$5,250 SHRPO Championship $3 Million Guaranteed | Payouts | Live Stream Level 29: 60,000/120,000 with a 20,000 ante Players Remaining: 5 of 887
Hand #151: Yi Chi Li raised to 250,000 preflop under the gun, and Matt Berkey called on the big blind. The flop was dealt , and Li bet 300,000. Berkey folded his cards.
Hand #152: Michael Aron raised to 240,000 on the cutoff, and Yi Chi Li called on the big blind. The two players then checked down a board dealt . Li showed , but Aron won the pot with in the hole.
Hand #153: Matt Berkey raised to 250,000 preflop on the button, and Dylan Drazen called on the big blind. The flop was dealt , and both players checked. The turn fell , Drazen bet 250,000, and Berkey called. The river delivered the , Drazen bet 600,000, and Berkey folded.
Hand #154: Matt Berkey raised to 250,000 preflop on the cutoff, and everyone else folded.
Hand #155: Michael Aron completed on the small blind, and Martin Kozlov checked on the big blind. The flop was dealt , Kozlov bet 225,000, and Aron check-called. Both players checked the on the turn, and the river delivered the . Aron bet 210,000, and Martin tanked before folding.
$5,250 SHRPO Championship $3 Million Guaranteed | Payouts | Live Stream Level 29: 60,000/120,000 with a 20,000 ante Players Remaining: 5 of 887
Hand #146: Martin Kozlov limped from the small blind, and Matt Berkey checked his option in the large blind.
The flop came down , Kovlev bet 120,000, and Berkey released his hand.
Hand #147: Dylan Drazen raised to 300,000 from under the gun, and Matt Berkey called from the small blind.
The flop came down , and Berkey check-called 400,000 from Drazen. The turn was the , and Berkey check-called 600,000 from Drazen. The river was the , and both players checked.
Berkey showed for queens and treys, but Drazen had it beat with for kings and treys.
$5,250 SHRPO Championship $3 Million Guaranteed | Payouts | Live Stream Level 29: 60,000/120,000 with a 20,000 ante Players Remaining: 5 of 887
Hand #141: Matt Berkey got a walk on his big blind.
Hand #142: Dylan Drazen raised to 300,000 preflop under the gun, and everyone else folded.
Hand #143: Michael Aron raised to 240,000 preflop under the gun, and Dylan Drazen called on the big blind. The flop was dealt , and Aron bet 200,000. Drazen folded his cards.
Hand #144: Martin Kozlov bet 250,000 preflop under the gun, and Yi Chi Li called on the button. Michael Aron (small blind) also called, so three players saw a flop dealt . Everyone checked through to the on the turn, and Kozlov opened the action with a bet of 460,000. Li tanked before calling, and Aron check-folded. The river delivered the , Li bet 950,000, and Kozlov tanked for a few minutes before check-folding.
Hand #145: Matt Berkey raised to 250,000 preflop under the gun, and everyone else folded.
2017 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood, FL $25,500 High Roller $2 Million Guaranteed Entries: 117 Prizepool: $2,925,000 August 14-15, 2017
John Andress
Late Monday evening, John Andress was on the direct money bubble in the $25,500 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open High Roller, with 17 players remaining and not even half a big blind in his stack.
Less than 24 hours later, he was sitting alone at the final table, posing for winner’s photos with the trophy.
Andress won the whole thing, claiming the $801,450 top prize along with the property’s token guitar pick award. The turnout was the largest in the four-year history of SHRPO High Roller events.
The champ is a 29-year-old professional poker player who makes his home in Berkley, California. He’s been playing poker for about 10 years, and although he primarily plays cash games, he claimed nearly $1 million in live tournament earnings entering this event.
He has more than that now. This result this evening is by far the largest of Andress career on the felt, and it brings him closer to two million than one.
Regarding his short-stacked situation on the bubble, Andress remarkably folded pocket jacks in the big blind after Matt Glantz had shoved from the small. Anthony Spinella was also short-stacked at the other table, and he had received a penalty which would have blinded him entirely out.
Andress chose to save his scant few chips in the big blind, and it turned out to be a prudent decision; Glantz showed him two queens.
The antes in the ensuing orbit chipped Andress down to just 11,000 chips as the bubble burst, and things turned around in a hurry.
“Two orbits later, I had 800,000,” he beamed. “I was just happy to be at the final table. Things went pretty well,” he said, understated.
When the final table began on Tuesday, Andress was in the middle of the pack. Everyone was chasing Mike Leah and Brandon Adams, who were well out in front of the other six. Adams dropped out in third place, though, leaving Leah heads-up against Andress with a huge chip lead.
The match was mostly one-sided in Andress’ favor, though. On the last hand, Leah limp-shoved with ace-jack, and Andress put him at risk with pocket eights. Five cards later, the two were shaking hands, with Leah headed for the cashier to collect his runner-up consolation prize.
While Andress was preparing for his postgame interview with a celebratory beer in his hand, Leah strolled by on his way out the door. “You just had it [every] time, huh?” he smiled.
“Most of the time,” Andress smiled back. “Not heads-up… but yeah. I did.”
John Andress
During the subsequent interview, Andress was complimentary of his last two opponents. “Mike is real tough, and Brandon was playing a lot of hands,” Andress said. “I had some good spots, and things went well when it mattered.”
With four final tables running concurrently in the arena, Andress won the biggest prize of the day at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood. “It’s great here,” he said. “The tournaments are good. It’s nice that everything is bang-bang-bang. You’re not stuck here for two weeks. You can come in, get some good action, and get out.”
Andress went on to talk about his heads-up experience, and how his time grinding six-max and heads-up matches prepared him well for this battle. There was certainly some run-good involved, though.
“I’m not taking anything away from Mike. He played great. But I definitely made some big hands, and all the spots went my way.”
Final results:
1st: John Andress − $801,450 2nd: Michael Leah − $561,600 3rd: Brandon Adams − $351,000 4th: Chris Hunichen − $242,775 5th: Tom Marchese − $155,025 6th: Omar Zazay − $114,075 7th: Chance Kornuth − $93,600 8th: Sam Panzica − $78,975 9th: Matt Glantz − $76,050 10th: Joseph Cheong − $73,125 11th: Alex Papazian − $70,200 12th: Jeff Gross − $67,275 13th: Rainer Kempe − $64,350 14th: Marvin Rettenmaier − $61,425 15th: Zachary Smiley − $58,500 16th: Anthony Spinella − $55,575
$5,250 SHRPO Championship $3 Million Guaranteed | Payouts | Live Stream Level 29: 60,000/120,000 with a 20,000 ante Players Remaining: 5 of 887
Hand #135: Yi Chi Li raised to 250,000 from the cutoff, Dylan Drazen three-bet to 750,000 from the button, and Li folded.
Hand #136: Dylan Drazen limped from the cutoff, Martin Kozlov limped from the small blind, and Matt Berkey checked from the big blind.
The flop came down , and action checked to Drazen who bet 175,000. Kozlov check-raised to 450,000, Berkey folded, Drazen reraised all in with a covering stack, and Kozlov folded.
$10,000 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $500,000 guaranteed | Payouts Level 14: 1,200/2,400/400 Players Remaining: 20 of 118
Erik Seidel eyes up Zach Smiley
Erik Seidel moved all in under the gun for 19,300 and Taylor Paur called a couple spots over. When action reached Zach Smiley in the small blind he three-bet all in over the top for 25,700 and Paur called.
Paur: Smiley: Seidel:
Smiley got it in with the best of it, and it held after the board ran out a clean .
Zach Smiley – 72,000 (30 bb) Taylor Paur – 100,000 (42 bb) Erik Seidel – Eliminated
board where Li bet 250,000. Berkey check-called, the 
river completed the board, and both players checked.
for a pair of jacks, Li mucked, and Berkey won the pot.
.
, and Li bet 300,000. Berkey folded his cards.
. Li showed 
in the hole.
, and both players checked. The turn fell 
, Drazen bet 600,000, and Berkey folded.
. Aron bet 210,000, and Martin tanked before folding.
, and Berkey check-called 600,000 from Drazen. The river was the 
, and both players checked.
for kings and treys.
, Kozlov checked, Berkey bet 275,000, and Kozlov folded.
, and Aron bet 200,000. Drazen folded his cards.
