Seminole Hard Rock “Rock N’ Roll” Poker Open
$1,650 Purple Chip Bounty No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)

November 30th-December 1st, 2014

Total Entrants: 109
Total Prize Pool: $104,095

An up-and-coming poker superstar fighting for a title, a stunning two-way turnaround and a grueling heads-up match made the conclusion of Event 18 something to remember as Patrick Peduto survived to bring home the title.

Bradley Young, reaching his third final table this series, and Aditya Prasetyo had early control of this final table.  Young had double the chips of anyone else starting Day 2 and looked to be on his way to winning another championship to add to his Event 10 victory.

After Wasif Assaf’s exit and Bradley Young ending Keith McColgan’s tournament, the Aaron Massey show got started.

Massey, who recently won two Heartland Poker Tour titles, came in with all guns firing taking out Anthony Ruberto disguising a flush to send him to the rail.  He then took two hands off of Ryan Van Sanford to end his night.

But with five players remaining, Massey ran into trouble having a set of aces cracked by a rivered flush and then was ousted by Bradley Young with queens against Massey’s eights ending his night in fifth.

At that point, Young and James Caderaro were in control with 2:1 advantages over Patrick Peduto and Aditya Prasetyo.  Both tettered on the brink of elimination before significantly closing the gap between them and the leaders.  And then the unthinkable happened.

Peduto was all-in with queens against Caderaro’s aces but cracked them winning an 800,000 chip pot and leaving Caderaro with only a few big blinds.  Two hands afterward, Prasetyo turned the tables on Young after Young hit a pair of kings on a flop and pushed but Prasetyo had aces waiting and left Young with almost no chips to show.  Young was then ousted quickly and Caderaro tried to hang on but finished third.

Finally, heads-up play began with Peduto and Prasetyo.  Peduto started off with a little over a million chips and Prasetyo sat around 300,000.  And not much changed after a grueling two hours.  Prasetyo managed to get back to around 480,000 but time was not on his side.

After the tournament director informed them play would stop at 3 AM, the players finally came to a deal to end play splitting the money.  With Peduto holding the chip lead, he claimed the championship in Event 18.

“I was in a lot of trouble but managed to three-bet some hands and pick up a couple of other ones to get back in it.  I knew he (Calderaro) was only snapping my queens with kings or aces and he had it.  But I got lucky and spiked that queen.”

The heads-up was definitely a challenge against Prasetyo.  “His style was to keep it small and I decided to do the same thing.  With the chip advantage I had and being so deep, I had a lot of time to be patient.  We only played a couple of big hands and I held him off.  I was really tired and offered the split to end it.”

The champion was very happy with his win and also spoke very highly of the event here at Seminole Hard Rock-Hollywood.  “This tournament had a pretty cool structure – it was really good.  Everyone was really awesome and it’s amazing how far everything has come here.”

Congratulations to our Event 18 Champion – Patrick Peduto!

Event 18 Results
1st – Patrick Peduto (Delray Beach, FL) – $26,908
2nd –  Aditya Prasetyo (Cambridge, MA) – $26,908
3rd –  James Calderaro (Venice, FL) – $12,908
4th – Bradley Young (New York City, New York) – $9,264
5th – Aaron Massey (Elmwood Park, IL) – $6,766
6th – Ryan Van Sanford (Colorado Springs, CO) – $5,205
7th – Anthony Ruberto (Miami, FL) – $4,060
8th – Kevin McColgan (Douglassville, PA) – $3,019
9th – Wasim Assaf (Windermere, FL) – $2,498