Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 2: 100/200/25 Ante
We weren’t sure whether he would make it, but we found defending champion Dan Colman sitting in the expanded tournament room.
Colman won the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop event in the summer of 2014 and rode that into last year’s Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open. He stayed hot to beat Mike Leah along with nearly 1,500 other players to capture the Championship and put another $1.4 million in his bankroll.
Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 1: 75/150/25 Ante
There’s no shortage of successful poker players in the field with WSOP bracelet winners, WPT champs, and a few Players of the Year for various tours sitting in the ballroom.
Two players in the Championship had their time on the biggest stage in poker. Jonathan Duhamel and Joe Cada are two of the WSOP Main Event winners here today and we know a couple more are on their way.
They won their WSOP titles in back-to-back years with each taking home more than $8 million. Duhamel followed up his Main Event win with another bracelet this summer in the $111,111 One Drop High Roller while Cada picked up his second in 2014.
Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 1: 75/150/25 Ante
Players try to confuse their opponents with fake tells, long tanks, and changing up their moves while waiting for the cameras to show up.
Hollywooding
We have two players in early action that have a little more skill at acting than the rest of the field.
Mekhi Phifer is best known for his role in the television series ER or his spot in Eminem’s movie 8-Mile. He also plays poker when given the opportunity. Phifer flew into town yesterday and had some fun at the Charity Series of Poker event before getting down to serious business today.
Sasha Barrese is usually recognized for her role in the Hangover movie trilogy but that is changing. She’s taken a break from working in front of the camera to raise her twin sons and play some poker if she has down time.
Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 1: 75/150/25 Ante
Players grabbed their seats and new Tournament Director Tony Burns kicked off his first week on the job by doing the “shuffle up and deal” command.
We are off and running in the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship.
Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship (Freeze-Out)
Level 1: 75/150/25 Ante
After two weeks of action and 20 major tournaments, it’s time for the biggest event on the schedule. The 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open is about to get underway and players are waiting to push through the doors.
The Championship features a $5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool for the $5,250 buy-in with no re-entries allowed. Players will start with 30,000 stacks and play hour-long levels throughout the day. Late registration is open until the start of Level 9, approximately 7:45pm, when they’ll close the books on the Championship and we’ll know how many players jumped in the game.
“Shuffle up and deal” is scheduled for noon and the Championship will be underway.
2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Charity Series of Poker $300 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
August 14th, 2015
Total Entries: 232
Total Prize Pool: $64,960
Event 20 Champion David Somers
The Charity Series of Poker event welcomed a record-breaking field of 232 players to the Seminole Hard Rock on Friday, August 14th and the tournament raised over $33,000 for the Habitat for Humanity charity. A collection of celebrities and the biggest stars in poker came out to have some fun and give back to charity. The contestants included actors Sasha Barrese, Mekhi Pfiffer, Omar Benson Miller, and Jennifer Tilly; as well as poker players Scotty Nguyen, Phil Laak, Will Failla, and the brainchild of the CSOP Matt Stout.
A cocktail party preceded the tournament at the L Bar, so the players were all in a good mood when cards got into the air at 7 p.m. The atmosphere was a lot of fun during the early, crazy stages of the event, and many players re-entered multiple times to help pump up the prize pool for charity. The final table of ten players was reached shortly before midnight, and then play got a little more serious despite the quickly escalating blind levels.
David Somers doubled up right before the final table began when he hit runner-runner kings with pocket queens in the hole on a K-9-4-K-K board. His opponent, Ashwin Sarin, held pocket fours, and that king on the river proved to be a pivotal card in the tournament.
Somers went on a rush at the final table as notables Jessica Dawley (7th place), Eddy Sabat (6th place), and Ken Aldridge (3rd place) were eliminated. Somers scored another fortuitous double up when his 
found an ace on the river of a board dealt 
to top the pocket deuces held by Nick Yunis, who was the winner of last year’s charity event.
A few hands later it was all over. Yunis moved all in preflop for 625,000 and Somers called. The last two players then tabled their hands.
Somers: 
Yunis: 
Board: 
Yunis was eliminated on the hand in second place, good for $5,652, and he made a valiant effort to defend his title after winning this tournament one year ago. Somers won the CSOP event, and the 19-year-old took home $9,743 in addition to a seat in the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event. Somers celebrated his tournament victory with CSOP founder Matt Stout after the win. The two grew up together in the same hometown.
After the tournament Somers was asked about his deep run in the tournament. “I came in a little above average at the final table. And then I just started playing standard strategy because the hands started coming. I got queens, kings, I was winning flips, I flopped a set with threes against kings. You gotta run good and I got lucky tonight.” He also offered his thoughts about the fun atmosphere of the tournament. “I’m a 19-year-old kid trying to make a name for myself and I was sitting around with Scotty Nguyen, Jennifer Tilly, and Phil Laak. It was a great atmoshpere. The cocktail hour before the tournament was a lot of fun too.” Somers was also happy to give back to charity. “I went to a Jesuit high school and now I go to a Jesuit college, and they really stress the importance of being men and women for others. So being able to give a few bucks to help out folks who aren’t as fortunate as I am is a great thing,” said Somers.
Congratulations to our Event 20 Champion – David Somers!
1st: David Somers – $9,743
2nd: Nick Yunis – $5,652
3rd: Ken Aldridge – $3,670
4th: Tom Thomas – $2,371
5th: Ashwin Sarin – $1,721
6th: Eddy Sabat – $1,462
7th: Jessica Dawley – $1,072
8th: William “Vito” Sturiano – $780
9th: Paul Hoover – $747
10th: Chris Weber – $682
In addition to the prize money listed above, the final table players in the CSOP event received these prizes from the Seminole Hard Rock.
1st Place: Seat into the $5,250 buy-in, $5 Million Guarantee Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship
2nd Place: Hard Rock Punta Cana 6 Night Poker Package – 6 nights at Hard Rock Punta Cana double occupancy. One Punta Cana Poker Classic Main Event Entry. Round trip transport to and from Punta Cana International Airport. Unlimited premium food and beverage (all-inclusive system). 24 hour premium room service. Event gift bag. $1,500 in Resorts Credits to be used towards spa, gold, tours and other activities. $1,000 travel money.
3rd Place: Hard Rock Resort Package (USA) – $2,000 trip to USA Hard Rock property plus $1,000 travel money.
4th Place: Quarterbacks of the Century Signed Jersey
5th Place: John Elway Signed Jersey
6th Place: Dan Marino Signed Jersey
7th Place: Hard Rock Goodie Bag – Samsonite Luggage (4 piece). Panasonic underwater camera. Candle Shaving Kit. Gucci Men’s Card Case. Hard Rock Leather Duffel.
8th Place: Florida Hard Rock Dinner and 1 Night Stay plus Slash Autographed Guitar – $500 guitar value and $325 value on hotel and dinner. Redeemable at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood or Tampa.
9th Place: Hard Rock Goodie Bag – Hard Rock Leather Duffel. Gucci Men’s Card Case. Panasonic underwater camera. Jawbone Jambox. Klipsch earbuds.
10th Place: Florida Hard Rock Dinner and 1 Night Stay plus Penn & Teller Autographed Guitar – $265 guitar value and $325 value on hotel and dinner. Redeemable at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood or Tampa.
2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
$1,100 Turbo No Limit Hold’em (Freeze-Out)
August 14, 2015
Total Entries: 164
Total Prize Pool: $164,000
You’d have to forgive the rest of the field if they didn’t recognize Australian WSOP bracelet winner Andrew Hinrichsen. But after an outstanding perfomance over an all-star final table, they won’t forget him any time soon after he took down the Event 19 title.
As the field quickly thinned through the fifteen minute blind levels, it was becoming readily apparent that this was going to end up being a superb group reaching this final table. Big name players like 2010 WSOP Main Event Champion Jonathan Duhuamel, Xuan Liu, David Peters, Keven Stammen, Michael Wang and Ian O’Hara all didn’t make the cut but plenty of recognizable faces were still standing.
Harrison Gimbel was the first to fall in 9th place and Hinrichsen started his upward climb taking out Anthony Spinella in 8th. Ari Engel then also started to pile up chips as he sent another top name, Tyler Patterson, out in seventh place. Then Darryll Fish got into the act taking out David DiBernardi in sixth. In the meantime, Ryan Tepen has also began to chip up setting himself up for the rest of the final table.
Then after Engel took out Stuart Patterson in 5th, the most critical hand of the final table took place as Engel called an all-in from Hinrichsen. Engel showed 
but Hinrichsen had 
to have him dominated. Hinrichsen’s hand held up sending Engel’s huge stack over to the other side of the table and Engel out in fourth. Hinrichsen then raked in Darryll Fish’s short stack leaving him heads-up with Ryan Tepen and holding a 2:1 chip lead.
Hinrichsen then seemed to have all the answers once again only losing small pots and keeping constant pressure on Tepen. Finally, Tepen went all-in with king-eight and Hinrichsen called with pocket fives. His hand held up and Hinrichsen had brought home a Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in his first trip here to Hollywood.
Hinrichsen looked back on his run through this amazing group of players. “I think I was actually thankful it was a turbo. There’s a lot less mistakes you can make if you can play well pre-flop so I knew I wouldn’t be put in many bad spots. Just being on the right side of those big hands was just pure luck. No one really made a mistake in those spots – I would just wake up with a big hand. ”
He was also feeling excited about taking home a Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open title. “Pretty good about that. I’m pretty exhausted but really happy to win a trophy. I can’t complain, can I?”
Congratulations to our Event 19 Champion – Andrew Hinrichsen!
1st: Andrew Hinrichsen (Melbourne, Australia – $49,200
2nd: Ryan Tepen (Chesterfield, MO) – $27,060
3rd: Darryll Fish (Cape Coral, FL) – $15,580
4th: Ari Engel (Brooklyn, NY) – $13,120
5th: Stuart Patterson (Boca Raton, FL) – $9,840
6th: David DiBernardi (Youngstown, OH) – $8,200
7th: Tyler Patterson (Everett, WA) – $6,560
8th: Anthony Spinella (Waxhaw, NC) – $4,920
9th: Harrison Gimbel (Jupiter, FL) – $3,690
2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Charity Series of Poker $300 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Nick Yunis moved all in preflop for 625,000 and David Somers (pictured above) called. The last two players then tabled their hands.
Somers:
Yunis:
Board:
Yunis (pictured below) was eliminated on the hand in second place, good for $5,652. It should be noted that he made a valiant effort to defend his title after winning this tournament one year ago. David Somers wins the Charity Series of Poker event, and the 19-year-old took home $9,743 in addition to a seat in the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event.
The hand brought a fun night here at the Seminole Hard Rock to a close. There was a record field of 232 players, and more than $32,000 was raised for the Habitat For Humanity charity. A recap of the event and an interview with CSOP founder Matt Stout will be posted early tomorrow.
2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Charity Series of Poker $330 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Ken Aldridge was all in preflop with 
in the hole and Nick Yunis called holding 
. The board was dealt 
and Aldridge was eliminated in third place, good for $3,670 in prize money.
2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Charity Series of Poker $330 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Here is a look at the final table results so far. Seven players remain in the hunt for the CSOP tournament title.
4th: Tom Thomas – $2,371
5th: Ashwin Sarin – $1,721
6th: Eddy Sabat – $1,462
7th: Jessica Dawley – $1,072