If you’ve been coming to the Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open” the last two weeks, chances are you’ve seen the smiling face of Jeff Kessler at one of your tables. A young 70 years old if there ever was such a thing, Kessler rode a hot streak all day to take command of the final table and ultimately would be declared the winner when heads up Elliott Zaydman and himself decided to chop the prize money equally for $4,950 apiece.

Only five players would get paid and they would play six handed for quite a while before two players would be eliminated in a five minute time span. Robert Bass would be the 5th place finisher and he would take home $1,200 for his finish. This was Robert’s 2nd cash of the series as he also took 53rd in Event 1.

Our final four were as follows:

Four handed play would go on for what seemed like hours as they would pass chips back and forth and the shortest stack would continually win his all in. Robert Winsler and Julio Fernandez would especially be going after one another. With the blinds at 1K/2K and a 300 ante, Winsler would checked on a1 flop and Julio Fernandez then bet 8K. Winsler check-raised all in and Fernandez after thinking for a moment made the call. Winsler had for an open ended straight draw while Fernandez had for middle pair. The turn was the prompting Fernandez to ask for a club even though he was already in the lead. The river was the and Julio walked away going “yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.” He had 25K total to start the hand and is over 50K now.

Fernandez would lose most of that but then would find another double up through Winsler when he flopped a King with . This brought him to approximately 25K and Julio would then get very aggressive, moving all in four out of six hands. He didn’t receive a single call on any of the all ins until finally he moved all in over the top of chip leader Elliott Zaydman’s opening raise and Elliott decided enough was enough. This time, however, Julio had a hand… and Zaydman could do nothing but shrug as he turned over his . The board ran out and Julion doubled up to over 80K.

Those chips wouldn’t stay in his stack long as it was just moments later when he would double up Robert Winsler when Robert moved all in from the small blind for 26K and Fernandez would call from the big blind.  Winsler had [9] and Fernandez . Fernandez would pick up a gutshot straight draw on the turn but the river was a blank and Winsler’s 9 played to give him the double up. Julio and Robert were about dead even in chips for 3rd place after that hand. We would get to the break with the following chip counts:

Continuing the trend of short stack doubling up, Robert Winsler would take another turn at it when he would race with against Elliott Zaydman and his . Winsler would make a small flush on the board to bring his stack to over 60K.

With the blinds now at 2K/4K with a 500 ante, we would finally have an elimination. Julio Fernandez and Jeff Kessler saw a flop of and Fernandez check called a bet from Kessler. On the turn Fernandez moved all in and Kessler made the call with . “Damn it! I knew you had nothing,” said Julio as he slammed his hand face up on the table… . “F***ing 8!” The river was no help for Julio and he was our 4th place finisher winning $1,650.

Try as he might, Robert Winsler could never get anything going and found himself whittled down to a smallish stack. Small enough that he thought bottom pair was the perfect time to move all in. Winsler held on a flop but he was in bad shape when Jeff Kessler made the call with . The turn was the and Winsler would need another 2 or a jack on the river to stay alive. The river was neither… and Robert was our 3rd place finisher.

Once Winsler was eliminated, Jeff Kessler and Elliott Zaydman decided to split the prize money evenly for $4,950 apiece. Because Kessler had the most chips, he was declared the winner. Kessler, a 70 year old retired jockey, has been playing poker for 25 years and plays tournaments here at The Poker Room at Seminole Hard Rock all the time. His favorite song, appropriately a rock ‘n’ roll song by Bob Seger is “Turn the page”. When asked what he was going to do with the money, he said “give it to my wife”.

Congratulations Jeff on your win!

Final Payouts For Event 14