$3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship Level 21: 6,000/12,000/2,000 Ante
Vince Van Patten
Vince Van Patten is working hard to make the WPT adjust their work roster and he added a few more chips before they broke his table.
With the board reading , Van Patten check-raised leader Raj Vohra from 40,000 to 100,000.
Vohra called before the turn when Van Patten yelled “Better get the cameras over here.” He moved all-in for 470,000 and Vohra went in the tank long enough for those cameras to get there.
After counting out the calling chips, Vohra eventually folded while showing the to the table. Van Patten looked relieved before racking up his chips for his move to a new table.
$3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship Level 21: 6,000/12,000/2,000 Ante
Action was quick at the start of play with several fast knockouts but Paul Stanechewski went the other way. Jacob Schindler opened under the gun for 27,000 before Stanechewski moved all-in over the 180,000.
Joining the action from the small blind was David Peters who moved all-in over the top to make Schindler think about staying involved. He eventually called, covered by Peters, for the huge three-way pot.
Schindler: Stanechewski: Peters:
The board ran low to give Stanechewski the big triple up, knock out Schindler, and Peters picked up a small rebate for the second best hand.
$3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship Level 21: 6,000/12,000/2,000 Ante
Day number 3 of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship is upon us with 92 players still vying for the $1,000,000 top prize.
Raj Vohra is the front-runner with 1,675,000 but he has a lot of talent on his tail. Seven other players begin the day with seven-digit stacks and Scott Efron just a few 1k chips short of that. Local Seminole Hard Rock Poker regulars Robert Campbell and Scott Zakheim are also the leaders.
There are still plenty of interesting names in contention but some will keep an eye WPT commentator Vince Van Patten. This is his first WPT cash and he has a chance to make the final table to force a WPT scramble for a booth replacement. Poker Hall of Famer made two final tables in the past and his commentator spot taken by Tony Dunst and Phil Hellmuth.
Players are making their way into the ballroom to unbag their chips and get things underway in a few minutes. They will play 90-minute levels and will stop action when just 18 players remain.
$1,650 Eight-Max No Limit Hold’Em (Re-Entry) Level 12: 600/1,200/200 Ante
Day 1 of Event 16 is in the books and Robert Black is leading the way headed into Day 2 tomorrow with past event champion Daren Stabinski, WSOP Main Event Champion Jamie Gold and November Niner Chino Rheem still alive in the hunt for the title. The tournament drew 110 entries and 11 players will come back tomorrow.
Black nailed a huge hand against Long Nguyen late in the night to vault into the chip lead bagging 372,000. Daren Stabinski will once again find himself in the hunt for another Seminole Hard Rock title but will have to chase down Black with 247,800 chips. Chino Rheem is in a tight group in the next tier of chip stacks while Jamie Gold, Richard Leger and Sean Giesbrecht will try to fight back as the short stacks.
Play resumes tomorrow at 3 PM with a top prize of $44,863 on the line.
Here are the chip counts for the remaining 11 players:
Robert Black – 372,600 Daren Stabinski – 247,800 Chino Rheem – 144,800 Long Nguyen – 144,100 Dan DiZenzo – 141,200 Eracles Panayitou – 100,600 Rachel Kranz – 63,200 Ray Qartomy – 59,100 Jamie Gold – 23,000 Richard Leger – 16,200 Sean Giesbrecht – 10,400
2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $350 Buy-In Big Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $30,000 Guaranteed
April 20th, 2015
Total Entries: 125 Total Prize Pool: $37,500
Event 15 Champion Wing Ng
Recap: A poker reporter turned player and a former Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, Hollywood event champion couldn’t stand in the way of Wing Ng’s championship quest as he claimed the Event 15 title in decisive fashion.
The final table saw Kristy Arnett, who recently came out from the behind the camera to play poker full-time, reach this final table. Also there was Jordan Chizick who won Event 20 at least year’s Poker Showdown and was looking for a repeat performance. Unfortunately, Arnett took a tough beat early on and was eliminated in 9th. After the eliminations of Matthew Irish in 8th and Robert Bastoire in 7th, Robert Tannenbaum took another rough exit as Mark Alcivar cracked his kings with eights hitting a set on the turn and ousting him in 6th place.
After Thomas Sheets was knocked out in 5th, the four players took some time out to see if they could make a deal and end the tournament. But after Mohammed Jaafar couldn’t agree on the money, play continued on.
At first, it was looking like the classic story of the player not taking the deal falling out. Jordan Chizick and Jaafar locked up in a wild hand with Chizick holding vs Jaafar’s . Chizick flopped two pair but two hearts were on the board and Jaafar turned the nut flush. But Chizick hit a full house on the river and doubled up.
But Chizick was eliminated shortly afterward in 4th place by Wing Ng putting Ng in the chip lead leaving Jaafar and Alcivar hoping to chase him down. After Ng continued to build his stack, Jaafar and Alcivar ended up in the decisive hand of the tournament as on a flop the chips ended up in the middle. Alcivar flipped over for top pair and a flush draw and Jaafar showed for a lower flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. The card that Jaafar needed showed up as the turn brough the giving him the straight. The came off on the river and eliminated Alcivar leaving Ng and Jaafar heads-up for the title.
At that point with Ng holding a significant chip advantage, the two made a deal giving Ng his first career championship.
Ng gave his final thoughts about the win. “It’s awesome. It’s my first trophy – so exciting! I was just patient and played in position. It means a lot to me. I hope I can win more trophies in the future in big tournaments. This hotel is really good, the food is good, everything is good!”
Congratulations to our Event 15 Champion – Wing Ng!
Results: 1st – Wing Ng (Chino Hills, CA) – $10,999 2nd – Mohammed Jaafar (Miami, FL) – $9,000 3rd – Mark Alcivar (Pembroke Pines, FL) – $4,688 4th – Jordan Chizik (Sunrise, FL) – $3,188 5th – Thomas Sheets (Norfolk, VA) – $2,531 6th – Robert Tannenbaum (Delray, FL) – $1,969 7th – Robert Bastoire (Cecilia, KY) – $1,594 8th – Matthew Irish (Farmington, ME) – $1,219 9th – Kristy Arnett (Las Vegas, NV) – $844
$150 No-Limit Hold’em (Re-entry) Level 14: 1,200/2,400/400 Ante
Barry Chazen blew everyone out of the water today.
Chazen finished over 100,000 chips ahead of his nearest opponent to easily win Day 17A with a massive 322,500 chips.
Only one other player even cleared the 200,000 chip level as Stuart Greenbaum bagged 207,000 to finish in second for this evening’s play. Josias Santos followed close behind at 192,500 for third.
Other big stacks included Roberto Caprio at 155,000, David Maddox and Diakonis Vasilios both bagged 151,000, Yves Fequiere ended up with 147,500, Richard Tintera finished at 137,500 and Hany Ayoub was close behind at 136,000.
At the end of the night, 28 players advanced out of 250 entries and will come back on Tuesday at 5 PM to resume play.
They will be awaiting the rest of the players who will join them from Day 17B. Play for that flight starts tomorrow at 5 PM.
, Van Patten check-raised leader Raj Vohra from 40,000 to 100,000.
turn when Van Patten yelled “Better get the cameras over here.” He moved all-in for 470,000 and Vohra went in the tank long enough for those cameras to get there.
to the table. Van Patten looked relieved before racking up his chips for his move to a new table.
to give Stanechewski the big triple up, knock out Schindler, and Peters picked up a small rebate for the second best hand.
. Chizick flopped two pair but two hearts were on the board and Jaafar turned the nut flush. But Chizick hit a full house on the river and doubled up.
flop the chips ended up in the middle. Alcivar flipped over 
for a lower flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. The card that Jaafar needed showed up as the turn brough the 
giving him the straight. The 
came off on the river and eliminated Alcivar leaving Ng and Jaafar heads-up for the title.