent and burst the Money Bubble, bringing Flight C to an end with 52 players.

Singh looked over the rest of the field as players celebrated making the money and said, “I got them all into Day 2.”

Raminder Singh – 322,000 (40 bb)

2019 LHPO Live Updates

Event 1 Flight C: Nearing the End-of-Day Money Bubble

January 11, 2019 @ 7:41PM by BJ Nemeth

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 16: 3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 ante
Flight C Players Remaining: 56 of 528

With 56 players remaining from a Flight C field of 528, they are just four eliminations away from the end.

The chipleader to beat from the first two flights is Frankie Flowers, who bagged both in Flight A and Flight B, and has 579,000 waiting for him on Day 2.

2019 LHPO Live Updates

Event 1 Flight D: Neal Corcoran Leads at the Break with 62K

January 11, 2019 @ 7:27PM by BJ Nemeth

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5: 200/300 with a 300 ante
Flight D Entries: 319

A scan of the field during the first break turned up six players with at least 45K in their stack, creating an unofficial early leaderboard for Flight D:

1. Neal Corcoran – 62,000 (207 bb)
2. Andre Rakusa – 57,000 (190 bb)
3. Leo Clavel – 52,500 (175 bb)
4. Walter Bravo – 49,500 (165 bb)
5. Wayne Kaufman – 49,000 (163 bb)
6. Julius Threadgill – 45,000 (150 bb)

Registration for Flight D remains open with unlimited re-entries until the beginning of Level 13, around 11:45 pm.

2019 LHPO Live Updates

Event 1: Chip Counts Through Flight B

January 11, 2019 @ 3:30AM by BJ Nemeth

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 17: 4,000/8,000 with a 8,000 ante
Players Remaining: 84 of 900

Flight A: 483 Entries; 48 Advanced
Flight B: 417 Entries, 41 Advanced, 5 Multi-Stack Payouts
Flight C: Friday at 11am
Flight D: Friday at 5pm
Flight E: Saturday at 11am
Flight F: Saturday at 5pm
Flight G: Sunday at 11am
Flight H: Sunday at 5pm
Day 2: Monday at 1pm

Multi-stack payouts:

Frankie Flowers
Stephen Ibrahim
David Nathaniel, Jr.
Sean Shah
Jason Young

RANK	FIRST NAME	LAST NAME	CHIP COUNT	FLIGHT
1	Frank	Flowers	578,500	B
2	Bret	Grebow	557,500	A
3	Rayden	Abreu	535,500	B
4	Constantinos	Liapis	447,500	B
5	Ginold	Cham	446,000	B
6	James	Salmon III	429,500	A
7	Dejan	Petkovic	388,500	A
8	Cesar	Mendoza Gomez	371,500	B
9	Jason	Young	361,000	A
10	David	Bradshaw, Jr.	317,000	A
11	Paul	Pantoja	292,500	A
12	Kyle	Carino	243,000	A
13	Matthew	Humphrey	239,500	A
14	Jonathan	Sanchez	235,500	B
15	David	Nathaniel, Jr.	234,000	A
16	Matthew	White	222,000	B
17	Paul	Domb	213,500	A
18	Antonio	Delacruz	212,000	B
19	Jeffrey	Boden	203,500	A
20	Igor	Evseev	200,500	B
21	Mathieu	Gaudette	191,000	B
22	Michael	Merisier	178,000	A
23	Norman	Zapczynski	174,500	A
24	Lawrence	Klur	169,000	B
25	Jose	Reyes	168,000	A
26	Luke	Owens	166,500	A
27	Michel	Dubreuil	165,500	A
28	Angel	Bracho	165,000	B
29	Yannick	Tessier	164,000	B
30	Daniel	Couzens	162,500	B
31	Luis	Mantilla	160,000	A
32	Richard	Katz	158,500	A
33	David	Shmuel	154,000	B
34	Christopher	Smallwood	153,500	B
35	Oniel	Mccalla	150,000	B
36	Cangir	Elcin	142,500	A
37	James	Hamburger	129,500	A
38	Alvaro	Perez Garcia	121,000	B
39	Brian	Gelrod	121,000	B
40	Kenneth	Bruno	120,500	A
41	Matan	Yehudai	120,000	B
42	Donald	Williams	117,500	A
43	Willie	Wiggins	111,500	A
44	Daniel	Navarrete	109,000	A
45	Marcin	Plewinski	108,000	B
46	Scott	Zakheim	105,000	A
47	Stuart	Paterson	104,500	A
48	Frederico	Dabus	104,000	B
49	Sebastian	Gallego	101,000	A
50	Stephen	Ibrahim	99,500	B
51	Michael	Loynd	98,500	A
52	Jason	Hopkins	94,000	A
53	Justin	Obront	93,000	A
54	Maurice	Lightner	92,500	B
55	Richard	Whitebrook	92,000	A
56	Gregory	Kolo	91,000	B
57	Michael	Ortiz	89,500	B
58	Anthony	Carbone	81,000	B
59	Evgeniy	Catane	80,500	B
60	Jorge	Ramirez	76,500	B
61	Fred	Li	73,000	A
62	Matthew	Zarcadoolas	72,000	A
63	Syed	Shah	68,000	B
64	Kimberley	Kusser	64,500	A
65	Isaac	Kratchman	61,500	A
66	Marc	Alan	61,000	A
67	Jason	Squillace	58,500	B
68	Scott	Jordan	58,000	B
69	Brian	Guzman	58,000	A
70	Jonathan	Shapiro	57,000	A
71	Daniel	Chess	55,000	A
72	Charles	Lilly	53,000	B
73	Tracy	Scala	50,500	A
74	Jay	Convente	49,000	A
75	Jonathan	Dobson	45,000	B
76	Luciano	Nardi	42,000	B
77	Hagai	Stein	34,000	A
78	Gil	Aboodi	32,000	A
79	Andrew	Frier	31,000	B
80	Solange	Lucas	25,500	B
81	Jack	Shea	18,000	B
82	Jorge	Soto	16,000	A
83	Neal	Corcoran	16,000	A
84	Antonio	Arencibia Monduy	10,500	B

2019 LHPO Live Updates

Event 1 Flight B: Frankie Flowers Bags Up 579K to Lead 41 Survivors

January 11, 2019 @ 2:52AM by BJ Nemeth

$360 Ultimate Re-Entry
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 17: 4,000/8,000 with a 8,000 ante
Flight B Players Remaining: 41 of 417

Flight B came to an end with 41 players advancing to Day 2, and action ended in the final hand of Level 16, so this flight would have played their next hand with the full hour remaining in Level 17 (4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 ante).

Here are the top five chip stacks from Flight B:

1. Frankie Flowers – 579,000
2. Rayden Abreu – 535,500
3. Constantinos Liapis – 447,500
4. Ginold Cham – 446,000
5. Cesar Mendoza Gomez – 371,500

The surviving players are all guaranteed at least $700 for a min-cash on Day 2, though the full prizepool won’t be available until registration has closed in all eight flights.

There were five players who bagged chips in both flights. Their largest stack will advance to Day 2, and they received $2,500 each as their smaller stacks were pulled from the tournament. Here are the five players with multi-stack payouts from Flight B:

Frankie Flowers – $2,500
Stephen Ibrahim – $2,500
David Nathaniel, Jr. – $2,500
Sean Shah – $2,500
Jason Young – $2,500

There will be two more flights tomorrow (Friday), with Flight C beginning at 11:00 am (registration open until 5:45 pm), and Flight D beginning at 5:00 pm (registration open until 11:45 pm).

2019 LHPO Live Updates

Adam Walter Leaves 20-Degree Weather Behind to Win His First Tournament

January 11, 2019 @ 2:45AM by BJ Nemeth

2019 Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 2
$360 Limit Omaha 8 (Re-Entry)
Entries: 78
Prize Pool: $23,400
January 10, 2019

Adam Walter had never been to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino before. When asked why he made the trip down from Ohio for the first time, he said, “It’s 20 degrees in Cincinnati right now, and I had a few days, so I said, ‘Let’s get some fun in the sun — some good weather and some poker.'”

It’s only the first day of the Lucky Hearts Poker Open, but Walter has already made the most of it, outlasting a field of 78 players to win the $360 Limit Omaha 8 event and earn $7,908.

Walter entered the final table with a better-than-average chip stack, but he was surrounded by three players with even larger stacks. Still, the seat draw seemed to work in Walter’s favor.

“The table draw was significant for me. I was really happy I was on the left side of Gabe [Ramos]. That was probably the biggest bonus for me because Gabe was on my right, and the two players with big stacks on my left were a little bit tighter.”

Walter scored two of the first six eliminations at the final table, knocking out Harry Eisenberg in ninth and Wayne Brown in fifth, allowing him to keep pace with the other players and ahead of the increasing blinds.

Heads-up play began with Walter and Michael Rosenberg nearly even in chips — they were separated by just two big blinds.

Over the next half hour, Walter was able to increase his lead, eventually building a big pot over a board of . Walter bet the river, and Rosenberg tanked for a while before calling with most of his stack and turning over for an eight-high straight with an 8-7 low.

But Walter flipped over to scoop the pot with a queen-high heart flush and a 7-6 low, catapulting to a 20-to-1 chip lead and leaving Rosenberg with just 1 1/2 big blinds. Walter would win the tournament — the first of his career — on the next hand.

Walter prefers limit games, and plans to enter Event 3 ($360 H.O.R.S.E.) tomorrow. He’s only here through this first weekend of the Lucky Hearts Poker Open, but it’s already been a memorable trip for Adam Walter.

The final ten players finished in the money, and here are the results:

1st: Adam Walter – $7,908 + LHPO trophy
2nd: Michael Rosenberg – $4,563
3rd: Michael Dreese – $2,855
4th: Gabriel Ramos – $1,931
5th: Wayne Brown – $1,463
6th: Hyndi Khomutetsky – $1,170
7th: Harvey Freedman – $1,053
8th: Perry Klein – $936
9th: Harry Eisenberg – $819
10th: Eric Von Guttenberg – $702