John Reese got the last of his chips into the middle on third street against Mark Hurst. Hurst showed ace-high and three cards to a low and was up against Reese’s split deuces.
On fourth, Reese caught a king and Hurst hit a five, which gave him four cards to a low. On fifth Reese hits a ten and Hurst pairs his eight to take the lead.
“I’m in bad shape now,” said Reese.
On sixth, Reese hit a seven, which bricks him and Hurst caught a king.
“I need a deuce,” said Reese.
Hurst flipped up his river first and showed the , which gave him trip eights and left Reese drawing dead. Hurst dragged the pot and Reese was eliminated in ninth place. He took home $624 and the final eight players are credited with making an official final table.
Mark Hurst – 60,000 (6 BB) John Reese – Eliminated
Harold Mahaffey: John Reese: Zee Rahim: John Duhig: /FOLD
On fourth street, action checks to Zee Rahim, who bet and was called by John Reese and Harold Mahaffey. John Duhig folds and they are three-handed to fifth street.
Action checked to Rahim again, who bet. Both Mahaffey and Reese call. On sixth, Mahaffey bets, Reese calls, and Rahim calls. On the river, Mahaffey checked, Reese bet, Rahim called, and Mahaffey folded.
Reese showed in the hole, good for a king-high flush, but Rahim tabled in the hole, good for an ace-high flush and he scooped the entire pot.
Rahim dragged the pot and has about 40% of the chips in play.
Zee Rahim – 380,000 (38 BB) John Reese – 45,000 (4.5 BB)
On fifth street, Zee Rahim has the lead with ace-high and checks. Phil Hui bets with a seven-high, three diamond board and Rahim calls.
Hui catches an off-suit nine on sixth and Rahim catches a jack. Both players check and Rahim bets dark as the river is dealt face-down. Hui checks his river card and then calls.
“Straight,” says Rahim as he shows .
Hui mucks his hand and Rahim drags the pot.
Zee Rahim – 280,000 (28 BB) Phil Hui – 100,000 (10 BB)
Shawn Lytle was eliminated in 10th place and the final nine players are re-drawing for seats at the unofficial final table of nine. After one more elimination, the final eight players will be credited with an official final table appearance.
Here is a look at the seating arrangement and chip counts for the final nine players:
Seat 1: Zachary Milman – 58,000 Seat 2: Mark Hurst – 65,000 Seat 3: Harold Mahaffey – 180,000 Seat 4: Rod Neubauer – 74,000 Seat 5: John Reese – 38,500 Seat 6: John Duhig – 61,000 Seat 7: Jamie Dobay – 68,000 Seat 8: Ziya “Zee” Rahim = 250,000 Seat 9: Phil Hui – 130,500
2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood, FL Event 1: $360 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Entries: 2,570 Prize Pool: $771,000 July 28 – August 1, 2016
Event 1, Nicholas Mahabee
The first tournament on the 2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open schedule was a multi-day event which drew a big crowd. When it was all over, Nicholas Mahabee stood alone as the champion after the last six players reached a deal.
The tournament featured six starting flights and the $360 buy-in tournament had a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool. That guarantee was met early Saturday morning and the total entrant count was 2,570 when registration closed on the tournament Saturday evening.
The prize pool reached $771,000 and paid out the final 250 players. They reached the money Sunday afternoon and quickly played down close to the final table. The reached the last ten players in the early morning hours and suspended play for a Monday afternoon restart.
Brian Phillis was the most tenured player at the final table and he hit big last year during this series. He outlasted all but one player in the 2015 $5 Million GTD SHRPO Championship to finish in second place for $575,000. Phillis had a rough time at this final table and finished seventh after a cooler and bad beat.
Vito Polera had an impressive run at the final table to put himself in a position to earn his chop money. He ran his big slick into the aces of Phillis (along with Unique Petiote’s big slick) to leave himself with 550K, less than three big blinds at that point. He didn’t give up, he doubled up several times and held the lead at one point during six-handed play.
As for Mahabee at the final table, we mentioned he needed to do some work to get the title and he did just that. He began play with the shortest stack, doubled three times through Phillis to build himself uip, was second in chips at the first break, and had the lead when they made a deal with six remaining.
This result more than doubles Mahabee’s career tournament earnings but it is his second SHRP title. His first victory came during the $150 buy-in event during the 2013 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” for just shy of $5,000.
Mahabee is now the proud owner of a second trophy, along with the $66,435 in prize money plus the custom-framed winner’s photo courtesy of Eric Harkins and IMPDI.
Event 1 final table results:
1st: Nicholas Mahabee (Miami, FL) $66,435 2nd: Vito Polera (Coral Springs, FL) $66,435 3rd: Harjinder Chawla (Miami, FL) $66,435 4th: Martin Markov (Key West, FL) $66,435 5th: Tom Gity (Pompano Beach, FL) $66,434 6th: Ryan Brown (Woodstock, GA) $66,434 7th: Brian Phillis (Boynton Beach, FL) $23,901 8th: Jennifer Parker (Palmetto Bay, FL) $16,191 9th: Unique Petiote (Miami Garden, FL) $11,565 10th: Sean Iannucci (Orlando, FL) $7,710
2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood, FL Event 4: $1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Entries: 86 Prize Pool: $83,420 August 1, 2016
Barry Pevner (Cooper City, FL)
Barry Pevner is the champion of Event 4, defeating a field of a 86 entries to win the $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em event. For his victory, he collected the trophy and the top prize of $29,197, the largest cash on his tournament record.
The champ is a 57-year-old primary care physician from Cooper City, Florida. His day job means poker remains a part-time hobby, but Pevner is a familiar face at Seminole Hard Rock when the tournament series are running. “Every 10 to 15 years, the deck will hit me in the head and I’ll go home with something,” Pevner laughed as he described his level of poker prowess.
“I came in(to the final table) pretty short, so I was just biding my time at the beginning,” Pevner said. “I basically got lucky on some hands.” Pevner eliminated T.K. Miles in eighth place, the first of three knockouts for which he’d be responsible over the course of the day. The most crucial pot he won wasn’t a knockout, though, but a flip against Loni Harwood for his own tournament life and more than 70 percent of the total chips in play. Pevner’s pocket queens held against Harwood’s ace-king, giving him a commanding chip lead with three players remaining.
Pevner went on to eliminate Day 1 chipleader Oscar Trestini in third place, setting the stage for a final duel against Harwood. Though the two had never played together before this event, they had some unusual history between them.
Loni Harwood and Barry Pevner
“I have a picture at home of me losing to her dad,” Pevner recalled the last time he was heads up against a Harwood. “I told Loni I couldn’t handle that again. I’ve waited since 1999 to get revenge on his daughter.”
Pevner did indeed get his revenge, quickly picking off the rest of the younger Harwood’s chips to seal the victory. On the final hand, he flopped a set of fours and induced a shove from Harwood, who turned top pair of kings. She was already drawing dead when the chips went in, and the two exchanged handshakes and well wishes as the river card completed the final board of the day.
Results 1st: Barry Pevner – $29,197 + trophy 2nd: Loni Harwood – $15,850 3rd: Oscar Trestini – $10,010 4th: Stuart Greenbaum – $7,508 5th: Richard Leger – $5,839 6th: Mark Smith – $5,005 7th: John Swope – $4,171 8th: Timothy Miles – $3,337 9th: Drew Johnson – $2,503
The third flight of the $150 No Limit Hold’em re-entry with a $150,000 guaranteed prizepool is officially underway.
There were two flights earlier today that got underway at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. The morning flight drew 205 and the second flight garnered 321 entries.
The players start with 10,000 in tournament chips and levels are 30 minutes long throughout the tournament. There are unlimited re-entries for the first six levels and at the start of level 7, late registration and re-entry closes.
Play will wrap up at the completion of 14 levels of play, which is around 3 a.m. The survivors of today’s action will come back for Day 2 on Wednesday.
.
, Mahaffey showed 
, and Neubauer showed Ah3d.
/ 
/ 
/ 
/ 
/FOLD
in the hole, good for a king-high flush, but Rahim tabled 
in the hole, good for an ace-high flush and he scooped the entire pot.
