Day 1A: $350 Deep-Stack No-Limit Hold’em with re-entries ($150,000 Guaranteed) Level 7: Blinds 400/800, Ante 100 Players Remaining: 108/183
On top of the chip counts after six levels is Peter Striano with about 225,000. Striano, seated at the same table as former chip leader Muzaffer Yesilce, took a significant pot off of Yesilce at the end of Level 6. Yesilce, though, is still sitting with a solid stack of about 95,000.
Chip leaders after Level 6
Peter Striano – 225,600 Francis Margaglione – 129,000 Vladimir Kovalchuk – 128,700 John Depersio – 107,600 Rodolfo Enriquez – 114,700 Claudio Kalili – 114,400
Day 1A: $350 Deep-Stack No-Limit Hold’em with re-entries ($150,000 Guaranteed) Level 5: Blinds 200/400, Ante 50 Players Remaining: 126/170
The Day 1A field is up to 170 entries, more than 1/3rd of the way to reaching the guarantee. The average stack is currently about 40,000 (100 big blinds).
Among those who have recently entered the field include Stuart Paterson, Tony Ruberto, and Matt Elsarelli.
Day 1A: $350 Deep-Stack No-Limit Hold’em with re-entries ($150,000 Guaranteed) Level 4: Blinds 150/300, Ante 50 Players Remaining: 126/154
With the board reading and about 4,000 in the pot, chip leader Muzaffer Yesilce checked from the small blind. The player under the gun bet 2,000, the player on the button raised to 4,500, and Yesilce check-reraised to 12,000. After a few moments the UTG player folded, leading to the player on the button reraising all in for about 24,000.
Yesilce called with for a full house, eights full of sevens, leading his opponent’s for trip eights. The river was the , securing the pot for Yesilce and giving him about 163,000.
Every weekday from 1pm-3pm, Eric Reed and Leroy Hoard can be heard discussing all things sports on 104.3 FM and 790 AM the ticket. They will be on the air live from right here in the poker room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino at the top of the hour.
In addition to today, they will be back tomorrow, next Thursday and Friday, and every Friday until the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in August. Players are welcome to stop by and check out the show.
For a look at the full schedule of the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood Deep Stack Series, including qualifiers and satellites, please click here.
Welcome to live coverage of the The 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood Deep Stack Series!
Today kicks off the first event of six in an 11-day series of exciting tournament action. On the docket for today is Day 1A of the $350 Deep-Stack No-Limit Hold’em event with re-entries, with a guaranteed prize pool of $150,000. There will be three starting flights (Today, Friday, and Saturday), with the survivors from each returning Sunday to play down to a winner.
Players begin with 30,000 in chips and the plan for the day is to play 15 40-minute levels, with a 40-minute dinner break after Level 9 (roughly 6:30pm). For a look at the structure sheet, please click here.
There are currently 63 players registered and registration will remain open until the start of Day 2 (blinds and antes will be at the 3,000/6,000/1,000 level at that time).
For a look at the entire schedule of the Deep Stack Series , please click here.
The cards are in the air, so keep it here for updates throughout the day on all of the exciting action!
Get rewarded to playing at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood …
Play in any daily, satellite or series from April 22, 2015 – May 31, 2015 and earn Tournament Leaderboard Points! * Earn Base Points for each tournament entry * Earn Bonus Points based on: – Tournament buy-in amount – Total entries for event – Cash place finished
Prizes: 1st Place: $5,250 entry into the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (August 15, 2015)
2nd Place: $2,650 entry into the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open High Roller Qualifier (July 24, 2015)
3rd Place: $2,500 entry into the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (August 16, 2015)
4th & 5th Place: $1,100 entry into the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (August 17, 2015)
6th – 10th Place: $570 entry into the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship Qualifier (June 14, 2015)
11th – 25th Place: $350 entry into the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Event #1 Day 1A (July 30, 2015)
See poker room for details
SEMINOLE HARD ROCK HOLLYWOOD TOURNAMENT LEADERBOARD
2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship $5,000,000 Guarantee
April 16 – 22nd, 2015
Total Entries: 1,476 Total Prize Pool: $5,000,000
Recap: The 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship kicked off on April 16 with a $5,000,000 prize pool and a week later we saw one player walk away with $1,000,000. After three starting flights and six total days of action, Griffin Paul was the last player standing to capture the title along with the seven-digit payday.
The showcase Championship event of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown series had a $3,500 buy-in and drew 1,476 total entrants. They made it through more than 12 hours on the first day for a chance to play on Day 2 and make it into the money.
There was a wide range of poker professionals, champions, and Seminole Hard Rock Poker regulars in action for the big event. Four WSOP Main Event Champions took their shot at the title but none were able to make it deep in the tournament. Ryan Riess (2013), Jonathan Duhamel (2010), Jamie Gold (2006), and Carlos Mortensen (2001) were the world champions in attendance and they played alongside some of our local grinders including Ory Hen, Nigel Murray, Angel Vu, and Gregory Marcus.
The last 150 players in the tournament earned a piece of the $5 million prize pool and it was local professional Darryll “DFish” Fish eliminated in 151st spot to put the rest in the money. Some of the top names to cash in the tournament were Jason Mercier, Faraz Jaka, Brian Hastings, Jared Jaffee, Darren Elias, and Esther Taylor-Brady. Vince Van Patten was another player everyone was watching as the WPT commentator picked up his first career cash in a WPT event.
Day 4 saw the return of 18 players vying for the title including top pros Mohsin Chanaria, Dan Heimiller, Cornel Cimpan, and David Peters. South Florida poker fans were cheering for local Eli Levy who began the day with the lead, but he was unable to sustain his momentum and was eliminated short of the final table. The pace was quick and it did not take long for Joe Ebanks, Griffin Paul, Brian Green, Shawn Nguyen, Andre Crooks, and Ryan Rivers to book their seat at the nationally televised WPT final table in Hard Rock Live.
Six-handed play lasted for two hours before play heated up. Rivers was the first player sent off the final table when he lost to Ebanks and Green followed at the hands of Paul. Two local favorites were the next to exit and silence the enthusiastic crowd. Nguyen had the biggest group of supports and their cheers could probably be heard across the property when he doubled early. He lasted another hour but was also eliminated by Paul in 4th place.
Crooks had his share of fans and family in the stands and it took a bad beat to send him out. He was ahead with pocket Kings against Ebanks’ pocket Nines but a Nine on the flop ended his day. His knockout set up a heads up battle between Ebanks and Paul for the title.
Ebanks began heads up play with a 2-to-1 advantage but Paul quickly doubled to take away the advantage. He never gave up the lead and it took just 23 more hands for him to become our latest champion along with $1,000,000 for the effort. Ebanks played great throughout the tournament and picked up the well-earned $615,000 prize for his runner-up finish.
This was easily Paul’s biggest poker success. He only had seven career tournament cashes, including a $25,000 payout at this summer’s WSOP series, but this one tops them all.
“It’s like a dream, I’m speechless.” Paul said. “It was a really tough table. I fought some amazing players and here I am.”
“I stayed here last night for the first time. It’s an amazing property.” Paul commented when asked about his experience this week. “Really nice. Beautiful. The staff here is great.”
That concludes the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, thank you to all the players for making this a great series and congratulations to Griffin Paul on his Championship title.
Final table results: 1st: Griffin Paul (Northridge, CA) – $1,000,000 2nd: Joe Ebanks (Kent, OH) – $615,000 3rd: Andre Crooks (Lake Worth, FL) – $383,000 4th: Shawn Nguyen (West Palm Beach, FL) – $323,500 5th: Brian Green (Decatur, TX) – $269,000 6th: Ryan Rivers (Niagara Falls, ON) – $217,500
$3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship Level 35: 200,000/400,000/50,000 Ante
Let the celebration begin. There’s a new name going on the WPT Champions Cup here at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood. His name is Griffin Paul.
On the final hand, Paul called Joe Ebanks big blind but Ebanks was not standing still raising to 1,500,000 and Paul made the call.
The flop came out and Ebanks led out for one million. Paul went all-in and Ebanks decided it was time to try to double up and made the call.
Unfortunately for Ebanks, his had hit second pair but Paul held for top pair and was two cards away from the title.
After a on the turn, Paul’s rail began to raise the volume in Hard Rock Live as he was one card from the title. As the tension built, the came on the turn and the 22-year old Griffin Paul was a WPT champion and a millionaire as well. His family and friends were ecstatic screaming and celebrating all over the set. All Paul could say that the win “unbelievable” and we won’t give the exact quote when he was asked what it was like to have won a million dollars but let’s just say he thought it was “pretty cool”.
Joe Ebanks also has reason to celebrate his second place finish as he brings home $615,000 for his efforts over the past five days.
Congratulations to the Seminole Hard Rock WPT Poker Showdown Champion and newest poker millionaire – Griffin Paul!
Championship Event Champion Griffin PaulJoe Ebanks – 2nd Place ($615,000)
and about 4,000 in the pot, chip leader Muzaffer Yesilce checked from the small blind. The player under the gun bet 2,000, the player on the button raised to 4,500, and Yesilce check-reraised to 12,000. After a few moments the UTG player folded, leading to the player on the button reraising all in for about 24,000.
for a full house, eights full of sevens, leading his opponent’s 
for trip eights. The river was the 
, securing the pot for Yesilce and giving him about 163,000.
and Ebanks led out for one million. Paul went all-in and Ebanks decided it was time to try to double up and made the call.
had hit second pair but Paul held 
on the turn, Paul’s rail began to raise the volume in Hard Rock Live as he was one card from the title. As the tension built, the 
came on the turn and the 22-year old Griffin Paul was a WPT champion and a millionaire as well. His family and friends were ecstatic screaming and celebrating all over the set. All Paul could say that the win “unbelievable” and we won’t give the exact quote when he was asked what it was like to have won a million dollars but let’s just say he thought it was “pretty cool”.
