The 2023 Lucky Hearts Poker Open kicked off the new year with a huge series. Over 43 trophy events, more than 16,000 entries came through the door to earn a piece of the $14,776,880 in prize money.
Events: 43
Entries: 16,320
Guarantees: $5,480,000
Prize Pools: $14,776,880
This was the biggest LHPO series in our history based on the entry counts, top five all-time across all festivals, and second most money we’ve awarded for a LHPO series.
We couldn’t do it without our old friends and the new ones we made during the series. Thank you.
The LHPO Championship headlined the series and drew 1,692 entries to smash the $2,000,000 guarantee. They created a prize pool worth $5,414,400 and Austrian Marius Gierse took the title along with $605,000 after a four-way deal.
We had another great round of notable wins during the series and Matt Bretzfield started things off with a big milestone. He captured the $600 Mixed PLO title early in the first week and became the first player in our history to win a trophy in four consecutive series.
Alessio Isaia and John Holley won two LHPO trophies. Isaia won his two tournaments in back-to-back days and Holley earned his seventh and eighth major Hollywood titles.
Isaia came close to winning a third on the final night of the series, getting heads-up with a big lead but fell short against Valerie Novak. Had he won, Isaia would have been only the third player (and first in more than a decade) to win three in a series.
Those eight wins for Holley were enough to move him into a tie for the second most ever and he joined Yuval Bronshtein with eight after he won the $600 Big O. Holley and Bronshtein are tied in second place with Michael Newman, one behind all-time leader Raminder Singh’s nine wins.
Most Major Hollywood Wins:
Raminder Singh – 9
John Holley – 8
Michael Newman – 8
Yuval Bronshtein – 8
Brian Altman – 7
David Prociak – 7
David Shmuel – 7
Gabriel Ramos – 7
Scott Baumstein – 6
Thank you again to everyone who came out for the series; we couldn’t do it without you. We look forward to seeing everyone for the 2023 Poker Showdown from April 13 to May 2!
Links for all 43 are listed below:
LHPO Championship: Marius Gierse – $605,000
Event 1 ($600 NLH): Scott Woodring – $190,939
Event 2 ($400 H.O.R.S.E.): Mark Hurst – $7,640
Event 3 ($150 Big Stack): Joseph Burns – $4,845
Event 4 ($400 Turbo): Javier Gomez Marquez – $4,740
Event 5 ($400 O8): David Shmuel – $12,025
Event 6 ($400 Bounty): Gilles Dalco – $9,170
Event 7 ($1,100 PLO): Taylor Lipson – $32,615
Event 8 ($400 NLH): Jeremy Becker – $33,615
Event 9 ($1,100 NLH): Alessio Isaia – $55,835
Event 10 ($600 Mixed PLO): Matt Bretzfield – $14,963
Event 11 ($200 Bounty): Darin Kaplan – $4,336
Event 12 ($200 NLH): Dejan Petkovic – $42,962
Event 13 ($600 Big O): Yuval Bronshtein – $13,405
Event 14 ($400 Bounty PLO): Michael McKuin – $11,175
Event 15 ($600 Turbo): John Holley – $13,760
Event 16 ($400 Seniors): Amir Baron – $18,434
Event 17 ($600 Six-Max): Alessio Isaia – $20,592
Event 18 ($1,100 Six-Max PLO8): Zhen Cai – $27,880
Event 19 ($2,200 NLH): Aaron Flores – $97,935
Event 20 ($10K High Roller PLO): Dylan Smith – $91,960
Event 21 ($600 PLO): William Kopp – $47,595
Event 22 ($200 Bounty): Pierre Xavier-Laurent – $4,608
Event 23 ($1,100 Turbo): Sam Panzica – $28,082
Event 24 ($1,100 NLH): Ryan Hogan – $66,790
Event 25 ($25K High Roller): Aram Oganyan – $480,175
Event 26 ($150 Big Stack): David Oshry – $5,205
Event 27 ($1,100 Turbo): Jorge Cuesta – $28,360
Event 29 ($600 H.O.R.S.E.): Steven Idels – $11,131
Event 30 ($400 Bounty): James Wiedenborner – $10,025
Event 31 ($400 Big O): Sue Sanders – $11,130
Event 32 ($600 Turbo): Robert French – $14,045
Event 33 ($400 Bounty): Stephen Thomas – $12,382
Event 34 ($1,700 Bounty): Andrew Esposito – $49,380
Event 35 ($1,100 Mixed PLO): Renny Barrett – $23,670
Event 36 ($400 NLH): Valerie Novak – $52,030
Event 37 ($600 Seniors): John Holley – $25,715
Event 38 ($5K PLO): Benjamin Juhasz – $64,125
Event 39 ($600 Turbo): Brandon Duvdivani – $13,360
Event 40 ($400 OE): David Bach – $8,460
Event 41 ($5K NLH): Brock Wilson – $129,530
Event 42 ($1,100 PLO): Eddy Nedialkov – $35,955
Event 43 ($300 Bounty): Jonathan Ounjian – $7,562
, and needed it to hold against Wong’s 
. They got it all in preflop, but it seemed inevitable after the flop came 
, giving Gierse a set of queens to Wong’s gutshot Royal Flush draw.
, the river was the 
, and Gierse doubled up to 68 big blinds with a full house. (
against Daniel Clifford’s 
. This time, the board brought three spades, and the ace-king won the pot to knock out Clifford in seventh place and propel Gierse back into the lead. (
.
, safe for Novak to win Event 36 outright for $52,030.
, no help to Costigan, ending his tournament in third place.