2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
$350 Big Stack Turbo No Limit Hold’em (Single Re-Entry)

August 10th, 2015

Total Entries:  270
Total Prize Pool:  $81,000

Recap:

Many poker players go years without winning a live tournament.  In just eight tries in his career, Mathew Ferrante has already climbed that mountain winning Event 14 here in the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open.

Ferrante came in trying to chase down Steve Karp who came into the final table as the leader.  And Ferrante got off to a fast start eliminating Eric Wert in 9th.  The tide then turned for Karp as his stack was reduced in half by Robert Chusid whose kings beat Karp’s ace-king and put Chusid into the chip lead.

But Ferrante would come up big knocking out Conley Howard and take the chip lead which he would not relinquish.  After Mark Gaudino took out James Mankowski, the biggest hand of the final table played out.

Ferrante faced off with Karp and the short-stacked Sean Stoll.  Stoll was in with king-four but Karp pushed his whole stack with sevens and then Ferrante called him down with ace-king.  Ferrante hit a king on the flop and his bigger kicker knocked out Stoll and Karp to put him in complete command of the tournament.

Chusid, Oktay Altinbas and Gaudino thought better of it with Ferrante’s huge lead and the blinds escalating at a rapid rate deciding the best move was to walk away and leaving Ferrante with the title.

Ferrante reflected back on his run to the title.  “I finally started picking up some hands.  Even in the tournament yesterday I wasn’t picking up anything so it was good luck picking up the hands when it mattered.  I came from pretty far down – four big blinds.  When the cards were flipped up on the big hand, I was pretty surprised he (Karp) had sevens.  I was thinking he had some ace high and I was lucky to win the flip.  This is only my eighth live tournament. Now I gotta decide whether I want to play the Main or not.”

He was also very impressed with the entire Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open team.  “It’s great – they run it so well.  The dealers – I rarely see any mistakes with anything they do and the floor is very good.  And the reporting is great too.”

Congratulations to our Event 14 Champion – Mathew Ferrante!

Results:
1st: Mathew Ferrante (Brigantine, NJ) – $17,121
2nd: Robert Chusid (Miami, FL) – $11,000
3rd: Oktay Altinabas (Dania, FL) – $11,000
4th: Mark Gaudino (Plantation, FL)- $10,586
5th: Steve Karp (Dona, FL) – $4,860
6th: Sean Stoll  (United Kingdom) – $4,050
7th: James Mankowski  (Bummell, FL) – $3,240
8th: Conley Howard (Boca Raton, FL) – $2,430
9th: Eric Wert (Ellenton, FL) – $1,620