2019 Escalator III Series Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Week 1: $150 Buy-In, $100,000 Guaranteed No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Entries: 1,472 Prize Pool: $176,640 February 20-24, 2019
2019 Escalator III Series (Week 1) $150 Buy-In, $100,000 Guaranteed Players Remaining: 136 of 1,472 | Structure | Payouts Day 2 Blinds: 2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 ante
2019 Escalator III Series (Week 1) $150 Buy-In, $100,000 Guaranteed Players Remaining: 136 of 1,472 | Structure | Payouts Day 2 Blinds: 2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 ante
2019 Escalator III Series Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Week 1: $150 Buy-In, $100,000 Guaranteed No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Entries: 1,472 Prize Pool: $176,640 February 20-24, 2019
2018 Escalator Series Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Week 4: $560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Entries: 1,108 Prize Pool: $554,000 March 15-18, 2018
Escalator $560 Champion, Josh Rittenberg
Hollywood, Florida — Josh Rittenberg of Delray Beach won the $560 buy-in Escalator Series headliner during the early morning hours of Monday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. For coming out on top of a stout, 1,108-entry field, Rittenberg was rewarded with a $98,642 first prize along with a $3,500 seat in next month’s $3,000,000 guaranteed WPT Poker Showdown Championship. The victory came following a heads-up chop that saw Rittenberg’s chip lead secure the win. Runner-up, Edgar Varas, was rewarded with an even $94,000
The Escalator $560 boasted a $400,000 guarantee that was easily bested to the tune of a $554,000 prize pool. In addition to Rittenberg, Josh Beckley (third), Paul Balzano (fourth), Brian Hastings (14th) and Michael Newman (25th) also finished in the money.
Full results:
1st: Josh Rittenberg – $98,642 + $3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Seat 2nd: Edgar Varas – $94,000 3rd: Josh Beckley – $44,043 4th: Paul Balzano – $36,841 5th: “GT” Jack Sumner – $30,470 6th: Larry Klur – $24,653 7th: Juan Mubarak – $19,390 8th: Song Kun O – $14,404 9th: Gary Flur – $10,166 10th: Bienvendo Santiago – $6,620 11th: Steve Karp – $6,620 12th: Mark Nahama – $6,620 13th: Ivan Starostin – $4,432 14th: Brian Hastings – $4,432 15th: Kobi Ribak – $4,432 16th: Adam Horowitz – $2,964 17th: Oleksandr Vaserfirer – $2,964 18th: Kharlin Sued – $2,964 19th: Craig Witz – $2,493 20th: Aaron Mahlfeldt – $2,493 21st: Brett Bader – $2,493 22nd: Jonathan Ounjian – $2,493 23rd: John De Soto – $2,493 24th: Haim Nagar – $2,493 25th: Michael Newman – $2,493 26th: David Poces – $2,493 27th: Reinaldo Troconis – $2,493 28th: Ethiel Garcia – $2,161 29th: Iman Dan – $2,161 30th: Peter Fellows – $2,161 31st: Michael Chiapetta – $2,161 32nd: Juan Barbosa – $2,161 33rd: Zach Hammons – $2,161 34th: Raminder Singh – $2,161 35th: Andrew Gordon – $2,161 36th: Scott Zakheim – $2,161 37th: Philip Consolo – $1,884 38th: Corey Ristich – $1,884 39th: Richard Arno – $1,884 40th: Brian Landesman – $1,884 41st: Alejandro Funes – $1,884 42nd: John Valevich – $1,884 43rd: Vito Polera – $1,884 44th: Blake Kouwenhoven – $1,884 45th: Jeff Charlton – $1,884 46th: Lester Trimino – $1,607 47th: Daniel Couzens – $1,607 48th: Carlos Castro – $1,670 49th: Dennis Johnson – $1,607 50th: Matthew Goldman – $1,607 51st: Shlomi Bracha – $1,607 52nd: Ronnie Safa – $1,607 53rd: Gabriel Caballero – $1,607 54th: Josh Robins – $1,607 55th: Ira Schwartz – $1,413 56th: Jason Durant – $1,413 57th: Kyle Taddei – $1,413 58th: Juan Ferrer – $1,413 59th: Ricardo Eyzaguirre – $1,413 60th: Richard Leger – $1,413 61st: David MacDonald – $1,413 62nd: Steve Yagudaev – $1,413 63rd: Scott Federico – $1,413 64th: Sean Shah – $1,291 65th: T.K. Miles – $1,291 66th: Lucas Braga – 67th: Andre Bryan – $1,291 68th: Suk Wan – $1,291 69th: Michael Graffeo – $1,291 70th: Mark Weinstein – $1,291 71st: Kevin McIntosh – $1,291 72nd: Haim Shrayer – $1,291 73rd: Randy Matienzo – $1,191 74th: John Nguyen – $1,191 75th: Gregory Anda – $1,191 76th: William Beasley – $1,191 77th: Paul Domd – $1,191 78th: Lawrence Gradus – $1,191 79th: Samuel Tercy – $1,191 80th: Paula Alibrandi – $1,191 81st: Marvin Young – $1,191 82nd: John English – $1,097 83rd: Johann Tiemann – $1,097 84th: Dolphus Powers – $1,097 85th: Erik Nomberg – $1,097 86th: David Inselberg – $1,097 87th: Clifford Conners – $1,097 88th: Stephen Ibrahim – $1,097 89th: Carlos Rodriguez Rojas – $1,097 90th: George Novo – $1,097 91st: Stephen Harris – $1,069 92nd: Nissin Vaknin – $1,069 93rd: Manny Minaya – $1,069 94th: Ayca Erakbas – $1,069 95th: Marcin Plewinski – $1,069 96th: David Moreno – $1,069 97th: Scott Harwood – $1,069 98th: John Dollinger – $1,069 99th: Hollander Preap – $1,069 100th: Jason Leet – $1,069 101st: William Farnan – $1,042 102nd: Jacobo Hernandez – $1,042 103rd: Angelo Castaldi – $1,042 104th: Mitchell Smith – $1,042 105th: Michael Harley – $1,042 106th: Harjinder Chawla – $1,042 107th: Trevor Samuels – $1,042 108th: Matthew Zarcadoolas – $1,042 109th: Michael Stefan – $1,042 110th: Jonathan Pineda – $1,042
The 2018 Escalator Series marked the second of its kind. Beginning February 21st and running through March 18th, the series boasted four events over four consecutive weekends. The opener was a $150 with a $150,000 guarantee followed by a $250 with a $200,000 guarantee, a $350 with a $300,000 guarantee and the closer was the $560 with a $400,000 guarantee.
In all, the series drew more than 5,600 entries competing for better than $1,500,000 in cash and prizes. That turnout accounts for better than a 21 percent increase over 2016’s inaugural series.
With the Escalator concluded, next up at the Seminole Hard Rock is the WPT Poker Showdown beginning April 5th. Headline events include a $560 buy-in, $1,000,000 guaranteed opener, a $1,100 buy-in, $250,000 guaranteed WPTDeepStacks prelim and, of course, the $3,500 buy-in, $3,000,000 guaranteed televised WPT Championship.
2018 Escalator Series (Week 4) $560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed Level 35: 150,000/300,000 with a 50,000 ante Players Remaining: 2 of 1,108 | Structure | Payouts
Josh Rittenberg
Claiming 13,350,000 and 8,800,000 chips respectively, Josh Rittenberg and Edgar Varas agreed to a heads-up deal. Varas negotiated slightly up from the ICM figures, securing himself an even $94,000. Rittenberg, meanwhile, earned the remainder of the cash — $98,642 — along with the $3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship seat and, of course, the trophy.
Edgar Varas
A final report will be posted shortly. In the meantime, here’s a look at the final table results:
1st: Josh Rittenberg – $98,642 + $3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Seat 2nd: Edgar Varas – $94,000 3rd: Josh Beckley – $44,043 4th: Paul Balzano – $36,841 5th: “GT” Jack Sumner – $30,470 6th: Larry Klur – $24,653 7th: Juan Mubarak – $19,390 8th: Song Kun O – $14,404 9th: Gary Flur – $10,166
2018 Escalator Series (Week 4) $560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed Level 35: 150,000/300,000 with a 50,000 ante Players Remaining: 2 of 1,108 | Structure | Payouts
Josh Beckley
Having chipped back up to 1,050,000, Josh Beckley got all-in from the small blind and both Edgar Varas and Josh Rittenberg battled it out for a side pot.
The pair checked down a runout. Varas turned over for a pair of sevens and was best versus Beckley’s ace-high. Beckley was eliminated in third place.
Edgar Varas – 8,800,000 Josh Rittenberg – 13,350,000 Josh Beckley – Eliminated in 3rd place ($44,043)
2018 Escalator Series (Week 4) $560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed Level 35: 150,000/300,000 with a 50,000 ante Players Remaining: 3 of 1,108 | Structure | Payouts
One hand after his doubled preflop through Edgar Varas’ , Josh Rittenberg got 6,950,000 in the pot preflop versus Josh Beckley. Rittenberg was ahead, but at risk.
Rittenberg: Beckley:
Runout:
Rittenberg’s tens were best and he grew his stack. Beckley was left with less than two big blinds.
Josh Rittenberg – 14,350,000 Edgar Varas – 7,450,000 Josh Beckley – 525,000
2018 Escalator Series (Week 4) $560 Buy-In, $400,000 Guaranteed Level 35: 150,000/300,000 with a 50,000 ante Players Remaining: 3 of 1,108 | Structure | Payouts
Players broke down their stacks and came up with the following ICM figures:
Edgar Varas – $91,451 Josh Beckley – $80,278 Josh Rittenberg – $64,961
“I’d just rather play it out at that number,” Beckley said of his figure.
runout. Varas turned over 
for a pair of sevens and was best versus Beckley’s 
ace-high. Beckley was eliminated in third place.
doubled preflop through Edgar Varas’ 
, Josh Rittenberg got 6,950,000 in the pot preflop versus Josh Beckley. Rittenberg was ahead, but at risk.
