2017 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
Hollywood, FL
Event 20
$300 No Limit Hold’em
Entries: 184
Prize Pool: $46,920
April 1, 2017

Michael Luong earned his first career title on Saturday night by defeating a field of 184 entries to win $12,157 in the $300 no limit hold’em.

After a long, 15-hour day of poker, the 25-year-old professional poker player was humble in nature and short on words.

“I just played it the way it was and I got it,” said Luong after his win.

Luong came into the final table near the top of the chip counts, but it took nearly five hours before he had amassed all of the chips in play. This is mostly due to the good structure and the high talent level of the final nine players.

“Surprisingly, at the very beginning of the final table, the blinds weren’t too big,” said Luong. “Everybody had a decent stack and it was fun. Everybody was playing pretty well. There were several people at the table that was playing amazingly well. I just had to wait, get a couple hands and made it happen.”

As a professional poker player living in Georgia, Luong doesn’t have the luxury of having casinos in the area. Most of Luong’s poker experience comes in underground games.

“It’s more underground games,” said Luong about where he’s forced to play in Georgia. “I travel to Vegas often too. So, I do a little of both.”

He currently plays in these games to make a living, but before he was playing these games, he was dealing them to pay for his computer information science degree at Georgia State University.

It was when he was in the box pitching cards that he learned the ins and outs of the game before jumping into playing full time.

“I used to deal at these games,” said Luong. “I learned the game and started liking it a lot. I just got used to it and started playing a lot and I like it a lot.”

Luong spends most of his time in cash games, but every so often, he’ll take a shot at a tournament.

“Cash is mainly my focus, but tournaments, I’ll jump in one every now and then just to see how I do,” said Luong.

He did pretty well on Saturday.

Results:

1st: Michael Luong – 12,157
2nd: Richard Little – $8,152
3rd: Ashley Sleeth – $4,809
4th: Steven Bennett – $2,925
5th: Tobias Peters – $2,259
6th: Francis Garcia – $1,872
7th: Marc Duquette – $1,595
8th: Aaron Scott – $1,403
9th: Roberto Bendeck – $1,216
10th: Preston Michael – $1,032
11th: Thomas Jackson – $1,032
12th: Rudijanto Soetkino – $1,032
13th: Dominick Amore – $868
14th: Frank Folino – $868
15th: Hamid Izadi – $868
16th: Andrew Grose – $727
17th: David Ring – $727
18th: Thomas Curtis – $727
19th: Alan Rosenbaum – $587
20th: Robert Mantin – $587
21st: Nader Bahhur – $587
22nd: Josias Santos – $445
23rd: Willie Wiggins – $445

2017 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
Hollywood, FL
Event 21
$570 Turbo No Limit Hold’em
Entries: 61
Prize Pool: $30,500
April 1, 2017

Luckily for Sean Perry, you only need to be 18 to play poker in Florida.

At only 20 years old, Sean Perry earned his first career title by taking down the $300 no limit hold’em on Saturday night. He beat a field of 61 players to win $10,979 and what he hopes will be the first of many trophies.

“It feels really nice to to win one,” said Perry. “I’m new to the tournament scene. At most, I’ve played like 15 tournaments.”

As the son of poker pro Ralph Perry, Sean was exposed to the game at a very young age. He’ still not legal to play poker in his hometown of Las Vegas, but he’s already very skilled after spending his childhood watching his father play.

“I used to watch him play online all the time,” said Perry. “He’s kind of been like my coach. It’s pretty exciting.”

Living under the same roof as a professional poker player gave him some early life lessons about the cutthroat nature of the game.

“I remember when I was like 10 years old and playing him Chinese poker for like $20 a point,” said Perry. “And one time he beat me for like a thousand dollars. For my 10-year-old birthday, he gave me like a grand and I decided to put it on that. I lost it to him and he beat me. I cried for a few days and he wouldn’t give it back.”

Perry’s win comes on the heels of a runner-up finish to Joe McKeehen in the $2,200 eight-max no limit hold’em. He battled with some of the best players in the world throughout that field and at the final table eventually finishing second for more than $74,000.

This is Perry’s fourth cash of the series and he’s hoping for bigger things as the series nears an end.

“It’s awesome,” said Perry. “I’m coming out here and I’m doing pretty well. So, it gives me a lot more confidence, but now there is a $10,000 [buy-in] to go out and do well in. Let’s hope we are talking at the end of that. That would be pretty nice.

“It’s definitely a confidence boost, but at the same time, I’m very humbled because all of the people I’ve been playing against are very good players.”

The success comes at a good time for him as well. Up until about a month ago, Perry was a business major at Caifornia Polytechnic State University.

“I want to pursue poker and real estate, so I just left school,” said Perry.

Dropping out of school didn’t mean that Perry was a poor student. He was a business major, the President of a fraternity, and had nearly a perfect ACT score.

He just didn’t think college was useful for the life he planned to lead.

“For me, I didn’t feel school was pointless,” said Perry. “but I just didn’t think that school was essential in a sense to do what I needed to do. I didn’t want to waste my time when I could make money playing poker, make money in real estate and do my own thing.”

Perry’s mindset just wasn’t for college. He had no aspirations of working a normal nine to five job. He has more of a desire to create something for himself and achieve success outside of a cubicle.

“I was always the kind of guy that never planned on working for anyone,” said Perry. “Even my first year in school, I started this social media application and I started this site similar to AirBnb that basically you could sell homes. I was always kind of the one to do my own thing in a sense.”

His ultimate goals are to be successful in both poker and real estate so that he’ll never have to be anybody’s employee. With his dad a successful poker pro and his mother already in the real estate business, he’s got an inside track to being successful in both areas.

As far as the money he’s won this series thus far, he’s already got specific plans for it.

“After this, I’ll probably go back to Vegas and buy some real estate,” said Perry. “My mom is a big realtor, so I’ll go into real estate with her and play poker at the same time. Hopefully it works out.”

Results:

1st: Sean Perry – $10,979
2nd: Walter Treccarichi – $6,451
3rd: Hugh Cullen – $4,041
4th: Ian Pearson – $2,745
5th: Jeff Gross – $2,135
6th: Tam Ho – $1,678
7th: Sanjib Acharya – $1,373
8th: James Romero – $1,098

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
Returning to Level 21: 6,000/12,000 with a 2,000 ante
Players Remaining: 66 of 1,207

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
End of Level 20: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante
Players Remaining: 66 of 1,207

After 10 levels of play, the second day of the WPT championship event is in the books and the massive 1,207-entry field is down to the final 66 players and Team SHRP member Matt Affleck takes a massive chip lead into Day 3.

Affleck finished the day with 1,893,000 and his nearest competitor, Eric Beller has 1,155,000. The only other Team SHRP members alive for Day 3 are Darryll Fish with 571,000 and Wally Maddah with 43,000.

Everybody remaining is guaranteed $10,080 but they are all hoping to still be playing the tournament later in the week when somebody will earn $661,283 for the win.

Day 3 will start at noon on Sunday and the levels will increase from 60 minutes to 90 minutes. The schedule for the day is to play down to the final six players.

Complete chip counts will be posted shortly.

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
Level 20: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante
Players Remaining: 67 of 1,207

Bob Bounahra opened to 25,000 under the gun, and Garrett Greer three-bet to 65,000 in middle position. Matt Affleck called on the button, and Bounahra called the remainder to see a three-way flop.

It came . Bounahra checked, Greer continued for 95,000, Affleck called, and Bounahra folded.

Both players checked through the turn, and the river was the . Greer moved all in for about 325,000, and Affleck pondered for several minutes before calling to put Greer at risk.

“King-queen?” Greer half-asked as he showed for queens up. It was no good; Affleck tabled for the same hand with a better kicker, and he won the pot to pad his chip lead. Greer was eliminated on the second-to-last hand of the night.

Matt Affleck – 1,895,000 (190 bb)
Garrett Greer – Eliminated

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
Level 20: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante
Players Remaining: 67 of 1,207

The clock was paused with 10 minutes left in Level 20, and a card was drawn. It was a three, everyone’s favorite card at this time of night, and each table will play that many more hands before bagging up for the night.

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
Level 20: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante
Players Remaining: 68 of 1,207

Shanker Pillai opened to 23,000 in early position, and Iaron Lightbourne three-bet from the small blind. Pillai moved all in for about 400,000 total, and Lightbourne called, committing about 40 percent of his stack to put Pillai at risk.

Pillai:
Lightbourne:

The board ran out , and Pillai won the race with kings up to double up.

Shankar Pillai – 820,000 (82 bb)
Iaron Lightbourne – 570,000 (57 bb)

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
Level 20: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante
Players Remaining: 79 of 1,207

Garrett Greer opened with a raise in middle middle position, Matt Affleck called in the cutoff, and Taylor Paur defended his big blind to create three-way action.

The flop was . It checked to Affleck, who continued for 35,000, and only Paur called. Both players checked through the turn, and the river was the . Paur led for 36,000, and Affleck raised to 146,000 effective to put his opponent to the decision for the rest of his stack.

There was little to decide; Paur double-checked his hole cards and quickly called to put himself at risk for that amount.

Paur: (aces full)
Affleck: (trip jacks)

It was quite a cooler for Affleck, but he still appears to be the overall chip leader despite granting Paur that double-up.

Taylor Paur – 440,000 (44 bb)
Matt Affleck – 1,405,000 (140 bb)

$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
Level 20: 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante
Players Remaining: 79 of 1,207

Anton Astapau opened with a raise in early position, and he and several others saw a cheap flop, including SHRP Team member Matt Affleck. Those two ended up being the only two who factored in what would become a huge pot.

The flop was , and Affleck led out for 40,000. Astapau raised to 190,000, and Affleck moved all in with the larger of the two stacks. Astapau began the hand with just over 600,000 chips, and he called all in to put himself at risk.

Astapau: (bottom pair, flush draw)
Affleck: (top two pair)

The turn and river completed the board safely for Affleck, and he eliminated Astapau in 79th place. With that big pot, Affleck also moves into the chip lead with less than one level left in Day 2.

Matt Affleck – 1,560,000 (156 bb)
Anton Astapau – Eliminated