2021 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 15
$600 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$1,000,000 Guaranteed
Entries:  4,529
Prize Pool:  $2,377,725
July 26 – August 2, 2021

It’s probably mathematically impossible to go wire-to-wire as chipleader in a field of 4,529 entries, but from the final 50 players or so, Jeff Trudeau effectively cruised to the finish line to win Event 15 ($600 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em) to earn $352,200 — the biggest score of his career.

“It feels great,” said Trudeau. “It’s a little surreal.”

Trudeau started Day 2 with a sizable stack of of 82 big blinds (46th of 568), but we didn’t notice him with a big lead until there were 53 players remaining — and Trudeau towered over the field with 103 big blinds in his stack. And he seemed to hold onto his chip lead for the rest of the day, finishing on a high note after knocking out Colbert Silva in 14th place with straight-over-straight near the end of the day.

“I ran really good yesterday,” said Trudeau. It’s a bit of an understatement, since he finished Day 2 with more than 25% of all the chips in play.

Did Trudeau have a plan for Day 3?

“I felt like if I played my game and ran pretty well,” said Trudeau, “I’d have a good chance of winning.” And that’s pretty much what happened.

Trudeau began the final table with a huge lead, then scored five of the eight eliminations on his way to victory.

Two of the other knockouts came from runner-up Jordan Flaschner, who knocked out third-place finisher Lunique Petiote to begin heads-up play relatively close to Trudeau. And in the first five minutes of heads-up play, Flaschner actually took the lead, possibly the first time Trudeau hadn’t had the lead since the field was at seven or eight tables.

But shortly after that, Flaschner five-bet all in with , only to run into Trudeau’s .

The board came , and while Flaschner finished with a straight, that same river card gave Trudeau a flush. That pot propelled Trudeau to a 10-to-1 chip lead, and about 10 minutes later, Trudeau won the final hand to win the title, the trophy, and $352,200.

Trudeau now has more than $2 million in career earnings in live tournaments, and of course he plans to play in the $5,250 SHRPO Championship that begins on Friday.

Trudeau will be playing more tournaments this series, and of course he plans to play in the $5,250 SHRPO Championship that begins on Friday.

What keeps Trudeau coming back to Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood?

“The environment,” said Trudeau. “They always run really good tournaments with good turnouts. It’s just a great venue in general.”