$10,000 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Finale Level 5: 250/500 with a 75 ante Entries: 318
Shannon Shorr raised to 1,300 from under the gun and Jeff Gross called from early position. Andy Philachack three-bet to 6,000 from the cutoff and action folded back to Shorr, who quickly folded.
Gross thought for a few moments and then called. The flop was and Gross checked. Philachack bet 8,000 and Gross called.
The turn was the and Gross checked again. Philachack moved all in for about 20,000 and Gross tanked for a couple minutes before folding. Philachack mucked his hand and won the pot.
$10,000 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Finale Level 5: 250/500 with a 75 ante Entries: 315
There was about 15,000 in the pot on the turn with the board reading and Farid Jattin checked from early position.
The player in middle position bet 9,000 and Jattin check-raised to 23,300. After a couple minutes of thought, Jattin’s opponent called and the river was the .
Jattin immediately moved a stack out into the middle that covers his opponent’s approximately 30,000 remaining. His opponent quickly folded and Jattin dragged the pot.
As he was stacking the chips, he flashed the to the table with a wry smile.
$360 No Limit Hold’em Level 12: 800/1,600 with a 200 ante Players Remaining: 46 of 238
Registration for the $360 no limit hold’em event closed at the start of level 9 and there are officially 238 entries in the field, generating a prize pool of $71,400.
The top 30 players will be in the money with a min-cash worth $493 and the eventual winner taking home $16,687.
2017 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood, FL Event 20 $300 No Limit Hold’em Entries: 184 Prize Pool: $46,920 April 1, 2017
Michael Luong wins $300 no limit hold’em
Michael Luong earned his first career title on Saturday night by defeating a field of 184 entries to win $12,157 in the $300 no limit hold’em.
After a long, 15-hour day of poker, the 25-year-old professional poker player was humble in nature and short on words.
“I just played it the way it was and I got it,” said Luong after his win.
Luong came into the final table near the top of the chip counts, but it took nearly five hours before he had amassed all of the chips in play. This is mostly due to the good structure and the high talent level of the final nine players.
“Surprisingly, at the very beginning of the final table, the blinds weren’t too big,” said Luong. “Everybody had a decent stack and it was fun. Everybody was playing pretty well. There were several people at the table that was playing amazingly well. I just had to wait, get a couple hands and made it happen.”
As a professional poker player living in Georgia, Luong doesn’t have the luxury of having casinos in the area. Most of Luong’s poker experience comes in underground games.
“It’s more underground games,” said Luong about where he’s forced to play in Georgia. “I travel to Vegas often too. So, I do a little of both.”
He currently plays in these games to make a living, but before he was playing these games, he was dealing them to pay for his computer information science degree at Georgia State University.
It was when he was in the box pitching cards that he learned the ins and outs of the game before jumping into playing full time.
“I used to deal at these games,” said Luong. “I learned the game and started liking it a lot. I just got used to it and started playing a lot and I like it a lot.”
Luong spends most of his time in cash games, but every so often, he’ll take a shot at a tournament.
“Cash is mainly my focus, but tournaments, I’ll jump in one every now and then just to see how I do,” said Luong.
He did pretty well on Saturday.
Results:
1st: Michael Luong – 12,157 2nd: Richard Little – $8,152 3rd: Ashley Sleeth – $4,809 4th: Steven Bennett – $2,925 5th: Tobias Peters – $2,259 6th: Francis Garcia – $1,872 7th: Marc Duquette – $1,595 8th: Aaron Scott – $1,403 9th: Roberto Bendeck – $1,216 10th: Preston Michael – $1,032 11th: Thomas Jackson – $1,032 12th: Rudijanto Soetkino – $1,032 13th: Dominick Amore – $868 14th: Frank Folino – $868 15th: Hamid Izadi – $868 16th: Andrew Grose – $727 17th: David Ring – $727 18th: Thomas Curtis – $727 19th: Alan Rosenbaum – $587 20th: Robert Mantin – $587 21st: Nader Bahhur – $587 22nd: Josias Santos – $445 23rd: Willie Wiggins – $445
2017 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood, FL Event 21 $570 Turbo No Limit Hold’em Entries: 61 Prize Pool: $30,500 April 1, 2017
Sean Perry Wins $300 No Limit Hold’em
Luckily for Sean Perry, you only need to be 18 to play poker in Florida.
At only 20 years old, Sean Perry earned his first career title by taking down the $300 no limit hold’em on Saturday night. He beat a field of 61 players to win $10,979 and what he hopes will be the first of many trophies.
“It feels really nice to to win one,” said Perry. “I’m new to the tournament scene. At most, I’ve played like 15 tournaments.”
As the son of poker pro Ralph Perry, Sean was exposed to the game at a very young age. He’ still not legal to play poker in his hometown of Las Vegas, but he’s already very skilled after spending his childhood watching his father play.
“I used to watch him play online all the time,” said Perry. “He’s kind of been like my coach. It’s pretty exciting.”
Living under the same roof as a professional poker player gave him some early life lessons about the cutthroat nature of the game.
“I remember when I was like 10 years old and playing him Chinese poker for like $20 a point,” said Perry. “And one time he beat me for like a thousand dollars. For my 10-year-old birthday, he gave me like a grand and I decided to put it on that. I lost it to him and he beat me. I cried for a few days and he wouldn’t give it back.”
Perry’s win comes on the heels of a runner-up finish to Joe McKeehen in the $2,200 eight-max no limit hold’em. He battled with some of the best players in the world throughout that field and at the final table eventually finishing second for more than $74,000.
This is Perry’s fourth cash of the series and he’s hoping for bigger things as the series nears an end.
“It’s awesome,” said Perry. “I’m coming out here and I’m doing pretty well. So, it gives me a lot more confidence, but now there is a $10,000 [buy-in] to go out and do well in. Let’s hope we are talking at the end of that. That would be pretty nice.
“It’s definitely a confidence boost, but at the same time, I’m very humbled because all of the people I’ve been playing against are very good players.”
The success comes at a good time for him as well. Up until about a month ago, Perry was a business major at Caifornia Polytechnic State University.
“I want to pursue poker and real estate, so I just left school,” said Perry.
Dropping out of school didn’t mean that Perry was a poor student. He was a business major, the President of a fraternity, and had nearly a perfect ACT score.
He just didn’t think college was useful for the life he planned to lead.
“For me, I didn’t feel school was pointless,” said Perry. “but I just didn’t think that school was essential in a sense to do what I needed to do. I didn’t want to waste my time when I could make money playing poker, make money in real estate and do my own thing.”
Perry’s mindset just wasn’t for college. He had no aspirations of working a normal nine to five job. He has more of a desire to create something for himself and achieve success outside of a cubicle.
“I was always the kind of guy that never planned on working for anyone,” said Perry. “Even my first year in school, I started this social media application and I started this site similar to AirBnb that basically you could sell homes. I was always kind of the one to do my own thing in a sense.”
His ultimate goals are to be successful in both poker and real estate so that he’ll never have to be anybody’s employee. With his dad a successful poker pro and his mother already in the real estate business, he’s got an inside track to being successful in both areas.
As far as the money he’s won this series thus far, he’s already got specific plans for it.
“After this, I’ll probably go back to Vegas and buy some real estate,” said Perry. “My mom is a big realtor, so I’ll go into real estate with her and play poker at the same time. Hopefully it works out.”
Results:
1st: Sean Perry – $10,979 2nd: Walter Treccarichi – $6,451 3rd: Hugh Cullen – $4,041 4th: Ian Pearson – $2,745 5th: Jeff Gross – $2,135 6th: Tam Ho – $1,678 7th: Sanjib Acharya – $1,373 8th: James Romero – $1,098
$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship End of Level 20: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante Players Remaining: 66 of 1,207
Matt Affleck
After 10 levels of play, the second day of the WPT championship event is in the books and the massive 1,207-entry field is down to the final 66 players and Team SHRP member Matt Affleck takes a massive chip lead into Day 3.
Affleck finished the day with 1,893,000 and his nearest competitor, Eric Beller has 1,155,000. The only other Team SHRP members alive for Day 3 are Darryll Fish with 571,000 and Wally Maddah with 43,000.
Everybody remaining is guaranteed $10,080 but they are all hoping to still be playing the tournament later in the week when somebody will earn $661,283 for the win.
Day 3 will start at noon on Sunday and the levels will increase from 60 minutes to 90 minutes. The schedule for the day is to play down to the final six players.
$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship Level 19: 4,000/8,000 with a 1,000 ante Players Remaining: 88 of 1,207
On a flop of , the player in the small blind checked and Rob Mizrachi bet 29,000 from middle position. Bob Bounahra called on the button and the small blind called as well.
The turn was the and the small blind checked again. Mizrachi bet 56,000, Bounahra called, and the small blind called again.
The river was the and the small blind checked for a third time. Mizrachi bet 68,000 and Bounahra folded without much thought. The small blind thought for a couple minutes before tossing his hand into the muck.
$300 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Level 17: 2,500/5,000 with a 500 ante Players Remaining: 10 of 184
The $300 no limit hold’em is down to its final 10 players and they have redrawn for seats at the unofficial final table. With one more elimination, the final nine players will be credited with making a final table.
Here is a look at the seating arrangement and chip counts for the final 10:
Seat 1: Rich Little – 166,500 Seat 2: Steven Bennett – 250,000 Seat 3: Roberto Bendeck – 199,000 Seat 4: Tobias Peters – 161,000 Seat 5: Marc Duquette – 322,500 Seat 6: Francis Garcia – 42,000 Seat 7: Mike Preston – 59,000 Seat 8: Aaron Scott – 152,500 Seat 9: Ashley Sleeth – 215,500 Seat 10: Michael Luong – 260,500
$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship Level 18: 3,000/6,000 with a 1,000 ante Players Remaining: 109 of 1,207
Phil Hui raised from the hijack and Miguel Suarez Riera moved all in on the button for about 70,000. The blinds folded and Hui quickly called.
Hui showed and was in the lead against Riera’s .
The board ran out and Hui’s set of jacks holds up to eliminate Riera. Riera earned a min-cash for his second cash of the trip. He won the $1,100 no limit hold’em a couple days ago for his first cash of the trip.
Phil Hui – 725,000 (120 bb) Miguel Suarez Riera – Eliminated
$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship Level 18: 3,000/6,000 with a 1,000 ante Players Remaining: 121 of 1,207
Vlad Mezheritsky
On the river with a completed board of , Vlad Mezheritsky got his last 227,500 into the middle against his opponent in middle position.
There were groans of amazement as the two hands were tabled. The player in middle position showed , good for a full house, but Mezheritsky tabled the only had that could beat him, .
Mezheritsky doubled up with quads and the next hand is dealt as the table chats about the cooler.
and Gross checked. Philachack bet 8,000 and Gross called.
and Gross checked again. Philachack moved all in for about 20,000 and Gross tanked for a couple minutes before folding. Philachack mucked his hand and won the pot.
and Farid Jattin checked from early position.
.
to the table with a wry smile.
, the player in the small blind checked and Rob Mizrachi bet 29,000 from middle position. Bob Bounahra called on the button and the small blind called as well.
and the small blind checked again. Mizrachi bet 56,000, Bounahra called, and the small blind called again.
and the small blind checked for a third time. Mizrachi bet 68,000 and Bounahra folded without much thought. The small blind thought for a couple minutes before tossing his hand into the muck.
and was in the lead against Riera’s 
.
and Hui’s set of jacks holds up to eliminate Riera. Riera earned a min-cash for his second cash of the trip. He won the $1,100 no limit hold’em a couple days ago for his first cash of the trip.
.