2021 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 16
$50,000 Super High Roller
Entries:  42
Prize Pool:  $2,037,000
April 21-22, 2021

With four players remaining in the $50K Super High Roller, Arthur Conan tried to pull off a big bluff with nine high against Seth Davies, shoving the river with everything he had except for a single 25K chip — one big blind. Unfortunately for Conan, Davies called with two pair, leaving Conan with the proverbial chip and a chair.

“I was almost dead,” said Conan, who is French but speaks English pretty well. “But I still had one chip. One chip and one chair, as we say.”

The next hand, Conan was all in from the small blind with , and he outflopped Chris Brewer’s to quadruple his stack to 100,000 — four big blinds.

The hand after that, Conan’s held up against Sam Soverel’s , doubling him up to 260,000 — nine big blinds.

Two hands later, Conan got it all in with , and they held up against Chris Brewer’s . That took Conan up to 505,000 — 17 big blinds, and enough to take the immediate pressure off.

Over the next 45 minutes or so, Conan built his stack up over a million, and then he doubled thru Seth Davies, getting it all in on the river with a straight against Davies’ set of nines.

That hand gave Conan the chip lead, and he never looked back.

A few minutes later, Conan and Davies got it all in again on the river, this time with two aces on the board and each of them holding an ace for trips. But Conan’s outkicked Davies’ , and Davies was out in fourth place, earning $203,700.

A few minutes after that, Brewer limp-shoved from the small blind with , but Conan woke up in the big blind with . There was an ace on the river to tease Brewer, but it was also the fourth club on the board, giving Conan a flush and another knockout. Brewer was felted in third place, earning $295,365.

Conan began heads-up play against Soverel with a huge 8-to-1 chip lead. And it didn’t take long for them to get it all in, with Soverel’s needing to catch up to Conan’s .

The flop brought three hearts to give Soverel a flush draw, but one of them was the , giving Conan a set. The turn and river missed Soverel’s outs, and Conan won the Super High Roller with his set of fives.

“I’m very shocked with that comeback,” said Conan. “Very happy, of course.”

With 42 entries and a prizepool worth more than $2 million, this was the largest Super High Roller in Seminole Hard Rock history, and the $733,320 first prize is far and away the biggest of Conan’s career (his previous best was about $84,000). Conan’s career live tournament earnings have doubled to nearly $1.5 million.

This is Conan’s first trip to Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood, and it’s his first time playing live poker since the pandemic hit in early 2020 and shut everything down.

“We don’t have live events now in Europe,” said Conan, “and this event is very good. So I came here a week ago, and I’m going to stay in the U.S. for two or three months playing live poker.”

When asked why he entered the Super High Roller, which seems to be a much higher buy-in than what he usually plays, Conan simply said, “I wanted to try bigger events.”

Tomorrow he’ll be taking his shot in the $3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship, which looks like it could have one of the largest fields in WPT history.

“The tournaments are very good here,” said Conan. “The fields are big and this event is amazing.”

Final Results:

1st:  Arthur Conan  –  $733,320
2nd:  Sam Soverel  –  $468,510
3rd:  Chris Brewer  –  $295,365
4th:  Seth Davies  –  $203,700
5th:  Sean Winter  –  $142,590
6th:  Jeremy Ausmus  –  $112,035
7th:  Ilyas Muradi  –  $81,480