2021 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
$5,250 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed
Entries:  1,180
Prize Pool:  $5,723,000
August 6-10, 2021

After five days and 1,180 entries, the 2021 SHRPO Championship came to an end on Tuesday night when Dimitri Vorbe defeated AP Louis Garza heads-up to win $929,365.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Vorbe. “I dreamed about this, but I did not understand what it would be. It’s a great feeling.”

Vorbe began the nine-handed final table with the chip lead, but as players busted, it was AP Louis Garza who rose to the top of the leaderboard, taking a big lead after doubling thru Mark Dube with four players left and holding onto it until heads-up play.

“I started very well at the final table,” said Vorbe. “I was the chipleader, but I didn’t know what to expect. There were a lot of professionals, and they were testing me.”

Vorbe, who was born and raised in Haiti but lives here in South Florida, is a recreational player who has been playing home games with friends for decades. But he only just started dabbling in tournaments over the past few years, and he’s only played a handful of them.

“Poker is fun,” said Vorbe. “But a tournament is very, very different. It’s a sport like all the other sports. There’s a physical energy that you have to put into it.”

One way that Vorbe handled the physical rigors of a four-day tournament was having a massage therapist, Francia, work on him for the entire duration of the final table.

“If you feel pressure, and if the professional poker players see you feeling pressure, they will eat you. I took a bad beat, and I was angry. But the massage helped me to relax, and I let it go. If you tilt when you are losing, you’ll lose a lot more chips.”

AP Louis Garza began heads-up play with the chip lead, but it didn’t last long, as Vorbe turned into a slow-and-steady steamroller that steadily won pot after pot, taking the chip lead and slowly weathering Garza down to the felt. Vorbe just kept picking up pots, including one 10-minute period where he won with , made a full house with , and then made another full house with .

“You have to be good, and you have to have some luck,” said Vorbe. “I was running over him [Garza] heads-up because all the cards were coming to me, and every single time I had a hand. It was a hurricane.”

There was only one all-in-and-call situation during heads-up play — the final hand — and it came after Vorbe had built up a 16-to-1 chip lead. Garza shoved with , but true to form, Vorbe had a very strong hand, . The eights held up for Vorbe to become a poker champion.

Vorbe seemed more interested in the trophy — designed to look like the iconic Seminole Hard Rock Guitar Tower — than the $929,365 he won.

“The trophy means more to me than anything, because this is an achievement,” said Vorbe. “It means that I started from scratch, and I won. I’m not a professional poker player, and some people spend 20-30 years playing poker professionally and never achieve that.”

Living in South Florida, Vorbe had many nice things to say about the Seminole Hard Rock.

“The Seminole Hard Rock is beautiful,” said Vorbe. “The shops are amazing, and the restaurants. The poker dealers are good, and they’re very respectful.”

Vorbe was also excited that soccer legend Lionel Messi was recently named the global brand ambassador for the Hard Rock.

“I’m a Messi fan, and Messi is now the star of the Hard Rock,” said Vorbe. “So I’m lucky to be the SHRPO champion right after Messi was here. Hopefully I’ll be back next year.”