Ryan Galpern Earns Six-Max Crown With First Tournament Win

2017 Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open 
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino 
Hollywood, Florida 
Event 8
$360 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em 
Entries: 60 
Prize Pool: $18,000 
November 21, 2017 

$360 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em Champion Ryan Galpern

When Ryan Galpern made unofficial final table of the $360 six-max no limit hold’em on Tuesday evening, he was telling other players at the table that this was his first final table and he had no interest of making any deals.

Galpern wanted to play to win and that’s what he did. He defeated the 60-entry field to take down his first-ever live tournament and won a Hard Rock trophy along with $6,480.

“I wanted to play for the win,” said Galpern. “I didn’t mind splitting the prize pool.”

Galpern doesn’t have an extensive tournament resume, but grinds $2/$5 no limit hold’em cash games fairly regularly. He works in real estate and dabbles in some other business development projects, but when he’s not there, you can usually find him at a poker table.

Playing this event was a spur of the moment decision for the Cooper City, Florida native. With a relatively small field, he decided it was worth it to take a shot.

“I just saw there were only going to be like 60 people in it, so I decided to take a shot,” said Galpern. “This was kind of a random thing. I mean, I’ve played it before, but I usually don’t run deep. I don’t want to say I never run deep, but I usually get right to the bubble and then bust.”

Unlike the other events, Galpern ran as deep as he possibly could on Tuesday. He came into the final table with the chip lead and never seemed to be in danger of busting.

The chip lead changed hands several times, but he was never the short stack until heads-up play with Thiago Costa. Costa started with the chip lead, but Galpern took it away from him on the third hand of heads-up play.

With his girlfriend on the rail supporting him the whole final table, Galpern finished off Thiago Costa and won his first title.

Final results:

1st: Ryan Galpern – $6,480
2nd: Thiago Costa – $3,807
3rd: Alexander Orlov – $2,385
4th: Miguel Marinez – $1,620
5th: Ron Ramacci – $1,260
6th: Timothy Cavallin – $990
7th: Gabriel Comeau – $810
8th: James Salmon III – $648