After a long grind, the special LHPO High Roller satellite reached its final table and they can really start focusing on the last two spots. Those two $25,500 LHPO High Roller seats.

Seat 1: Cesar Laborde
Seat 2: Yossi Ben Kessous
Seat 3: Alexander Poberezhsky
Seat 4: Shane Meenan
Seat 5: Alexander Esteve
Seat 6: Todorovic Nenad
Seat 7: Carlos Pereira
Seat 8: Shui Lian Tian
Seat 9: Dominic Catapano

Ann Mitchell, Jon Paul Mansour, Shannon Polk, Eli Eliyahu, Gholam Khazai, Timothy Green, Ahsan Rehman, Diego Calvino and Philip Sokolov made the last two tables but fell short of getting their seat.

Another break rolled around and tournament staff are pulling the grey 100 denom chips out of play.

We are down to 21 players with Philippe Derys, Stephen Ribeiro, Kirk Toney, Adrian Garcia-Saldana, Warrne Greenberg, and Craig Middleton as recent drop-outs.

We had some slow going before the first break but things picked up after they returned from another trip to the food area. The field eventually hit the last three and they are getting closer to a final table appearance.

Those getting in the game but falling short after the break were Alcides Gomez, Damian Felton, Douglas Meily, Rene Sanchez, Kenneth Fagiolo, Max Piep, and Nasem Sammout.

They put 80 minutes in the books for this special LHPO High Roller satellite and no one is any hurry to get frisky with deep stacks plus a two big prizes waiting at the end.

Only two players hit the rail (but first the food) when Francis Roberts and Roufael Saliba were eliminated. Roberts ran into a cooler with queens versus the kings of Yossi Ben Kessous.

Before the first card is dealt in the 2026 Lucky Hearts Poker Open, we are running a very special satellite this afternoon in the Poker Room.

Four different times throughout December, we splashed pots in the $1/$2 and $2/$5 No-Limit Hold’em cash games with seats into a LHPO High Roller satellite.

We gave out 36 spots in the satellite and those players compete today for a chance at one of two $25,500 LHPO High Roller seats for that big game on January 15.

They enjoyed a nice catered lunch at noon before getting things underway at 1 pm.

Here’s a look at our local cash game lineup who will be challenging each other for those seats:

Table 13
Seat 1: Philip Sokolov
Seat 2: Ann Mitchell
Seat 3: Shannon Polk
Seat 4: Gholam Khazai
Seat 5: Warren Greenberg
Seat 6: Todorovic Nenad
Seat 7: Nasem Sammour
Seat 8: Kirk Toney
Seat 9: Ayush Sood

Table 14
Seat 1: Eli Eliyahu
Seat 2: Stephen Ribeiro
Seat 3: Cesar Laborde
Seat 4: Adrian Garcia-Saldana
Seat 5: Douglas Meily
Seat 6: Alcides Gomez
Seat 7: Dominic Catapano
Seat 8: Carlos Pereira
Seat 9: Rene Sancez

Table 20
Seat 1: Shui Lian Tian
Seat 2: Damian Felton
Seat 3: Alexander Esteve
Seat 4: Craig Middleton
Seat 5: Roufael Saliba
Seat 6: Francis Roberts
Seat 7: Yossi Ben Kessous
Seat 8: Ahsan Rehman
Seat 9: Shane Meenan

Table 27
Seat 1: Diego Calvino
Seat 2: Alexander Poberezhsky
Seat 3: Armin Taheripour
Seat 4: Timothy Green
Seat 5: Debbroto Sarkar
Seat 6: Kenneth Fagioli
Seat 7: Max Piep
Seat 8: Jon Paul Mansour
Seat 9: Philippe Derys