2024 Lucky Hearts Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Event 35 $600 H.O.R.S.E. (Re-Entry) Entries: 58 Prize Pool: $30,450 January 19, 2024
Registration closed for the $600 H.O.R.S.E. tournament with 58 entries creating a prize pool worth $30,450. The last eight players will make the money with a min-cash worth $1,100 and the Event 35 will take home $10,955 plus the LHPO trophy.
$3,500 LHPO Championship (Re-Entry) $2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 6: 400/800 with a 800 ante Flight A Entries: 461
Bryan Rosen
All the cards were out on the table along with a nice pot in the middle that was well over 50,000, and Bryan Rosen was all in for 73,400 from the small blind holding pocket queens. A player in middle position had him covered holding .
The final board read , and Rosen doubled up to survive with 221,500 after collecting the pot.
$3,500 LHPO Championship (Re-Entry) $2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 6: 400/800 with a 800 ante Flight A Entries: 456
Chad Lipton
UTG was all in preflop for 11,200, a player in late position popped it above 22,000 to try and isolate, but Chad Lipton reraised again for more than 100,000 on the cutoff. Late position then folded so the two remaining players tabled their cards.
Lipton: UTG:
Board:
UTG was eliminated on the hand when Lipton’s jacks improved to a flush. Lipton has a healthy stack after the hand after collecting 173,000 in chips.
Putting a little twist on the (mostly) nightly turbos with LHPO Event 36 at 5 pm. The tournament is a $400 Deep Stack Black Chip Bounty NLH with a turbo structure and tons and tons of action.
Players start with 20,000 in chips and all levels last 15 minutes. Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 9 at 7:15 pm.
Players begin with 20,000 in chips
Levels last 15 minutes
Late registration until start of Level 9 (7:15pm)
This is a one-day tournament and plays until completion
2024 Lucky Hearts Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Event 30 $1,100 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed Entries: 189 Prize Pool: $183,330 January 18 – 19, 2024
Frank Weigel
The $1,100 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em tournament was one of the last warmups before the LHPO Championship and it drew a big crowd of 189 entries. After a tough final table, Frank Weigel took the top spot and $42,000 after a heads-up deal.
Weigel is a regular member of the tournaments at our sister shop in Tampa and the last tournament he played resulted in a win during their Pinktober Poker Open series.
2024 Lucky Hearts Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Event 31 $25,500 High Roller No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Entries: 50 Prize Pool: $1,235,000 January 18-19, 2024
Alex and Kristen Foxen (with birthday boy Riley)
Alex Foxen is no stranger to success anywhere in the poker world with over $30 million in career earnings, and that is the same case here at the Seminole Hard Rock where he has now won three guitar pick trophies thanks to today’s victory. Some of the other greatest hits on a poker resume that includes more than 20 tournament victories including a World Series of Poker gold bracelet and circuit ring, a spot in the World Poker Tour Champions Club, and multiple titles won in high-roller events just like the one today facing off against the toughest competition in poker.
“Winning poker tournaments is really hard, so anytime you do it you’ve got be appreciative of it. So I’m really grateful, I ran really well at the end. I had a rough start to the day yesterday, and just kept trying to play one hand at a time. It definitely feels good to add another trophy for sure,” said Foxen right after the victory.
Foxen continued with this when asked about keeping his composure when he has to fire multiple bullets early in a tournament. “I feel like that’s something where having a background in sports helps a lot, because it’s something I’ve spent my whole life dealing with. Just the adversity whether you’re down at halftime, or whatever it may be, and just having the mindset of focusing on the next hand, the next decision, and everything else is in the past, just one step at a time,” said Foxen.
His wife Kristen Foxen was also at the final table today and she finished in fourth place. They often play in many of the biggest tournaments together and get seated at the same table from time-to-time, so we asked Alex about his thoughts when he gets into those spots with the couple dynamic. “There is the element of playing hands against each other, which is always a battle, but no rivalry, we’re just supportive of each other, and want to see the other one do well.”
He followed with, “It’s one of those things where we both understand that we owe it to the other players at the table to treat each other as if we were playing anyone else. It’s an interesting dynamic because of the fact that we do know each other’s games so well. Our games are actually somewhat different, so it’s not like we’re playing the exact same. So yeah, there are some interesting dynamics that come up when we’ve maybe just spoken about a hand that happens against us immediately after, and you talk about a way to exploit the population tendencies there, and she knows that I think that. It’s a leveling war [laughs], but it’s definitely really fun.”
The Foxens play in tournaments all over, but we always see them here again whenever a big Seminole Hard Rock tournament series is taking place throughout the year. “The tournaments here are just great. Good schedules, and it’s relatively close to home. I’ve been trying to avoid traveling super far recently, but I do want to play as much as I can. It’s just the downside of travel makes me less inclined to go overseas and stuff like that, so this is one of the better stops for me,” said Foxen when asked about what keeps bringing him back here.
The conversation then circled back to Foxen’s background playing sports, and his insight on how that can give him valuable perspectives at the table. “I basically played them all, I played baseball, hockey, lacrosse, football, and soccer. Those were the five primary ones, and then when I got into high school was when I had to chose because you can’t overlap them all. In high school it was hockey, football, and lacrosse, and then football in college. I think it’s just super valuable for training your mind for any kind of competition.”
“Not only for understanding yourself, but understanding other people and how they might feel in that moment. When you try separate emotion from the decision-making process there’s always something that comes into play for everyone, no matter how robotic you try to be, so that’s something I always try to pay a lot of attention to,” Foxen offered in his answer that was well said to cap off the interview.
Right after we finished both Alex and Kristen headed right over to register for the championship event, so we will see if they can both make a final table and bag up a starting flight in the same day for an impressive day of poker for the household.
$3,500 LHPO Championship (Re-Entry) $2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 5: 300/600 with a 600 ante Flight A Entries: 417
Rayan Chamas
There were two stacks above 200,000 at the most recent break in play. Rayan Chamas paces the field with 254,700. Chamas will be looking to add to his recent success here at Seminole Hard Rock after he finished runner-up in the WPT Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll main event for a big cash worth $600,000 last November. Joining him above that threshold is Jordan Sparagana holding a stack of 210,800.
$3,500 LHPO Championship (Re-Entry) $2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 4: 300/500 with a 500 ante Flight A Entries: 394
Wagner Wysotchanski
The entry count is close to topping 400 for Flight A of the Championship and it will get there before the next break. A great turnout and virtually lock up the $2,000,000 guarantee early tomorrow at the latest.
Wagner Wysotchanski and Francis Margaglione are building stacks in the early stages with Wysotchanski up to 113,400 and Margaglione not far back with 112,000.
$25,500 High Roller NLH (Re-Entry) Structure | Payouts | Results Level 17: 20,000/30,000 with a 30,000 ante Players Remaining: 1 of 50
Alex Foxen
There was over 150,000 in the pot with the flop reading when Alex Foxen bet 160,000 from the small blind. Kevin Rabichow called before the turn fell . Foxen bet 240,000, and Rabichow called again before the river delivered the .
Foxen fired out a million this time around, which was enough to put Rabichow all in. Rabichow tanked through multiple time chips before calling with , but he was behind the pocket jacks held by Foxen. Rabichow was eliminated in second with a nice payday worth $284,050, and Foxen took home the top prize of $426,075 along with his third LHPO guitar pick trophy.
That concludes our coverage from the high roller event, but stay tuned for a recap including an interview with the new champion Foxen to be released a little later this afternoon.
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, and Rosen doubled up to survive with 221,500 after collecting the pot.
when Alex Foxen bet 160,000 from the small blind. Kevin Rabichow called before the turn fell 
. Foxen bet 240,000, and Rabichow called again before the river delivered the 
.
, but he was behind the pocket jacks held by Foxen. Rabichow was eliminated in second with a nice payday worth $284,050, and Foxen took home the top prize of $426,075 along with his third LHPO guitar pick trophy.