We’re seeing a steady stream of players hopping into the PLO tournament but there’s also more than a few players hitting the rail and/or re-entry desk. The early line had ~100 entries in today’s game and we’re on pace to top expectations.
Trenton Baker made his way down from Ohio for some WPTDeepStacks action and mixing it up in four-card poker beforehand. He has recent success at one of their tour events at one of our sister properties. Baker ran deep in the WPTDeepStack Immokalee and finish second for more than $40,000.
The PLO tournament is filling up and we have 50 entries in the game in the first hour with more than three hours to register.
Rafael Indriago knows a little bit about Pot Limit Omaha. He won his first career title during the 2016 Coco Poker Open in the PLO game and followed that up with a second-place finish two days later. Both results were good enough to propel him to the top of Player of the Series leaderboard.
$360 Eight-Handed Pot Limit Omaha (Re-Entry) Level 1: 25/50
The first week of the 2017 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open is set to close as we prepare to kick off the WPTDeepStacks Main Event tomorrow. A lot of the ballroom will be playing Main Event satellites but we will also be running the first four-card game of the series.
Event 5 is a $360 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha game that will be played semi-short-handed for the duration. Eight-handed, four hole cards, unlimited re-entries for four hours. This will be a fun tournament for people who love their PLO.
Each entrant will sit down to a 10,000 starting stack and the tournament will run 30-minute levels from start to finish. Late registration and unlimited re-entries are available until the start of Level 9 at 4:30pm. A 40-minute dinner break is scheduled at 6:30pm and they will play down to a winner when they return.
Cards fly at noon and we’ll be keeping an eye on them all day long.
Players begin with 10,000 in chips and 30-minute levels
Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
This is a one-day tournament and plays until completion
2017 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, FL Event 1 $360 Ultimate Re-Entry No Limit Hold’em Entries: 4,756 Prize Pool: $1,426,800 January 12 – 17, 2016
Jerry Wong, 2017 Ultimate Re-Entry Champion
The 2017 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open kicked off the schedule with a huge multi-day tournament that drew one of the biggest fields in state history. The event saw 4,756 entries get in the game and they all dropped to the side as local favorite, 2016 WSOP November Niner Jerry Wong outlasted them all to collect the title along with $250,000.
In 2016, the inaugural run of the Ultimate Re-Entry tournament drew 4,075 entries to create the biggest tournament field in Florida poker history. That record was surpassed during the first 2016 Seminole Hard Rock “Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open” event and the 2017 Ultimate Re-Entry is now the second biggest.
The $360 buy-in tournament had a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool and the huge turnout pushed the prize money over $1.4 million when registration was officially closed with more than $250,000 reserved to the top spot.
The unique format of this tournament allowed players to enter as many opening flights as they wished and collect a multi-stack payout if they were able to advance more than one stack on to Day 2. The smallest stacks would be paid $2,500 with the biggest stack going into play. Each of the eight opening flights played down to 10% of the field to put everyone in the money at the start of Day 2.
Zack Milchman was the biggest winner in the multi-stack payout category. He managed to make the money in an incredible five of eight flights to put $10,000 in his pocket before playing a hand on Day 2. All told, 88 multi-stack payouts were awarded and 387 players returned for Day 2 on Monday.
Casey Carroll was the chip leader at the start of Day 2 but he did not play a role in the latter parts of the tournament. Since everyone was already in the money, the action moved along at a brisk clip and the field dropped under 100 before their dinner break.
A full day of action wasn’t enough to determine a champion on Monday and 22 players returned on Tuesday for some bonus poker with Fabio Pereira leading the way against a talented group that included Wong, Jake Schwartz, Victor Figueroa, Evan Teitelbaum, Nancy Thomas, Marcus Stein, Steven McKoy, and Seminole Hard Rock Poker team member Michael Laake.
The stacks were deep and it took three hours to whittle those 22 players down to the final table. Figueroa and Laake were the two big stacks at the start of the final table but that is when Wong began his great run.
Players dropped left and right while Wong continued to pile up the chips. After Christopher Arcidiacono was eliminated in fifth place, Wong held 42 of the 66 million chips in play and the last four players decided to divide up the remaining prize money with the lion’s share going to Wong as the champion.
“Everyone did what was in their best financial interest, and we reached a deal,” Wong stated afterward.
This is the third biggest score for Wong. He earned $1.1 million for his eighth place finish in the 2016 WSOP Main Event and $725,000 for a third place results in the 2013 PCA Main Event.
“After the (WSOP) Main Event, this is the largest field I’ve been deep in,” Wong said.
“I didn’t win that one, but it feels good to win this one,” he continued. “I played with some pretty tough players and had a nice run of cards, especially after the dinner break.”
Final table results:
1st: Jerry Wong – $250,000 2nd: Nancy Thomas – $104,113 3rd: Victor Figueroa – $103,826 4th: Steven McKoy – $91,241 5th: Christopher Arcidiacono – $45,765 6th: Michael Laake – $34,830 7th: Fabio Pereira – $26,730 8th: Jose De La Cruz – $19,440 9th: Gal Erlichman – $13,770
2017 Lucky Hearts Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Event 4 $570 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em (Single Re-Entry) Total Entries: 165 Prize Pool: $82,500 January 17, 2017
Event 4 Champion Soheb Porandarwala
Hollywood, Fla. (January 17, 2017) – Event 4 of the 2017 Lucky Hearts Poker Open, a $570 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em (Single Re-Entry) , drew a field of 165 entries and generated a prize pool of $82,500. After about 10 hours of play, a deal was reached between the final five players. Soheb Porandarwala was the big chip leader entering the final table and was still on top of the counts when numbers were agreed upon, giving him the officially victory.
Residing in Norwalk, Connecticut, the 26-year-old father of 2 has now amassed more than $360,000 is career tournament winnings. This was only Porandarwala’s second trip to the Seminole Hard Rock, as he prefers to play locally in the northeast.
“I don’t travel much for poker. I guess that’s kind of an anomaly these days, but I wanted to be somewhere warmer than back home,” said Porandarwala. “My family and I were in India recently, and my wife and kids are still there. I didn’t really want to go back to Connecticut without them, so I figured I would come here and visit some friends. I knew the series was going on, so I figured I would play in a few events.”
That decision certainly paid off with his victory tonight, and he’ll be back at it tomorrow in Event 5.
“I’ll play in the Pot-Limit Omaha (Event 5) tomorrow and try to go back to back, and I’ll also play the Main Event. Then my family will be returning from India and I’ll be back home with them.”
$360 Ultimate Re-Entry No Limit Hold’em Level 34: 250,000/500,000 with a 75,000 ante Players Remaining: 4 of 4,756 Average Stack: 16,500,000 (33 bb)
With Jerry Wong holding 42 of the 66 million chips in play, the four remaining players took some time to discuss a deal to chop up the remaining prize money.
Wong locked up $250,000 with his huge advantage while Nancy Thomas, Victor Figueroa, and Steven McKoy worked how to divide up the remaining money. Thomas officially took second place followed by Figueroa and McKoy.
Seat 2: Victor Figueroa – 8,925,000 (17 bb) Seat 3: Steven McKoy – 5,900,000 (11 bb) Seat 4: Jerry Wong – 42,150,000 (80 bb) Seat 6: Nancy Thomas – 9,000,000 (18 bb)
1st: Jerry Wong – $250,000 2nd: Nancy Thomas – $104,113 3rd: Victor Figueroa – $103,826 4th: Steven McKoy – $91,241
$360 Ultimate Re-Entry No Limit Hold’em Level 33: 200,000/400,000 with a 50,000 ante Players Remaining: 4 of 4,756 Average Stack: 16,500,000 (41 bb)
Steven McKoy
Steven McKoy opened to 800,000 from under the gun. Nancy Thomas and Victor Figueroa called in the blinds to see the flop. Thomas moved all-in, Figueroa folded, and McKoy quickly called for his final 4,650,000.
McKoy: Thomas:
McKoy was dominating with his monster over-pair against Thomas’ flopped top pair. He doubled up after the turn and river to swap spots with Thomas.
Steven McKoy – 11,900,000 (30 bb) Nancy Thomas – 5,100,000 (13 bb)
flop. Thomas moved all-in, Figueroa folded, and McKoy quickly called for his final 4,650,000.
turn and 
river to swap spots with Thomas.
