2025 Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 35
$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed
Entries:  1,162
Prize Pool:  $3,718,400
January 17-21, 2025

From a field of 1,162 entries, the Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship came down to nine players on Tuesday afternoon. It was a long four days leading up to this, including a very late night the night before, but on Tuesday the nine-handed final table played down to a winner in just four hours.

The final hand was simultaneously dramatic and anti-climactic, as Spencer Champlin made a bold bluff on the river with king high, unaware that Martins Adeniya had made a flush. Adeniya quickly called to win the title, the trophy, and $512,600.

It’s the biggest live tournament win of Adeniya’s career, and it comes at a great time — and a not-so-great time.

“It’s just perfect timing,” said Adeniya after his victory. “I’ve got a baby on the way in April, and I’m getting married in two weeks. The only problem is I’m missing my fiancée’s birthday today.”

When Adeniya returns home with a championship trophy and half a million dollars, we expect his fiancée Dana will forgive him.

The Championship had two starting flights with unlimited re-entries, but Adeniya only needed one entry. But that’s not to say it was an easy path.

“I lost nearly half my stack in the first couple levels of the tournament,” said Adeniya. “Then someone ran a big bluff on me, but I hero called.”

Adeniya bagged a nice stack on Day 1, but he was down to about 20 big blinds by the time the Money Bubble came around on Day 2.

“I had two of the chipleaders to my left,” said Adeniya, “so it was quite a tricky bubble to navigate. And I was actually put all in on the bubble with aces, and had to fold aces on the bubble.”

Adeniya went on to finish Day 2 among the larger stacks (15th of 56), but Day 3 would be an incredibly long day. Luckily for Adeniya, he got better as the day went on.

“Yesterday was pretty long,” said Adeniya about Day 3. “We played until 3:30 in the morning, and we were on the featured table the entire time so it was quite tiring and draining.”

With 15 players left, Adeniya doubled thru then-chipleader Yingui Li, getting it all in on the turn with pocket queens on a ten-high board against Li’s flush and straight draw. Li missed his outs, and that kickstarted a run for Adeniya where he would take the lead with 14 players left, and hold onto it for most of the rest of the tournament.

Day 3 played so long because they were trying to reach the final eight players, but they went three hours with no eliminations. The blinds kept increasing, so when they returned on Tuesday afternoon to play to a winner, the average chip stack was only worth 26 big blinds, even though they had been playing a slow structure with 90-minute levels.

Well, the math caught up to the players, and on Tuesday afternoon it only took four hours to play down from nine to a winner.

Incredibly, the top seven finishers in this event all earned the top live tournament cash of their careers. For Ryan Hogan, it was the second career-high cash of this series, as he finished third in Event #1 to earn $116,750, then nearly doubled it by cashing for $205,000 for fourth place here in the Championship.

Even though he is from London, Adeniya has been a regular presence in our big events here at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood.

“It’s a nice place with good weather,” said Adeniya. “Right now in London it’s like zero degrees, so it’s nice to have some sunshine. The people here are great, there’s lots of stuff to do, and there are good cash games and good tournaments. I love it here.”

Results:

* Indicates the adjusted payouts from a heads-up deal.