2017 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino
Hollywood, FL
Event 21
$570 Turbo No Limit Hold’em
Entries: 61
Prize Pool: $30,500
April 1, 2017
Luckily for Sean Perry, you only need to be 18 to play poker in Florida.
At only 20 years old, Sean Perry earned his first career title by taking down the $300 no limit hold’em on Saturday night. He beat a field of 61 players to win $10,979 and what he hopes will be the first of many trophies.
“It feels really nice to to win one,” said Perry. “I’m new to the tournament scene. At most, I’ve played like 15 tournaments.”
As the son of poker pro Ralph Perry, Sean was exposed to the game at a very young age. He’ still not legal to play poker in his hometown of Las Vegas, but he’s already very skilled after spending his childhood watching his father play.
“I used to watch him play online all the time,” said Perry. “He’s kind of been like my coach. It’s pretty exciting.”
Living under the same roof as a professional poker player gave him some early life lessons about the cutthroat nature of the game.
“I remember when I was like 10 years old and playing him Chinese poker for like $20 a point,” said Perry. “And one time he beat me for like a thousand dollars. For my 10-year-old birthday, he gave me like a grand and I decided to put it on that. I lost it to him and he beat me. I cried for a few days and he wouldn’t give it back.”
Perry’s win comes on the heels of a runner-up finish to Joe McKeehen in the $2,200 eight-max no limit hold’em. He battled with some of the best players in the world throughout that field and at the final table eventually finishing second for more than $74,000.
This is Perry’s fourth cash of the series and he’s hoping for bigger things as the series nears an end.
“It’s awesome,” said Perry. “I’m coming out here and I’m doing pretty well. So, it gives me a lot more confidence, but now there is a $10,000 [buy-in] to go out and do well in. Let’s hope we are talking at the end of that. That would be pretty nice.
“It’s definitely a confidence boost, but at the same time, I’m very humbled because all of the people I’ve been playing against are very good players.”
The success comes at a good time for him as well. Up until about a month ago, Perry was a business major at Caifornia Polytechnic State University.
“I want to pursue poker and real estate, so I just left school,” said Perry.
Dropping out of school didn’t mean that Perry was a poor student. He was a business major, the President of a fraternity, and had nearly a perfect ACT score.
He just didn’t think college was useful for the life he planned to lead.
“For me, I didn’t feel school was pointless,” said Perry. “but I just didn’t think that school was essential in a sense to do what I needed to do. I didn’t want to waste my time when I could make money playing poker, make money in real estate and do my own thing.”
Perry’s mindset just wasn’t for college. He had no aspirations of working a normal nine to five job. He has more of a desire to create something for himself and achieve success outside of a cubicle.
“I was always the kind of guy that never planned on working for anyone,” said Perry. “Even my first year in school, I started this social media application and I started this site similar to AirBnb that basically you could sell homes. I was always kind of the one to do my own thing in a sense.”
His ultimate goals are to be successful in both poker and real estate so that he’ll never have to be anybody’s employee. With his dad a successful poker pro and his mother already in the real estate business, he’s got an inside track to being successful in both areas.
As far as the money he’s won this series thus far, he’s already got specific plans for it.
“After this, I’ll probably go back to Vegas and buy some real estate,” said Perry. “My mom is a big realtor, so I’ll go into real estate with her and play poker at the same time. Hopefully it works out.”
Results:
1st: Sean Perry – $10,979
2nd: Walter Treccarichi – $6,451
3rd: Hugh Cullen – $4,041
4th: Ian Pearson – $2,745
5th: Jeff Gross – $2,135
6th: Tam Ho – $1,678
7th: Sanjib Acharya – $1,373
8th: James Romero – $1,098