Main Event Day 2: Cracking Aces Is Fun

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds 3K/6K Antes 1K

We caught up on the action with the board reading KhTs8c3hTc and a red all in button in front of Michael Mizrachi. Mizrachi’s opponent, Marcus Harris, only had 200K behind and was easily covered by Michael. “I told myself if you went all in you had nothing and that if you made a bit bet you had something,” said Harris as he contemplated his tournament life.

Grinder tells him “I tell you what, I’ll give you a picture.”

This seems to convince Marcus to call and he pushes his chips out on top of his cards. Mizrachi flips over AhTh for rivered trips. Harris meekly turns over his hand… Aces. Someone jokes that he can get that picture and he says with a small smile on his face “I don’t want no f***ing picture.” He sits there, not wanting to get up, staring at the payout card in front of him telling him that he finished in 24th place. “I should have went all in preflop,” he says, looking to the table for affirmation.

There are now 20 players left. Among the recently eliminated are Chino Rheem and Michael Beasley.

Main Event Day 2: Fish Doubles Through Stafman, Payouts For 28th Through 33rd

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds 3K/6K Antes 1K

Three players including Tyler Stafman and Darryl Fish saw the flop in a 14K raised pre-flop pot. Fish was in the big blind and led out for 20K on the 9c7d6c flop. The pre-flop raiser got out of the way and Tyler raised to 50K. It was folded back to Darryl who put in a third bet to 175K. Stafman shoved all in and Fish made the call. Stafman held 8c7c for second pair with the open ended straight flush draw. A monster flop for his hand. Fish was in the lead though with his flopped set of 6’s. The turn gave Fish a full house but Stafman was not drawing dead as it was another 7. A 7, 8, 5c or Tc would eliminate Fish from the tournament. The river was a 5 and Fish scooped the massive pot to take his stack to 1.15 million, crippling Stafman in the process. Fish is neck and neck with Michael Mizrachi who won a huge pot when he cracked aces with a set of deuces. Local boy Nigel Murray has chipped up from a low point of 40K to over 500K after his pocket Aces held up.

Here are the 28th through 33rd place finishers:

28thJason G.$4,483.00
29thEvan Teitelbaum$4,483.00
30thRoss Fischer$4,483.00
31stJose Galvez$4,483.00
32ndFariborz Zojaji$4,483.00
33rdBruce Reid$4,483.00

Main Event Day 2: Tough Table

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds 3K/6K Antes 1K

We’re down to 27 players and one table you could say is a little bit on the tough side. In the 4 seat, Michael Mizrachi. The 6 seat has Chino Rheem occupying it. The 7 seat has the aforementioned Lenny Duvdivani. In the 8 seat is Matthew Waxman and Steve Karp in the 9. Grinder and Chino thought that was tweetworthy.

 

 

Rockin' and Rollin' at The Poker Room at Seminole Hard Rock Main Event
Rockin’ and Rollin’ at The Poker Room at Seminole Hard Rock Main Event

Main Event Day 2: Lenny Dove Getting Some Lenny Love From South Florida Poker Pros

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds 3K/6K Antes 1K

His real name is Lenny Duvdivani but he goes by Lenny Dove (@dovelenny on Twitter). “Just easier to say,” he grinned as he eyed his large stack of nearly 700K, which is probably good for 2nd in chips at this point. You might not know who Lenny is but the best poker professionals in South Florida do:

 

 

 

That’s some pretty high praise. Mizrachi told me that when he first started playing poker he would go up against Lenny. “Learned a lot from him,” he smiled. He has had some tournament success including a cash in the $10,000,000 Guaranteed back in August but his forte is in cash games. Grinder, and Lenny’s wife Regette, told me that Lenny is a true grinder that has been playing cash games from years. His best tournament score is $12,033 at a Venetian Deep Stack event. He’s looking good to topple that mark in this tournament.

The "infamous" Lenny Dove
The “infamous” Lenny Dove

Main Event Day 2: 34th Through 44th Payouts

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds 3K/6K Antes 1K

We’ve lost a couple notable players in Tony Cousineau, Cong Pham, and David Diaz but there are still some great players going for the trophy. A few updated (approximate) chip counts:

Michael Mizrachi 525K
Matthew Waxman 525K
Darryl Fish 500K
Chino Rheem 140K
Nigel Murray 110K

34th through 44th payouts were as follows:

34thFrancis Margaglione$4,483.00
35thRobert Aron$4,483.00
36thSterling Savill$4,483.00
37thDavid Diaz$3,904.00
38thDavid Baker$3,904.00
39thAnthony Cousineau$3,904.00
40thJohn McCaffrey$3,904.00
41stKevin Froemming$3,904.00
42ndOmar McFarlane$3,904.00
43rdJoseph Tumminelli$3,904.00
44thCong Pham$3,904.00

Event 19: Prize Pool And Payout Information

$120 + $30 No Limit Hold ‘Em (Double Stack Turbo)

Blinds 1.2K/2.4K Ante 400

They have just started Level 15 and there are 33 left out of the original 141 – 15 will make the money. Total Prize Pool was $16,920 and payouts will be as follows:

PlacePrize
1st$5,415.00
2nd$3,130.00
3rd$2,030.00
4th$1,396.00
5th$1,074.00
6th$838.00
7th$660.00
8th$491.00
9th$338.00
10th$279.00
11th$279.00
12th$279.00
13th$237.00
14th$237.00
15th$237.00

Main Event Day 2: A Reason To Smile

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds 2.5K/5K Antes 500

“Hey Tyler man, how you doing?” a player at another table yelled over to Tyler Stafman. Darryl Fish answered for him… “he’s winning pots with seven deuce.” A smile came over Stafman’s face. He had just eliminated a short stacked Tony Cousineau with A-K against Cousineau’s Qs2s and had a chip stack of 900K sitting in front of him. Fish went on to tell the story of how Stafman’s 7-2 had hit trip deuces on the river to crack another players pocket Aces. The player who had the Aces cracked was still at the table and let that be known by growling… “I’m still at the f***ing table”.  Stafman is the chip leader at the present time.

Players are going on a 10 minute break and there are 36 players remaining.

Tyler Stafman is all smiles
Tyler Stafman is all smiles

 

Main Event Day 2: 45th Through 54th Place Payouts

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds 2.5K/5K Antes 500

Here are the payouts for 45th through 54th place:

45thJohn Campanello$3,904.00
46thBradley Young$3,326.00
47thRobert Gianquitti$3,326.00
48thMatthew Frank$3,326.00
49thLance Garcia$3,326.00
50thDave Tran$3,326.00
51stTodor Lazarov$3,326.00
52ndJuan Peralta$3,326.00
53rdAbbey Daniels$3,326.00
54thLuke Graham$3,326.00

Main Event Day 2: Waxman Doubles Through Cong Pham

$1,500 + $150 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘n’ Poker Open” Main Event

Blinds 2.5K/5K Antes 500

Shortly before the dinner break, Cong Pham and Matthew Waxman had battled in a medium sized pot with Waxman ultimately conceding the pot to a river bet from Pham. The two were at it again, this time after Waxman raised under the gun to 10K with Pham sitting in the small blind. Cong made it 27K to go and after confirming the amount Waxman made the call.

The flop came Qs7d3h and Pham led out for 31K. Waxman called with little hesitation. The turn was the 5d and Pham sat there stoic, the only motion coming from the quick shuffling of a stack of chips in his right hand. Cong took a quick glance at Pham and then pushed out a stack of 20 orange 1K chips with five 5K chips stacked on top for a total bet of 45K. Waxman responds by staring down at the felt, occasionally taking a glance at the board. He puts together the same stack and pushes it out slowly to make the call.

The river is the 5s and Cong asks Waxman “how much you have?” Matt responds by moving his hands up in the air and pushing forward his stack of 5K chips ever so slightly. Pham responds by announcing that he was all in and the dealer tossed the red ALL IN guitar pick towards him. Waxman asks Pham “how much you have left” and finds out that Cong has 185K. “So you have me covered,” Waxman whispers under his breath. Matt tosses a chip onto his cards and asks Pham “Big hand? You got a big hand over there?” He studies Cong a bit more and asks one last question “Just barreling off with nothing?”

He pulls the chip off the card, and shakes his head exhaling loudly. For a moment he looks as if he is going to fold but then he leans back, and takes a slow sip of water. He signals he is going to call by putting his phone is his pocket, almost as if he is expecting to lose the hand when he does call. A quick glance at the clock and then he says “I call.”

Cong turns over QcJc for Queens and Fives. Waxman responds with a blunt “No good” and turns over pocket Kings. Pham lets out a little smile and tells Waxman “nice hand”. Matt thanks Cong as he stacks his new found chips. He’s up to 540K after the double up while Pham was left with just a little over 20K.

Main Event Day 2 Photos 040Cong Pham studying Matt Waxman earlier in the tournament