2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood
Event #4
$1,100 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max (Single Re-Entry)
Total Entries: 122
Prize Pool: $122,000
April 3-4, 2016
After a few minutes of discussing some numbers, the $1,100 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max ends in a four-way deal. Seminole Hard Rock Poker Ambassador Michael Laake takes the lion’s share of the prizepool and the trophy.
The 30-year-old poker pro takes home $23,660 as part of the deal and can put another title on an already impressive resume.
“It feels great,” said Laake. “Six-max is a very complicated format and obviously the field was very tough because better players prefer to play short-handed because it’s a more interesting format.
“All these guys I had a lot of history with and made hands very complicated, but overall it feels really good.”
Laake held the chip lead during four-handed play when the talks of a deal began and the other three players (Evan Teitelbaum, Ory Hen and Charlemagen Benjamin) each took home $17,000.
Laake is the first of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Ambassadors to take home a trophy this series. He used the proverbial home field to his advantage.
“People react differently to it,” said Laake about being known as a sponsored pro to his opponents. “Some people come after you. Some people stay away from you and it creates a lot of interesting dynamics.
“I love playing here. I love getting any victory anywhere, but it feels extra nice here.”
Coming into the start of the day, with 12 players remaining, it was Teitelbaum who held a sizable chip lead over the field. He still held it when the final table was set, but Laake had direct position on Teitelbaum and was able to use that to his advantage.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better distribution of the final table draw,” said Laake. “The short stacks were on my left and the bigger stacks were on my right. It made a lot of my decisions pretty cut and dry and that’s nice whenever it is much simpler.”
Here are the results:
1st: Michael Laake -$23,660
2nd: Evan Teitelbaum – $17,000
3rd: Ory Hen – $17,000
4th: Charlemagen Benjamin – $17,000
5th: Matthew Silva – $8,012
6th: Dimitry Agrachov – $6,166
7th: Dalton Mills – $4,627
8th: Donald Lehn – $4,627
9th: Brandon Byars – $4,627
10th: Ryan Van Sanford – $3,077
11th: Daniel Weinman – $3,077
12th: Jeremy Joseph: $3,077
13th: Stewart Newman – $2,130
14th: Christopher Bolek – $2,130
15th: Tanner Millen – $2,130