Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Event 2: $250 Omaha 8B
August 14-15, 2014
Entries: 76
Prize Pool: $15,960
RECAP
The first Main Event to crown a champion at the 2014 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open is the $250 Omaha 8OB tournament that concluded on Friday, August 15. Fast play at the final table ensured that a winner was crowned in the afternoon. It was Wayne Brown (pictured above) who topped the final table of nine players to win $3,512, a beautiful Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open trophy and a custom framed photograph provided by IMPDI with event information plaque and commemorative pin. Brown worked in retail for 23 years before retiring to run his own business managing vending machines for the past 11 years. Brown plays poker on the side, but that could change if he racks up a few more tournament wins.
Brown also topped a total field of 76 players that entered the tournament, but his toughest test came at the end, where pros like “Miami” John Cernuto were among his final opponents. Brown came into the final table as the second shortest stack left in play and he was the shortest of the four players remaining when he got dangerously low in chips.
Brown took a shot when action folded to him in the small blind. He raised and it was met by a third bet from Avi Levy. Brown capped it pre-flop with just one big bet behind. Brown was all-in after the flop and tabled , but he was in trouble against Levi’s . The turn was no help but they both hit a low on the . Brown survived but only picked up a quarter of the pot. Surviving this pot started Brown’s comeback and by the time the final table was down to three players he held the chip lead.
That was when his final opponents, Cernuto and John Binns were ready to make a chop. They chopped the prize money three ways but Brown took home the win, the trophy, and the Player of the Year points. He also enjoyed the wild ride from beginning to end. “I wanted to make sure that even if I went out in ninth place I was having the best time. I had a blast doing that (playing against the pros). I even told the massage therapist when she started off massaging me for ten minutes and I started on the win streak there, that she could do ten more minutes so she could watch me make these pros, ‘Squirm like a worm [Laughs].”
Brown had fun with the comeback and he was careful to switch up his playing style and take a different approach than he had at previous final tables. “My past history in tournaments is that when I was low stacked I would play scared. But this time I was more relaxed, more aggressive. I had nothing to lose and that was pretty much my mentality all day,” said Brown.
Now that he has some POY points to his name, the 50-year-old Brown plans on playing some more events here at SHRPO. “I’m playing Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday this weekend, and then the same thing next weekend. And then I will see where I’m at for the third weekend with the main event,” said Brown about his SHRPO plans.
Brown is from Babson Park, which is nearby in Central Florida, so he can make the three-hour drive easily. Brown said he usually plays at the Seminole Hard Rock in Tampa Bay, but he may have found another tournament home here in South Florida.
FINAL RESULTS
1. DAVID BROWN (BABSON PARK, FL): $3,512
2. JOHN BINNS (CAPE CORAL, FL): $3,511
3. JOHN CERNUTO (LAS VEGAS, NV): $3,511
4. ABRAHAM LEVY (CORAL SPRINGS, FL): $1,436
5. BRENT KEENE (BONITA SPRINGS, FL): $1,117
6. GEORGES BOYADJIAN (TAMARAC, FL): $958
7. ARNOLD COHEN (WEST PALM BCH, FL): $798
8. MICHAEL WANG (LIVINGSTON, NJ): $638
9. GENE HOCHMAN (COCONUT CREEK, FL): $479