2016 Rock n’ Roll Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
Hollywood, FL
Event 11: $1,650 No Limit Hold’em Bounty (Single Re-Entry)
Entries: 126
Prize Pool: $126,000 + $63,000 in bounties
November 27-28, 2016
Patrick Eskandar made his way to South Florida all the way from Southern California. With the 2016 Rock n’ Roll Poker Open nearing a close, Eskandar will be making the long flight back across the country, but he’ll be making the trek with some hardware in his luggage.
Eskandar took down the $1,650 no limit hold’em bounty tournament on Monday evening in a heads-up chop with Tom Nguyen. He topped a field of 126 players to take home the trophy and $35,642.
Eskandar eliminated three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Brian Hastings to give him a big chip lead against Nguyen as heads-up play was about to begin. Eskandar offered up a deal and after a few minutes of negotiation, they reached an agreement and Eskandar took the title.
“It feels great,” said Eskandar. “It was the tail end of the main and it was good to have a little recovery there and walk away with a pretty cool little trophy.”
Eskandar owns and operates medical clinics in his home state of California and he spends most of his free time traveling around playing poker tournaments against the best players he can find.
“I like to play some of the bigger events and wrestle with the pros,” said Eskandar. “It’s always fun to get on their turf and just punch through a little bit. You take some beatings, but every once in a while you punch them out.”
It wasn’t any different in this event for Eskandar. He had to punch through a very tough field and a final tabled that featured Hastings, Stephen Chidwick, Adam Geyer, James Dorrance, and Paul Balzano.
“It was definitely having to dodge a lot of sticky situations and a lot of really good players,” said Eskandar of the field he beat. “I just had to find some spots and get in there and chip up. I was able to find a few good spots and finally took it down.”
Eskandar was also able to take advantage of the bounty aspect of the tournament. For each player knocked out, the winner of the hand earns an extra $500. The bounty format gave Eskandar a little bit of an edge and some added entertainment.
“It definitely makes it fun,” said Eskandar. “You definitely may jump into a couple of pots that you wouldn’t normally play. Or you may realize that some people are taking advantage of that and punish them for it.
“And actually, that helped me quite a bit. There were like two spots where I knew two people were just going for the bounty and I was able to show some strength and win some pots and takes the bounty as well.”
Here is a look at the results:
1st: Patrick Eskandar – $35,642
2nd: Tom Nguyen – $29,500
3rd: Brian Hastings – $15,624
4th: Raffaello Locatelli – $11,214
5th: Stephen Chidwick – $8,190
6th: Derek Bowers – $6,300
7th: Richard Geyer – $4,914
8th: James Dorrance – $3,654
9th: Aaron Massey – $3,024
10th: Paul Balzano – $2,646
11th: Mike Poss – $2,646
12th: Alexander Ziskin – $2,646