$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 7:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Day 1A Entries:  809

1.  Michael Cole  –  374,500  (375 bb)
2.  Wiliam Lamar-Boone  –  331,200  (331 bb)
3.  Kevin Chan  –  324,500  (325 bb)
4.  Gary Gelman  –  317,800  (318 bb)
5.  Eider Da Cruz  –  291,400  (291 bb)
6.  Maksim Rozenfeld  –  271,600  (272 bb)

Raminder Singh extended his lead in Seminole Hard Rock major Hollywood titles earlier during the Showdown tournament series with his victory in the $600 Six-Max NLH event that gave him a dozen overall (see the table below). The Florida poker tournament connoisseur has an impressive trophy collection as you can see from the photo he sent us above. His career tournament earnings now stand above $3 million thanks to all of those tournament wins. We caught up with Singh the other night to chat about reaching this new milestone, and the other things that drive him in poker, business, and life.

When he was asked about how good it felt to take the lead in most major Hollywood titles won, Singh responded: “Absolutely, Seminole Hard Rock is a premium property for poker. It’s one of the best brands obviously. It makes me feel very privileged, and thankful to be in this spot and I’m very happy about it.”

Singh had this to say when asked about the amount of tournaments he plays here at Seminole Hard Rock, “To be brutally honest with you, people see me here many times, but volume-wise I’m taking a lot of days off. As you can see right now I’m coming in showing up last second after work.”

We responded, “So you’re a volume deep-run guy?” Singh laughed and then said, “Yes, volume deep runs. Like Monday I took off completely and I didn’t play. But yeah, when I play you’ve gotta play your best, everybody tries their best. It’s fortunately been working so far.”

Despite Singh’s robust total earnings he still claims that he’s not a poker professional, and he has the work-life balance to back that up. “I have to balance it well in advance between these series. I usually put all of the key events I want to play on the calendar as individual events that I want to play so that I can plan for many. There are many that I can’t play in because of the given commitments with clients and work. My family commitments are very big. I’ll give you an example, for the Main Event at the World Series of Poker in July. I was really looking forward to it, but now my parents are getting very old and they want me to celebrate my 50th birthday in India with them. They can’t travel here in their eighties, so there is that plus a couple of other family events. I’ll be playing some poker tournaments there, but I can’t play the Main Event and it sucks, but there is always the next year,” said Singh.

Singh plays all over the state of Florida, and he has been happy to see the local tournament scene grow here during the last few years thanks in large part to Seminole Hard Rock. “Florida is a such a great state to be playing poker tournaments. It is booming. One series ends here at Hard Rock and then there is Harrah’s, and then you have Palm Beach Kennel Club, and many things at Coconut Creek. Every month there are a couple of good series to play in. So even if you skip a few there is an opportunity to play in the next one. Then I have some clients and business in Jacksonville and Tampa, so I combine with my work and I get to see my teams and clients so it’s double the joy,” said Singh.

The attention for the conversation then turned to how he has brought the different experiences from his life to the poker table. “Actually most of my poker, if you see my wins, and you see my success come down to only two things. My upbringing with my parents, the way we were raised, we grew up very poor. That gives you the grit when you have to go to your neighbors house to watch a black-and-white TV when you can’t afford a TV. But they gave us the best education. That’s one part, and the other part to your question, I dedicate most of my success in poker to my upbringing and my journey thus far where I have learned a lot in business and consulting and education throughout my experiences with people. It’s peaks and valleys, it’s ups-and-downs. It’s less stress than life, but you can leverage a lot of your life experience into poker, and vice-versa,” said Singh.

The poker play pays dividends back to his life experiences as well. “It’s very easy, you leave with a smile. Bad beats happen to everyone, so I tell my nephews – Team Singh, which they came up with as you know. I talk to them, and I tell these youngsters that these values, learning from bad beats, they’re equal for everyone. In the long run nobody will be spared from bad beats and bad runs in poker. Today it could be me, and tomorrow it could be you. Many times you just see somebody winning, and someone running really well. But they don’t see the aces cracked by a random hand multiple times. It happens, it’s a part of the game. It’s how you react to it, you’ve got to stay positive. And you’ve got to stay positive in life, and that’s always one thing that I dedicate to my father, and to my mother. All four of us, my siblings, all of us our doing well in our lives, and you can see where coming from a family like that where they gave a quality education to all four kids, and we all have Masters degrees, multiple degrees. I give all of that credit to my father and my mother. That’s why for my 50th birthday I really wan’t go back and celebrate with them in July, I’m really looking forward to it,” said Singh.

At the end of the interview we had to come full circle and talk about the trophies. When he was asked which of the many trophies in his case is the favorite, here is what Singh had to say: “That’s such a tough question, if you look at the Hendon Mob the total number of majors is around 64, and in total with some nightly tournaments there are about 90. The favorite trophy, hands down, I will say it out loud because I have the favorite trophy and it’s hard to answer. It used to be a RunGood in Vegas, but now it’s the $3,500 win at Lucky Hearts. That’s hands down my favorite trophy. It’s not just because of the type of trophy, or the size of the trophy, or the glamour of it. It was the field that I played against to win it was really awesome. On the final table, one gentleman had five gold bracelets, one gentleman Brian Hastings had six, one WPT champion Jonathan Jaffe is a known figure, one of the best in the business. They played exceedingly well, everyone. I have so much respect for that final table. But we prevailed in the end thankfully. It was a great game of poker at that final table.”

Here are Singh’s 12 SHRP major series victories:

1.  2015 SHRPO – $250 No-Limit Hold’em – ($6,716)
2.  2015 RRPO – $350 NLHE Black Chip Bounty – ($11,400)
3.  2015 RRPO – $350 No-Limit Hold’em – ($15,298)
4.  2018 RRPO – $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em – ($37,706)
5.  2019 SHRPO – $600 No-Limit Hold’em – ($200,000)
6.  2020 LHPO – $600 No-Limit Hold’em Six Max – ($22,520)
7.  2021 SHRPO – $200 Double Green Chip Bounty NLH – ($6,256)
8.  2022 Showdown – $150 No-Limit Hold’em – ($5,008)
9.  2022 RRPO – $600 Turbo No-Limit Hold’em – ($7,897)
10.  2023 Showdown – $400 No-Limit Hold’em – ($12,230)
11.  2024 LHPO – $3,500 No-Limit Hold’em Championship – ($486,353)
12.  2024 Showdown – $600 Six-Max No-Limit Hold’em – ($18,400)

$300 Quad Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
Structure
Level 1:  100/100

Tonight’s Quad Stack tournament gets underway at 6 pm with a $300 buy-in and tonight’s twist is payouts do not start until they reach the final table. Need to run deep to get paid.

Players start with 40K stacks and the first eight levels last 15 minutes, increasing to 20 from Level 9 until the end. Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 12 at 9:30 pm.

• Final table only payouts
• Players begin with 40,000 in chips
• Levels 1-8 last 15 minutes; Level 9+ last 20 minutes
• Late registration until start of Level 12 (9:30pm)
• This is a one-day tournament and plays until completion
• Event 60 Structure Sheet

2024 Poker Showdown
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 59
$600 Eight-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha 8
Entries:  79
Prize Pool:  $41,080
April 19, 2024

Registration closed for the $600 Eight-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha 8 tournament with 79 entries creating a prize pool worth $41,080. The last ten spots will be paid with $1.235 for a min-cash and $13,865 for the champ.

1st: $13,865 + Showdown trophy
2nd: $8,015
3rd: $5,015
4th: $3,390
5th: $2,570
6th: $2,055
7th: $1,850
8th: $1,645
9th: $1,440
10th: $1,235

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 6:  400/800 with a 800 ante
Day 1A Entries:  781

The players are taking a 90-minute dinner break. The field will return at 7:00 pm local time. Registration will remain open until 9:15 pm later tonight.

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 6:  400/800 with a 800 ante
Day 1A Entries:  779

Nitis Udornpim won a nice pot when his pocket jacks on the button topped the pocket tens of his opponent in early position.

The final board read , and Udornpim stacked up 147,500 after collecting the pot.

Nitis Udornpim – 147,500 (184 bb)

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  300/600 with a 600 ante
Day 1A Entries:  726

Rob Wazwaz was all in for 62,000 from the cutoff with in the hole, and both Michael Wang (pocket jacks on the button) and UTG (Kc3c) had him covered.

The final board read , and Wazwaz tripled up to survive with 62,000 after collecting the pot.

Rob Wazwaz – 62,000 (103 bb)

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  300/600 with a 600 ante
Day 1A Entries:  716

The second break ended, players returned to their seats, and we have a new leader at the top of the counts. William Lamar-Boone was in the top five at the first break and now leads with 326,700.

They will play two more hours before enjoying a 90-minute dinner break.

William Lamar-Boone – 326,700
Michael Cole – 264,600
Shawn Barnett – 244,600
Kevin Chan – 235,800
Calvin Anderson – 224,000

2024 Poker Showdown
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 53
$1,100 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed
Entries:  266
Prize Pool:  $258,020
April 18, 2024

Poker Showdown Event 53 was a $1,100 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em tournament that drew 266 entries to more than double the $100,000 guarantee into a prize pool worth $258,020. The last nine players returned for Day 2 and Joshua Heinzl won the title outright for $57,455 against a tough final table.

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  300/500 with a 500 ante
Day 1A Entries:  657

Jeffrey Tomlinson was all in with pocket aces from middle position, and Kat Klassen had him covered holding pocket tens UTG+1.

The final board read , and Tomlinson doubled up to survive with 59,000. Klassen was left with 16,500 after the hand.

Jeffrey Tomlinson – 59,000 (118 bb)
Kat Klassen – 16,500 (33 bb)