2017 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event #17 $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Entries: 118
Prize Pool: $1,132,800
August 15, 2017

The final five-figure buy-in of the 2017 SHRPO, Event #17: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em, attracted 118 entries and it took nearly 16 hours of play for Germany’s Alexander Turyansky to emerge victorious. For his efforts, he took home a $334,176 first-place prize. The win came just a day after he finished 17^th in the SHRPO Championship for $40,094.

Prior to the win, Turyansky was perhaps best known for bubbling the 2015 World Series of Poker November Nine. The $756,897 he earned for finishing tenth that year comprised the vast majority of his $975,597 in tournament winnings before his SHRPO win. He’s now a poker millionaire and then some.

“I feel pretty good, just exhausted,” Turyansky said after the win. “It’s really nice to win a tournament on home turf. I’ve live in Coconut Creek, Florida for the past four and a half years.”

It was a long and grueling day from start to finish. Among those to take a shot on Tuesday only to leave empty handed were Dan Colman, Cate Hall, Nick Schulman, Erik Seidel, Tim West, Matt Glantz, and Isaac Haxton. Many of them fired multiple bullets.

However, once Jay Kovoor fell as the bubble boy – the result of his ace-king failing to overcome David Stamm’s pocket kings – the final 15 players were in the money. Mike Dentale, Dan Smith and Taylor Paur all fell in quick succession, each taking home $25,488.

After James Calderaro, Zach Smiley, and Shannon Shorr departed, the final table of nine was set. Sam Soveral was first to go after his ace-king was cracked by Stamm’s ace-eight courtesy of an eight-high flop. He was followed out the door by Darren Elias, who got it in with ace-jack only to have his chips chopped up by Noah Schwartz and Bryn Kenney, who shared Big Slick.

It was then Schwartz’s time to go after his threes lost a race to Turyansky’s ace-nine suits, and in the very next hand Mike Simkins bowed out in sixth after picking an ill-time to three-bet jam. Not long after, Gal Yifrach fell in fifth after getting it in with pocket fives against Turyansky’s ace-ten. His ultimate demise came in the form of an ace on the turn.

The WSOP Circuit’s most-decorated player, Valentin Vornicu, was the next to go after getting his short stack all in preflop holding ace-ten only to run it smack dab into the ace-jack of Kenney. The board ran out clean and Kenney’s kicker made the difference.

Three-handed play lasted into the morning hours before David Stamm fell to Turyansky, which set up a heads-up match between him and Kenney with the former holding a healthy 10-1 chip lead. The duo jostled back and forth for a while, but eventually Turyansky closed it out.

Final Results
1^st: Alexander Turyansky – $334,176
2^nd: Bryn Kenney – $206,736
3^rd: David Stamm – $123,475
4^th: Valentin Vornicu – $79,296
5^th: Gal Yifrach – $60,038
6^th: Mike Simkins – $49,843
7^th: Noah Schwartz- $43,046
8^th: Darren Elias – $37,949
9^th: Sam Soverel – $33,418
10^th: Shannon Shorr – $29,453
11^th: Zach Smiley – $29,453
12^th: James Calderaro – $29,453
13^th: Taylor Paur – $25,488
14^th: Dan Smith – $25,488
15^th: Mike Dentale – $25,488