$5,300 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 8:  600/1,200 with a 1,200 ante
Day 1A Entries:  520

Loni Hui  –  250,000  (208 bb)
Rodney Turvin  –  183,000  (153 bb)
Daniel Swartz  –  164,000  (137 bb)
Cherish Andrews  –  152,000  (127 bb)
James Carroll  –  135,000  (113 bb)
Kenny Hallaert  –  118,000  (98 bb)
Bryce McVay  –  95,000  (79 bb)
Matt Stout  –  93,000  (78 bb)
Mike Chiappetta  –  87,000  (73 bb)
Taylor Wilson  –  80,000  (67 bb)
Jacquelyn Scott  –  77,000  (64 bb)
Bin Weng  –  76,000  (63 bb)
Uri Kadosh  –  70,000  (58 bb)
Jake Schwartz  –  63,000  (53 bb)
Brian Altman  –  57,000  (48 bb)
Christian Harder  –  54,000  (45 bb)
Marc Sacheli  –  50,000  (42 bb)
Ryan Tosoc  –  40,000  (33 bb)
Stanley Lee  –  37,000  (31 bb)
Jim Collopy  –  28,000  (23 bb)
Jeremy Ausmus  –  26,000  (22 bb)
Esther Taylor  –  18,000  (15 bb)
Shaun Deeb  –  17,000  (14 bb)

$5,300 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 7:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Day 1A Entries:  514

$5,300 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 7:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Day 1A Entries:  505

All the cards were out on the table when Aleksandr Gofman got all in for 13,700 UTG+1 with in the hole, and the small blind had him covered holding .

The final board read , and Gofman doubled up to survive with just under 30,000 after the hand.

Aleksandr Gofman – 29,900 (29 bb)

2023 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 32
$2,700 Eight-Game Mix (Re-Entry)
Entries:  65
Prize Pool:  $159,250
August 3-4, 2023

Sam Sternfield was already in the running for best performance of the series with a victory and a runner-up finish, and on Friday afternoon, he added another trophy after he defeated David “ODB” Baker heads-up to win the $2,700 Eight-Game Mix.

It’s the second trophy for Sternfield, his 12th major Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood final table, and the biggest cash of his career.

“I’m feeling fantastic,” said Sternfield. “For me, the trophy is all that matters. I’ve worked so hard, and I’ve had so many near-misses that this really means a lot to me.”

Sternfield praised runner-up Baker, a top pro who has a WPT title, three WSOP bracelets, and more than $7 million in career earnings.

“I wasn’t a favorite if we were even in chips,” said Sternfield, “but I had the lead, and I was a little bit of a card rack.”

It was particularly meaningful for Sternfield to win the Eight-Game Mix.

“I love mixed games,” said Sternfield. “I love HORSE, but I think eight-game is a little bit better. You get a little bit more of a mixture, and it changes the strategy dramatically. It gives you a chance to double up when you’re short, while in limit it’s a little harder to get all in. I just really love this format. It’s one of my favorites, so this trophy means a lot to me.”

Sternfield plans to enter the SHRPO Championship on Day 1B tomorrow.

“I love the Seminole Hard Rock,” said Sternfield. “It’s my home casino, and I’ll always be back.”

Results:

$5,300 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 7:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Day 1A Entries:  498

After a series of raises preflop, James Calderaro shoved all in for 79,700 from the big blind, and UTG called all in against him. The two players then flipped over their cards.

Calderaro:
UTG:

Board:

UTG was eliminated on the hand, and Calderaro nearly doubled up to build his stack to 157,000.

James Calderaro – 157,000 (157 bb)

$5,300 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 7:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Day 1A Entries:  498

Shannon Shorr  –  180,000  (180 bb)
Elvis Toomas  –  150,000  (150 bb)
Ryan Julius  –  144,000  (144 bb)
Alex Foxen  –  130,000  (130 bb)
Eric Afriat  –  123,000  (123 bb)
Raffello Locatelli  –  99,000  (99 bb)
Denys Shafikov  –  93,000  (93 bb)
Dmitri Vorbe  –  90,000  (90 bb)
Mike Jozoff  –  80,000  (80 bb)
Joe Serock  –  79,000  (79 bb)
Natasha Mercier  –  70,000  (70 bb)
Scott Zakheim  –  65,000  (65 bb)
Matthew Waxman  –  47,000  (47 bb)
Adam Adler  –  45,000  (45 bb)
Nadya Magnus  –  40,000  (40 bb)
Faraz Jaka  –  37,000  (37 bb)
Pavel Plesuv  –  35,000  (35 bb)
Harrison Gimbel  –  29,000  (29 bb)
Kristen Foxen  –  24,000  (24 bb)

$5,300 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 7:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Day 1A Entries:  498

Paul Snead  –  195,000  (195 bb)
Juan Endara  – 143,000  (143 bb)
Fabian Gumz  –  135,000  (135 bb)
Sheddy Siddiqui  –  114,000  (114 bb)
Jerry Wong  –  112,000  (112 bb)
Josh Kay  –  100,000  (100 bb)
Joe McKeehen  –  88,000  (88 bb)
James Calderaro  –  72,000  (72 bb)
Asher Neaman  –  54,000  (54 bb)
Dylan Linde  –  51,000  (51 bb)
Phong Turbo Nguyen  –  44,000  (44 bb)
Daniel Rezaei  –  43,000  (43 bb)
Nick Guagenti  –  43,000  (43 bb)
Roberto Bendeck  –  35,000  (35 bb)
Ky Nguyen  –  34,000  (34 bb)
Jason Min  –  32,000  (32 bb)
Dan Heimiller  –  26,000  (26 bb)
Frank Lagodich  –  26,000  (26 bb)
Kitty Kuo  –  22,000  (22 bb)
David “ODB” Baker  –  15,000  (15 bb)

$5,300 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 7:  500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Day 1A Entries:  486

The players are back from dinner break, and the field size stands at 486 entries with two more levels remaining before registration closes at 9:15 pm.

2023 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 33
$2,200 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed
Entries:  227
Prizepool:  $454,000
August 3-4, 2023

On Friday afternoon, Mike Vanier outlasted a field of 227 entries to win the $2,200 Deep Stack event, earning $105,570 and his first major poker trophy.

“This is my first win other than a small local tournament,” said Vanier, “so it really feels good to get the monkey off my back.”

Vanier has been on a pretty great run for the past year or so, and it seemed like only a matter of time before he won a big event.

“I finally got over the hump last summer,” said Vanier, “and it seems like I’ve been making it to the final couple of tables in almost every tournament I’ve played, so it’s going good right now.”

Since last summer, Vanier has earned more than $1.4 million in live tournaments, with three top-three finishes in major events — WPT Venetian Las Vegas (2nd for $595,000), WPT Choctaw (3rd for $192,000), and the Aria Poker Classic (2nd for $392,704).

“Sometimes I just didn’t have a chance short-handed, and sometimes I just played awful,” said Vanier. “So I’ve been working on my short-handed game, and I got there this time.”

As for this event, with a lot of top pros showing up for the $5,300 SHRPO Championship that started today, a lot of them entered this event, which started yesterday.

“I was pretty shocked how tough the field was from beginning to end,” said Vanier.

Vanier started the final table third in chips, but got knocked down by a bad beat early when he had Luke Brereton all in preflop with pocket nines against Vanier’s pocket kings.

“I got kings in versus nines,” said Vanier, “but he flopped a nine on me.”

Vanier bounced back when he shoved into the of chipleader Ky Nguyen in the big blind.

“He flopped a flush draw, but I rivered a nine to win the pot and that pretty much gave me the chip lead again,” said Vanier. “Then I just applied pressure after that.”

Vanier scored the next knockout by eliminating Justin Zaki in seventh place to increase his lead, and he never looked back on his way to victory.

With his first trophy secured and the monkey off his back, you can expect to see Vanier take a seat in the SHRPO Championship.

“I don’t know if I’ll buy in today,” said Vanier. “I might just go relax, and then buy in as many times as needed to hopefully bag tomorrow.”

Results:

$5,300 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 6:  400/800 with a 800 ante
Day 1A Entries:  475

The players are taking a 90-minute dinner break. Play will resume at 7:00 pm, and registration will remain open until 9:15 pm tonight.

Mason Vieth holds the chip lead at the dinner break with 264,000, and some other notable stacks near the top include Durwood Murray (213,800), Shannon Shorr (183,000), Samuel Bernabeu (179,000), and Shawn Cunix (156,500).