Championship Day 1: Florida’s Finest

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 7: 400/800/100 Ante

Some of the storied names in the history of poker have come out of the Sunshine State.  The first names that typically come to mind are the Mizrachi brothers.  We’ve already seen Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi in the field and his brother Robert has already won a event in this year’s Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open series.

Two more Florida superstars are battling it out today.  Matt Waxman, who has now cracked the top ten all-time live tournament money winners in the state’s history, is looking to add this main event title to go along with his 2013 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N Roll” Poker Open Main Event victory.  Waxman finished in the top 75 players in the WSOP Main Event the past two years and continues to establish himself as one of the most dangerous players in the game.

Of course, the man who has now taken the top spot in the list of Florida players is Jason Mercier.  Mercier continued to build on his status as one of the game’s elite winning his third WSOP bracelet this summer and narrowly missed a fourth with a runner-up finish and another seventh place finish this summer.  Mercier’s $15,266,974 live earnings leads the Florida contingent along with being the 12th highest in live poker tournament history.  He is also currently the #1 player in the GPI standings as well.

We’ll see one of these players or one of the other many Florida poker standouts can keep the trophy withing the state’s boundaries when the tournament wraps up on Tuesday.

Matt Waxman
Matt Waxman
Jason Mercier
Jason Mercier