Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood
Event #25
$150 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Total Entries: 625
Prize Pool: $75,000 

With the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown winding down, Vanessa Wang won her first tournament of her poker career on Wednesday night.

She took down the $150 No Limit Hold’em in a heads-up chop with Billy Haworth for $16,118. She had more chips at the time of the deal, so she takes credit for the win and takes home the trophy.

With only about a year of experience in poker tournaments, Wang is new to the tournament scene. While she is happy about her win, she knows that she has plenty of room to improve if she wants to continue to succeed.

“It feels really good,” said Wang after her win. “I know I can do it if I try hard enough. I should’ve done better in the main event, but I will try to do better in the future. I need more experience because a lot of times I lose my patience.”

This is her second cash of the series after finishing 76th for $6,856 in the $3,500 WPT Main Event. She also netted a cash in the WPTDeepStacks main event here at the Seminole Hard Rock during the Lucky Hearts Poker Open.

Wang immigrated to the South Florida area two years ago from China and has enjoyed her time in the area.

“I make jewelry and play tennis and golf and enjoy life,” said Wang.

The Beijing native is a self-described homemaker, but is in the midst of starting her own jewelry business. She is in the process of creating a web site to sell the jewelry she makes and has a few vendors interested in selling her product.

From the start of the day, Wang seemingly dominated the tournament. She came into the final table with the chip lead and never was short on chips. She navigated her way to a heads-up battle with Billy Haworth. After a short battle, they decided to chop up the prize pool evenly between them.

Here is a look at the results:

1st: Vanessa Wang – $16,118
2nd: Billy Haworth – $16,117
3rd: Anibal Rodriguez – $7,875
4th: Hector Chevalier – $5,438
5th: Edgardo Rosario – $4,013
6th: John Cummings – $3,188
7th: Paul Tong – $2,438
8th: Chien Chiu – $1,763
9th: Wally Maddah – $1,275
10th: Scott Cowan – $975
11th: Dustin Tragethon – $975
12th: Albert Green – $975
13th: Guillaume Darcourt – $788
14th: Martin Robbins – $788
15th: Vincent Ortega Delgado – $788
16th: Barry Gallo – $675
17th: Jorge Chavez – $675
18th: Michael Benko – $675
19th: Irvin Block – $563
20th: Edina Pantinchin – $563
21st: Eli Levy – $563
22nd Luis Bueno – $563
23rd: Stephen Harris – $563
24th: Luiz De Farias Guimares – $563
25th: Colby Covington – $563
26th: Evan Lash – $563
27th: Corey Hochman – $563
28th: Stephane Keyser – $488
29th: Paul Prager – $488
30th: Julia Bindelglass $488
31st: Artur Chimchirian – $488
32nd: Julio Fernandez – $488
33rd: Gabriel Baffigi Mezzotero – $488
34th: Lawrence Edwards – $488
35th: Williaredward Stanton – $488
36th: Gianmaco Gaspare – $488

Event 25 Final Results

$150 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Level 23: 10,000/20,000 with a 3,000 ante
Players Remaining: 10 of 625

The field has been trimmed down to the final 10 players and they have re-drawn for seats at the unofficial final table of 10.

Xiaoyan Wang is leading the final table with 1,496,000 in chips. Everybody is guaranteed a cash of at least $975, but first place is worth $20,237. Here is a look at the seating arrangement and chip counts:

Seat 1: Paul Tong – 1,001,000
Seat 2: Hector Chevalier – 1,186,000
Seat 3: Wally Maddah – 280,000
Seat 4: Billy Haworth – 448,000
Seat 5: Xiaoyan Wang – 1,496,000
Seat 6: Anibal Rodriguez – 265,000
Seat 7: Scott Cowan – 252,000
Seat 8: Edgardo Rosario – 493,000
Seat 9: Chien Chiu – 201,000
Seat 10: John Cummings – 590,000

Here is a look at the remaining payouts:

1st: $20,237
2nd: $12,000
3rd: $7,875
4th: $5,438
5th: $4,013
6th: $3,188
7th: $2,438
8th: $1,763
9th: $1,275
10th: $975

$150 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Level 19: 4,000/8,000 with a 1,000 ante
Players Remaining: 37 of 625

The player in the big blind was all in for 3,000 and four players took a flop of . Edgardo Rosario bet 10,000 from under-the-gun and a player in late position called.

The rest of the hand was checked down as the board was completed with the and the .

Rosario showed , and dragged the pot against the all in player’s and the late position player’s . Rosario dragged the pot, burst the bubble and there is a slight break in the action as they break a table and the final 36 are all in the money.

Rosario is one of the biggest stacks remaining after dragging the pot and everybody remaining is guaranteed at least $488.

Edgardo Rosario – 440,000

$150 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Level 18: 3,000/6,000 with a 1,000 ante
Players Remaining: 37 of 625

Hand-for-hand play is still in progress with Xiaoyan Wang leading the final 37 players as they come back from a 15-minute break. Wang sits atop the counts with 445,000 in chips. Eli Levy is her closest competitor with about 380,000.

$150 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Level 17: 2,500/5,000 with a 500 ante
Players Remaining: 37 of 625

Hand-for-hand play is currently in progress with the final 37 players remaining. Only 36 players can earn a cash, however, and when one more player busts, everybody remaining is guaranteed at least $488.

$150 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Returning to Level 15: 1,500/3,000 with a 500 ante
Players Remaining: 67 of 625
Average Stack: 93,000 (31 big blinds)

Event 25 was the last big field, multi-day open tournament on the schedule and it drew 625 entrants over two starting flights. Only 67 were able to make it through to the end of the night and they return this afternoon to play down to the champion.

The first order of business is getting them into the money. Only 36 of them will earn a piece of the $75,000 prize pool and they should get there in the early afternoon.

There are plenty of tough names still in the running including Eli Levy, three-time WSOP Circuit winner Nancy Birnbaum, and Seminole Hard Rock Tampa ambassador Wally Maddah.

They’ll get underway at the top of the hour and we’ll pick up the action as they near the money bubble.

Top ten returning counts:

Paul Tong – 366,300 (122 bb)
Julio Fernandez – 290,400 (97 bb)
Chein Chiu – 244,500 (82 bb)
Andrea Kaiser – 230,700 (77 bb)
Raminder Singh – 205,100 (68 bb)
John Cummings – 205,000 (68 bb)
Xiaoyan Wang – 199,000 (66 bb)
Vasile Schita – 179,900 (60 bb)
Dustin Tragethon – 170,000 (57 bb)
Hector Chevalier – 167,700 (56 bb)

$150 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Returning to Level 15: 1,500/3,000 with a 500 ante
Players Remaining: 67 of 625

$150 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Returning to Level 15: 1,500/3,000 with a 500 ante
Players Remaining: 67 of 625

$150 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Level 14: 1,200/2,400 with a 400 ante
Players Remaining: 40 of 353

The second of two starting flights in the $150 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry event is in the books and Paul Tong bagged the chip lead in both Day 1B and the overall tournament.

There were 353 players that made their way to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino for Day 1B of the event. Combined with the players from Day 1A, it made for a total field size of 625 and a prizepool of $75,000, which blew away the $50,000 guarantee.

The tournament ended with just over 21 minutes left in level 14 since that was where Day 1A ended and the aforementioned Tong led the 40 survivors of the day. Tong Finished the day with 366,300 and is the only player remaining in the tournament with more than 300,000. Julio Fernandez bagged 290,400 on 1B and sits second in the overall chip counts.

Chien Chiu was the chip leader from 1A and sits in third chip position with 244,500. Andrea Kaiser rounded out the top four counts with 230,700.

The 40 players that survived 1B will merge with the 27 players that made it through 1A to play down to a winner on Wednesday at 2 p.m.

Here is a look at the chip counts from 1B. Combined chip counts will be posted overnight.

Paul Tong – 366,300
Julio Fernandez – 290,400
Andrea Kaiser – 230,700
Raminder Singh – 205,100
Dustin Tragethon – 170,000
Scott Strickland – 159,800
Julian Gallo – 154,000
Colby Covington – 148,000
Nancy Birnbaum – 144,300
Stephen Harris – 139,000
Luis Bueno – 129,000
Paul Prager – 128,300
Evan Cash – 112,600
Robert Valentine – 93,300
Eli Levy – 90,400
Billy Haworth – 75,900
Irwin Block – 71,700
Sergei Kirkunov – 70,600
Melissa Singh – 66,000
Vincent Ortega – 60,000
Emmanuel – Santos – 58,400
Den Kim – 53,700
James Caughlin – 51,500
Cesar Fuentes – 50,000
Luiz G. – 49,600
Rajiv Maragh – 49,500
Bryce Phuong – 48,400
Stephanie Keyser – 46,700
Lawrence Edwards – 45,800
Gabriel Mezzotero – 44,500
Trevor Coleman – 39,200
DJ MacKinnon – 34,600
Marla Crumpler – 31,500
Jason Sugarman – 30,700
Didier Hirigoyen – 30,200
Michael Benko – 26,600
Wally Maddah – 23,600
Mohammed Alenezi – 23,000
Nathan Adler – 22,400
Jordan Chizick – 19,300

$150 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry
Level 13: 1,000/2,000 with a 300 ante
Total Entries: 625

Registration is now closed for Event 25. Yesterday’s Day 1A drew 272 entries, and another 353 joined today to bring the total field to 625 entries. That generated a prizepool worth $75,000 to be shared by the final 36 players thusly:

1st: $20,237
2nd: $12,000
3rd: $7,875
4th: $5,438
5th: $4,013
6th: $3,188
7th: $2,438
8th: $1,763
9th: $1,275
10th-12th: $975
13th-15th: $788
16th-18th: $675
19th-27th: $563
28th-36th: $488