The 2019 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” kicked off on Wednesday with two big flights of the opening tournament and we awarded the first trophy of the series.
Event 1 of the series will have to wait until later in the weekend before we have a winner but we did crown a champion on Wednesday. Event 2 was a $400 buy-in Limit Omaha 8 tournament and it drew 86 entries for a great turnout to the four-card game.
When the dust settled late in the evening, Gloria LoRusso took the title after a heads-up deal with Marc Rabuse. LoRusso held the chip lead to win the trophy while each earned $7,566.
Event 2 results:
1st: Gloria LoRusso – $7,566 + RRPO Trophy *
2nd: Marc Rabuse – $7,566 *
3rd: Hal Klein – $3,545
4th: Antony Vidmer – $2,398
5th: Bryce Fox – $1,828
6th: Buddy Frezza – $1,462
7th: Joanne Granteed – $1,213
8th: Jeffrey Trudeau, Jr. – $1,023
9th: Michael P. Lee – $943
10th: John Creed – $877
11th: Robert Leff – $819
* – Denotes results of heads-up deal
Event 1 began with the first two of eight starting flights that will create a massive field. The tournament has a $400 buy-in, deep stack structure, and a $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Flight A drew exactly 400 entries and Lazaro Rojas was the leader at the end of the day with 287,500. Flight B saw 336 entries join the game and five players bagged bigger than Rojas including SHRP regular Raminder Singh taking the overall lead with 387,000.
There are two more flights on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before all survivors join together on Sunday at noon for Day 2.
Top ten stacks so far:
- Raminder Singh – 387,000
- Alfredo Guevara – 379,000
- Rafael Bababekov – 359,500
- Robert Grossman – 319,500
- Denian Costa – 291,000
- Lazaro Rojas – 287,500
- Hagai Stein – 226,500
- Manny Tarich – 216,500
- David Poces – 214,500
- Voitto Aulis Rintala – 214,000
A few other notables advancing to Day 2 included Leif Force, Tony Utnage, Evan Teitelbaum, Nancy Birnbaum, Robert Bendeck, and 2018 WSOP Main Event final table member Nic Manion.
Event 1 chip counts through Flight B
Images courtesy of Eric Harkins and Image Masters. If you would like to purchase any prints of your pictures, you can visit his booth in the hallway or go the Image Masters website.