2024 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 42
$5,300 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed
Entries:  865
Prize Pool:  $4,195,250
August 9-13, 2024

Paul Snead is no stranger to success at Seminole Hard Rock properties all over the state of Florida between here at Hollywood and Tampa. Snead has multiple major tournament titles on his Seminole Hard Rock resume thanks to wins in the 2019 Seminole Showdown $5,000 NLH event, the 2022 Seminole Tampa Poker Classic $2,500 Championship, and the 2024 Seminole Tampa Poker Classic $1,700 Championship. He added even more hardware to that trophy case tonight by taking down the victory in the SHRPO $5,300 buy-in Championship Event. We caught up with him after the win for an interview about his most recent achievement in the Sunshine State.

“It feels amazing, I just feel like the Hard Rock is my home turf now. I’m originally from New York and still live there and Florida now. Foxwoods used to be my home turf, but now I totally feel comfortable here and playing here. I love the way that they run tournament here, it’s just great,” said Snead right after winning the trophy.

Snead continued, “I just love playing, and this is what I do when I’m not trading. I take it very seriously, I spend a lot of time talking poker with my poker coach and you wouldn’t believe the amount of time we spend talking about things, and it’s great when it all comes together. And I ran really good this tournament I think, which you need to do.”

Speaking more on that rungood that sent him down the path to the top of this tournament field Snead also added, “I was all in for my tournament life twice yesterday. I won a huge race with Ace-King against Queens, and then I came from behind all-in against Clemen [Deng] post-flop with Queens against Jack-10 on a Jack-10 flop. Those were the two hands where I could have been out of the tournament but I won. That hasn’t happened to me, so I feel really good … I’m ready to go hit the PokerGo studio for sure.”

Snead’s profession as he mentioned is working as a trader back in New York, but poker has become a serious and profitable hobby to him over the years. His close to $2.3 million in tournament earnings tells that story with a run of great results. We asked him about how those two major pursuits in his life are mutually beneficial to each other, and below is his response.

“Absolutely, you have to be analytical on both fronts, you have to have patience, you have to have discipline, and that’s the most important one. And that’s something I’ve had to work on in my poker game over the years. I’ve been playing for over 20 years now on a higher level, and the discipline part … and when I say discipline I mean keeping my emotions in check. Because people that know me will tell you that I wear it on my sleeve a lot of the time. And you can’t do that when you’re playing poker against the best players in the world. So that’s something that I’ve worked on, and I think that I’m much better at now and it’s served me,” said Snead.

We finished the final table-side chat with an inquiry to see what celebration plans Snead and his friends along the rail had in store for later. Snead responded, “I’ve got a bunch of local friends here. We’re usually up in New York this time of year so unfortunately my wife isn’t here. But I will see her tomorrow and we will celebrate with friends and family. I’m pretty amped about that trophy, it’s a good one.”

*denotes heads-up deal

2024 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 59
$400 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Entries:  109
Prize Pool:  $35,970
August 13, 2024

Event 59 of the 2024 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open was a $400 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry). A field of 109 entries generated a prize pool of $35,9700. The final 14 players will finish in the money, with a min-cash paying $845. Up top for the winner is $10,770.

1st:  $10,770 + SHRPO Trophy
2nd:  $6,665
3rd:  $4,000
4th:  $2,610
5th:  $2,015
6th:  $1,655
7th:  $1,405
8th:  $1,225
9th:  $1,080
11th-12th:  $955
13th-14th:  $845

$1,100 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 30:  30,000/60,000 with a 60,000 ante
Players Remaining:  6 of 504

Aaron Massey moved all in preflop under the gun for about 425,000 with in the hole, and Shannon Shorr called to cover him from the big blind holding .

The board ran out , and Massey was eliminated in seventh place for a payout worth $14,700. Shorr stacked up 1.02 million after collecting the pot.

Shannon Shorr –  1,020,000 (17 bb)
Aaron Massey: Eliminated in 7th Place ($14,700)

$1,100 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 24:  10,000/15,000 with a 15,000 ante
Players Remaining:  9 of 504

Claudio Piedrabuena was all in with pocket fives, but they ran into the tabled by Jason Hickey with a final board reading . Piedrabuena was eliminated in 10th place for a payday worth $9,000. Hickey was up to 1,335,000 after the hand.

Jason Hickey – 1,335,000 (88 bb)
Claudio Piedrabuena – Eliminated in 10th Place ($9,000)

$1,100 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$500,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 24:  10,000/15,000 with a 15,000 ante
Players Remaining:  10 of 504

Paul Balzano was all in with under the gun, and Caleb Powell had him covered holding on the big blind.

The final board read ], and Balzano was eliminated in 11th place for a payday worth $7,500. Powell stacked up 730,000.

Caleb Powell – 730,000 (15 bb)
Paul Balzano – Eliminated in 11th Place ($7,500)

$3,000 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed  |  Structure  |  Payouts
Level 24:  15,000/25,000 with a 25,000 ante
Players Remaining:  6 of 323

Bruce Russell was all in with in the hole under the gun, and Jim Collopy had him covered holding pocket queens on the small blind.

The final board read , and Russell was out in seventh for a payday worth $62,900. Collopy stacked up 3.6 million for the chip lead after the hand.

Jim Collopy – 3,600,000 (144 bb)
Bruce Russell – Eliminated in Seventh Place ($62,900)

$5,300 SHRPO Championship
Prizepool:  $4,195,250  |  Payouts  |  Results |  Structure
Level 29:  75,000/150,000 with a 150,000 ante
Players Remaining:  5 of 865

Brandon Kessous raised to 350,000 preflop from the cutoff, and Loni Hui reraised all in for 1.4 million on the small blind. Kessous called and the two players flipped over their cards.

Kessous:
Hui:

Board:

Hui was eliminated in seventh place for a payout worth $103,000, and Kessous was up to 12,050,000 after collecting the pot.

Brandon Kessous – 12,050,000 (80 bb)
Loni Hui – Eliminated in Sixth Place ($103,000)

$5,300 SHRPO Championship
Prizepool:  $4,195,250  |  Payouts  |  Results |  Structure
Level 28:  75,000/125,000 with a 125,000 ante
Players Remaining:  7 of 865

Loni Hui raised all in preflop for 1,050,000 UTG+1, and Brandon Kessous called to cover her on the big blind. The two players then flipped overt their cards.

Hui:
Kessous:

Board:

The board ran out a chopped pot so Hui held 1.15 million while Kessous retained his chip lead with 14.25 million.

Barndon Kessous – 14,250,000 (114 bb)
Loni Hui – 1,150,000 (9 bb)

$5,300 SHRPO Championship
Prizepool:  $4,195,250  |  Payouts  |  Results |  Structure
Level 28:  75,000/125,000 with a 125,000 ante
Players Remaining:  7 of 865

Brandon Kessous raised to 325,000 preflop under the gun, and Loni Hui called on the hijack. Tyler Montoya also called on the button.

The first three cards were dealt , and Kessous bet 350,000, Hui called, and Montoya folded.

The turn fell , Hui bet 1.1 million, and Kessous called. The river then delivered the , Hui bet 1.8 million, and Kessous thought for a moment before calling.

Hui showed down , but Kessous revealed to win the hand (if you go back and watch the live stream you can see after the fact that Montoya had folded pocket eights earlier in the hand as well). Kessous was over 10.6 million, and Hui was down to just under 1.4 million after the hand.

Brandon Kessous – 10,675,000 (85 bb)
Loni Hui – 1,375,000 (11 bb)

$3,000 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed  |  Structure  |  Payouts
Level 24:  15,000/25,000 with a 25,000 ante
Players Remaining:  9 of 323

Here is a look at the final table lineup with chip counts at the end of play in the $3,000 Deep Stack. Play will resume tomorrow with this event taking part in the Big 4 lineup to cap off the 2024 SHRPO run here in Florida.

Cards get back in the air at 1 pm on Tuesday.

Seat 1:  Manny Amaro  –  485,000  (19 bb)
Seat 2:  Myles Mullaly  –  770,000  (30 bb)
Seat 3:  Steven Miller  –  855,000  (34 bb)
Seat 4:  Christian Harder  –  585,000  (23 bb)
Seat 5:  Jim Collopy   –  2,105,000  (84 bb)
Seat 6:  Kevin Ordet  –  550,000  (22 bb)
Seat 7:  Bruce Russell  –  1,000,000  (40 bb)
Seat 8:  Trace Henderson  –  805,000  (32 bb)
Seat 9:  Nicholas Seward  –  930,000  (37 bb)

1st:  $190,800 + SHRPO trophy
2nd:  $128,000
3rd:  $95,000
4th:  $71,000
5th:  $54,000
6th:  $41,000
7th:  $31,500
8th:  $24,400
9th:  $19,200