2019 LHPO Live Updates

Event 20: James Scott Doubles Thru Frankie Flowers to Cross the One-Million Mark

$150 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 21: 8,000/16,000 with a 16,000 ante
Players Remaining: 24 of 507

James Scott Doubles Thru Frankie Flowers
James Scott (right) Doubles Thru Frankie Flowers (left)

With the board showing 10h9h2s5s on the turn and more than 350K already in the pot, Frankie Flowers checked the big blind, and James Scott moved all in under the gun for 368,000.

Flowers went into the tank for a long time, eventually saying, “I was trying to envision if this was cash, if I’d put it all in. And I would.”

Then, as he studied his opponent, Frankie said, “Why would you do this? Why would you go all in?” Then, a few moments later, he added, “One of us is gonna win this tournament.”

Flowers eventually called, and Scott showed KdKc for an overpair. Flowers turned over 8h7h for an open-ended straight-flush draw, and he had the full 15 outs he was hoping for.

The river card was the Ac, and the pocket kings held up for Scott to win the pot and double up to more than a million in chips.

James Scott  –  1,090,000  (68 bb)
Frankie Flowers  –  150,000  (9 bb)

Nathan Grow has been MIA for quite a while, and he had plenty of chips to weather an extended break, but he’s back in his seat now with about 600K.

Nathan Grow  –  600,000  (38 bb)

Update: In the 15 minutes since he lost that big all-in against James Scott, Flowers has more than quadrupled his chip stack to 665,000.

Frankie Flowers  –  665,000  (42 bb)

Event 20: Recent Eliminations, 25th-36th

$150 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 20: 6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 ante
Players Remaining: 24 of 507

Here is a list of the players who have finished in the money so far, along with how much they earned:

25th:  Giuseppe Lunetto  –  $456
26th:  Christopher Young  –  $456
27th:  Robert Tanner  –  $456

28th:  Rafael Ramos  –  $395
29th:  Jeffrey Kahn  –  $395
30th:  William Evans  –  $395
31st:  William Farnan  –  $395
32nd:  Carlos Vazquez  –  $395
33rd:  Alan Gold  –  $395
34th:  Francois Zayas  –  $395
35th:  Hollander Preap  –  $395
36th:  Irwin Cohen  –  $395

With 24 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 317,000 (26 big blinds).

Event 23: Brad Coultas Wins Outright

2019 Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 23
$1,650 Purple Chip Bounty NLH (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed

Entries: 115
Prize Pool: $115,000
Bounty Prize Pool: $57,500
January 21-22, 2019

Brad Coultas

After more than four hours of play Brad Coultas took down the Event 23 $1,650 Purple Chip Bounty title. Event 23 boasted a field of 115 entries easily surpassing the $100,000 guarantee. Coultas took home the biggest piece of the $115,000 prize pool with his first place finish. He earned $33,922 plus his four purple chip bounties worth $500 each.

Coultas lives in Florida and plays poker, but wouldn’t consider himself a tournament pro. “I don’t play a lot of tournaments. I’m a mid-high stakes PLO player. I’ve got a lot of buddies that are really good at tournaments and they basically tell me what I’m doing wrong and try to make me better.”

Coultas came into Day 2 in the middle of the pack. “On Day 1 I got short early so I didnt get many bounties. At the end of the day I was just picking off pots here and there. I only came to the final table with two bounties”

Here’s how the final eight stacked up before the start of play today:

Seat 1.  Brandon Eisen  –  240,000  (30 bb)
Seat 2.  Philip Wojtuniecki  –  611,000  (76 bb)
Seat 3.  Jaime Wiegrefe  –  181,000  (23 bb)
Seat 4.  Manny Tarich  –  525,000  (66 bb)
Seat 5.  Brad Coultas  –  245,000  (31 bb)
Seat 6.  Corey Burbick  –  105,000  (13 bb)
Seat 7.  Jeff Hakim  –  287,000  (36 bb)
Seat 8.  Romain Follet  –  121,000  (15 bb)

The first to be eliminated was 2018 SHRPO Champion Brandon Eisen when his jack-four couldn’t improve against the start-of-day chipleader Philip Wojtuniecki. Wojtuniecki proceeded to score Jaime Wiegrefe’s bounty in seventh place as well as Jeff Hakim’s in sixth place.

Wojtuniecki put a bad beat on Hakim when he hit a straight on the river with pocket nines to crack Hakim’s set of tens.

Brad Coultas scored the next bounty when he took Corey Burbick out in fifth place. Coultas woke up with pocket kings in the big blind to beat Burbick’s under the gun shove with ace-six.

Manny Tarich, the eventual runner-up, scored Romain Follet’s fourth place bounty when his ace-queen made a higher straight than Follet’s ace-nine.

It was down to three when Tarich began his streak of getting lucky to double through Wojtuniecki, until he eventually took him out in third place. They were all in preflop with Wojtuniecki’s ace-king out in front of Tarich’s ace-ten. However, the board ran out a straight for Tarich to bring the action to heads up.

Wojtuniecki took a big chip lead into heads-up play and never relinquished it. The final hand was a cooler situation as Coultas hit a queen-high flush on the river against Tarich’s jack-high flush.

“I got lucky in certain spots, hit some gutshots, hit some flushes. I didn’t really get too many hands preflop, just won a bunch of small pots. Death by a thousand cuts.”

Here’s a look at the full results from Event 23:

1st:  Bradley Coultas  –  $33,922
2nd:  Manny Tarich  –  $20,988
3rd:  Philip Wojtuniecki  –  $12,535
4th:  Romain Follet  –  $8,050
5th:  Corey Burbick  –  $6,095
6th:  Jeff Hakim  –  $5,060
7th:  Jaime Wiegrefe  –  $4,370
8th:  Brandon Eisen  –  $3,853
9th:  Nick Yunis  –  $3,393
10th:  Daniel Monosson  –  $2,990
11th:  Anthony Zinno  –  $2,990
12th:  Kenneth Frey  –  $2,588
13th:  Chad Trentacosta  –  $2,588
14th:  Adam Adler  –  $2,588
15th:  Anthony Ruberto Jr.  –  $2,588

Event 20: Padmanaban Kulathur-Karvannan Out on the Money Bubble; His Amazing Comeback Falls Short

$150 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 18: 4,000/8,000 with a 8,000 ante
Players Remaining: 36 of 507

Padmanaban Kulathur-Karvannan bagged up a stack of 39,500 to reach Day 2, but he said he ran into traffic this afternoon which is why he arrived late — into the second level of the day.

When he got here about 45 minutes late, Kulathur-Karvannan was down to one big blind in his stack, but he was able to survive for more than an hour to make it to the Money Bubble and a shot at redemption with a min-cash.

In Hand #5 of hand-for-hand play on the Money Bubble, Kulathur-Karvannan moved all in UTG+1 for 32,000, and James Scott called from the big blind with Ac9c.

Kulathur-Karvannan turned over AhQh, and he was in a dominant position to double up here.

The board came KhKc6c9hQc — Scott paired his nine on the turn, but Kulathur-Karvannan celebrated when he saw the queen on the river to give him a higher pair.

But what Kulathur-Karvannan didn’t notice is that Scott had two clubs in his hand, and the same queen he celebrated gave Scott the victory with an ace-high club flush.

It was a painful reversal, and it ruined what would have been an amazing comeback for Kulathur-Karvannan. But he took the loss in good spirits as the remaining 36 players finished in the money, guaranteed at least $395 each.

James Scott  –  165,000  (21 bb)
Padmanaban Kulathur-Karvannan  –  Eliminated

Event 20: Chipleaders Near the Money Bubble; Nathan Grow Still on Top

$150 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 18: 4,000/8,000 with a 8,000 ante
Players Remaining: 38 of 507

Level 17 comes to an end with 38 players remaining, one elimination away from beginning hand-for-hand play on the Money Bubble.

With 38 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 200,000 (25 big blinds).

A scan of the field during the break turned up six players with at least 300K in chips, creating an unofficial leaderboard:

1.  Nathan Grow  –  901,000  (113 bb)
2.  Ignas Jasinevicius  –  523,000  (65 bb)
3.  Frankie Flowers  –  475,000  (59 bb)
4.  Jose Nigaglioni  –  360,000  (45 bb)
5.  Homer Molina  –  358,000  (45 bb)
6.  David Harmon  –  335,000  (42 bb)

Event 23: Brad Coultas Defeats Manny Tarich Heads Up

$1,650 Purple Chip Bounty NLH (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 21: 10,000/15,000 with an 15,000 ante
Players Remaining: 2 of 115

Manny Tarich opened and Brad Coultas called. Both players checked the AcQh4d flop.

The turn brought the 9c, Coultas bet 25,000 and Tarich called. The river was the 10c, Coultas bet 50,000 and Tarich shoved.

Coultas called with Qc5c to defeat Tarich’s Jc3c.

Brad Coultas – Event 23 Champion $33,922
Manny Tarich – Eliminated in 2nd Place ($20,988)

Event 20: Down to 42 Players; 36 Get Paid

$150 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 17: 3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 ante
Players Remaining: 42 of 507

At Table 5, the player on the button is all in for about 75,000 with KdKc, and needs his hand to hold to stay alive against the AsJs of Will Evans in the hijack.

The board came Qc10s8sAh7d — Evans flopped a spade flush draw and paired his ace on the turn to win the pot and eliminate his opponent from the tournament.

Will Evans  –  225,000  (38 bb)

At Table 6, a player raised under the gun to 11,000, the next player moved all in from UTG+1 for about 85,000, and Giovanni Massa moved all in over the top from late position. The original raiser folded.

The short stack turned over AsKd, and she needed to improve to stay alive against Massa’s QsQd.

The board came Js6h3h10d2h, and the pocket queens held up for Massa to win the pot and eliminate his opponent from the tournament.

Giovanni Massa  –  245,000  (41 bb)

With 42 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 181,000 (30 big blinds). The field is less than one table away from the money.

Event 23: Philip Wojtuniecki – 3rd Place ($12,535)

$1,650 Purple Chip Bounty NLH (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 21: 10,000/15,000 with an 15,000 ante
Players Remaining: 2 of 115

Philip Wojtuniecki

Manny Tarich shoved from the button and Philip Wojtuniecki called all in for around 300,000. Wojtuniecki tabled AdKh and appeared to be in great shape against Tarich’s As10d.

The flop came KdQc4h and Tarich called for a jack. The turn brought the Ac giving Wojtuniecki two-pair.

The river, however, was the Jd and Tarich hit broadway to eliminate Wojtuniecki in third place.

Manny Tarich – 800,000 (53 bb)
Philip Wojtuniecki – Eliminated in 3rd Place ($12,535)