$5,300 SHRPO Championship (Re-Entry) $3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 1: 100/200 with a 200 ante Day 1A Entries: 175
Ryan Van Sanford (left) and Dimitri Vorbe (right)
We have a lot of top players in the field early with some big results. But none but one (so far) today can claim to be a SHRPO Champion.
Dimitri Vorbe was here at the start of the day, back to defend the title he won in this room last year. The 2021 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship drew 1,180 entries and Vorbe topped them all to walk away with $929,365 plus the very big, very pretty Guitar Tower trophy.
$5,300 SHRPO Championship (Re-Entry) $3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 1: 100/200 with a 200 ante
The preliminary tournaments on the schedule have come and gone and today we present to you the headliner of the festival; the 2022 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship. Flight A of the $5,300 Championship gets underway at 11 am and features a huge $3,000,000 guarantee that will attract some of the top players in the game.
Players start with 40K stacks out front and all levels last 60 minutes until going up to 90 with 27 players remaining. Late registration is available until the start of Level 9 at 9:15 pm and players may re-enter a single time per day if they are eliminated. The opening flights will play 10 full levels and survivors will bag their chips for a Day 2 return on Sunday at noon.
Exciting times in the Grand Ballroom, we are ready.
$3,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Players begin with 40,000 in chips
Levels will last 60 minutes each until 27 players remain
2022 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Event 31 $600 Double Black Chip Bounty NLH (Re-Entry) Entries: 303 Prize Pool: $98,475 Bounty Prize Pool: $60,600 August 4, 2022
Event 31 of the 2022 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open was a $600 Double Black Chip Bounty No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) tournament. A field of 303 entries created a prize pool of $98,475, with an additional $60,600 set aside for bounties.
A three-way deal took place at the final table and as the chip leader, it was Rostyslav Huriak who was the official winner for$15,885.
2022 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Event 24 $25,500 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller (Re-Entry) Entries: 52 Prize Pool: $1,284,400 August 3-4, 2022
Event 24 Champion Melad Marji
Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood has run some very successful high roller events over the years, but this was the first time they ran one that wasn’t no-limit hold’em.
Event 24 was a $25,500 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, and the two-day event attracted 52 entries to create a total prizepool worth more than $1.2 million, proving the popularity of PLO among high-roller players.
After a seven-hour final table, Melad Marji defeated Michael Duek heads-up to win the title, the trophy, and $443,118.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Marji. “Absolutely nothing less than a dream come true. I worked hard for this.”
Day 1 ended when the Money Bubble burst, but it took two-and-a-half hours to knock out that last player of the day. So when the final eight returned on Thursday to play down to a winner, the blinds were relatively high, and the stacks relatively short.
That contributed to the first four players busting in the first 75 minutes or so, but then the final four battled for more than two hours before the next elimination. The pay jumps were substantial at this stage, with $122,018 for fourth place and $443,118 for first.
And there were plenty of ups and downs between the final four players.
“At one point, all of us in the final four had a turn to be the short stack,” said Marji. “So it was a wild ride for everybody. I just hung on, I did what I had to do, and I stayed focused.”
This is also part of the appeal of the seemingly chaotic game of PLO, which is Marji’s favorite version of poker.
“No-limit hold’em gets boring,” said Marji. “PLO has more action. Everybody likes it, because it’s a fun game to play. It’s more social. No-limit’s a little dry.”
Eventually, Marji knocked out fourth-place finisher Isaac Kempton when he flopped a straight to Kempton’s pocket kings, and it held up.
Then it was another two hours before Dom Mosley got it all in preflop against Michael Duek. Mosley flopped top pair, but Duek turned a set of jacks and rivered a full house to knock out Mosley in third place.
The lead continued to switch hands during heads-up play, with Marji starting with a good lead, but Duek catching some momentum early to move out in front. Marji won the next two all-in-situations to reclaim the lead, and he never lost the lead after that.
This is the second Seminole Hard Rock trophy for Marji, who won a $600 Pot Limit Omaha back in January during the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open.
“I just moved to Miami about a year and a half ago,” said Marji, “and it’s the best move I’ve ever made. I love everything about South Florida. I love the Seminole Hard Rock, and I love the people who play here. We’ve got superstars like Colby Covington that come in, and a lot of my friends that I’ve met here. I love this place.”
Marji plans to play in the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship, which starts tomorrow, though he said he will probably take a day off and enter Day 1B on Saturday.
At the end of his post-game interview from the biggest tournament score of his poker career, Marji highlighted friends and family.
“I had really good people in my corner that wanted to see me win,” said Marji, “and that meant a lot to me.”
Asked if there was anything else he’d like to add, Marji said, “I love my Mom. That’s what I’d like to add.”
Christina Hill in an earlier event during the 2022 SHRPO
Play resumes at 2 p.m. on Friday.
Seat 1: Gabe Ramos – 152,000 (9.5 big bets) Seat 2: Kai Hicks – 148,000 (9 big bets) Seat 3: Phil Hui – 170,000 (11 big bets) Seat 4: Filippos Stavrakis – 110,000 (7 big bets) Seat 5: Salah Levy – 126,000 (8 big bets) Seat 6: Christina Hill – 311,000 (19 big bets) Seat 7: Mark Hurst – 52,000 (3 big bets) Seat 8: Tony Cousineau – 265,000 (16 big bets) Seat 9: Dylan Smith – 138,000 (9 big bets)
, no help to Winter, ending his tournament on the money bubble.
board where Brewer bet 45,000. Kaverman called.
, Brewer bet 117,000 (leaving 5,000 behind) and Kaverman called after a few moments.
, while Kaverman tabled 
for queens and eights to win the pot.
, giving Aido tens and eights with an ace kicker to eliminate Brewer in sixth place.