2018 Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino 
Hollywood, Florida
Event 13
$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Entries: 232
Prize Pool: $225,040
January 17, 2018

Event 13 of the 2018 Lucky Hearts Poker Open was an $1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) tournament. A total of 232 entries generated a prize pool of $225,040, more than doubling the $100,000 guarantee. The final table produced several of poker’s best, and in the end it was down to Loni Harwood and Ari Engel. The two accomplished professionals agreed to a deal and as chip leader, Engel was officially declared the winner.

“Chopping with Loni, who’s a friend, is really cool,” Engel said afterward. “We’ve been playing for so long together, so it’s always fun to both do really well.”

Engel is no stranger to winning poker tournaments. In fact, this marks his 24th official live tournament win according to Hendon Mob, and his second at the Seminole Hard Rock.

He scored the elimination on the money bubble to propel the remaining 29 players into the money, won a crucial hand with pocket aces to seize a hefty chip lead, and began the final table on top of the chip counts.

“I came into the final table with a huge chip lead, and usually, I mess those up. So it’s cool not to mess it up this time.”

Still, It was a tumultuous final table for Engel, one that saw him go from chip leader to the short stack with five players remaining. However, he battled back to retake the chip lead, thanks to a dramatic hand in which the odds of winning outright were less than 6%.

“I can’t believe I beat ace-king with ace-king, and also earlier in the tournament king-jack against king-jack. Earlier this week I also won with ace-king against ace-king suited, so that’s three times this week against the same hand that I won.”

For Engel, the victory pushes him above the $5.3 million mark in career live poker tournament winnings.

“I don’t even know what’s happening, I’m just running amazing. It’s ridiculous.”

Results 
1st: Ari Engel – $45,688*
2nd: Loni Harwood – $44,582*
3rd: John Richards – $23,067
4th: Haim Toorgeman – $14,031
5th: Michael Pearson – $10,836
6th: Kelly Minkin – $8,979
7th: Paul Balzano – $7,651
8th: Maria Ho – $6,526
9th: Jeremy Ausmus – $5,304
10th: David Finkelstein – $4,631
11th: Ira Schwartz – $4,631
12th: Scott Efron -$4,631
13th: Stephen Song – $3,972
14th: Jake Bazeley – $3,972
15th: Eduardo Christ – $3,972
16th: Tajesh Patel – $3,313
17th: Philipp Kampf – $3,313
18th: Vladislav Varlashin – $3,313
19th: Jeffrey Soffer – $2,653
20th: Arunas Sapitavicius – $2,653
21st: Dylan Linde – $2,653
22nd: Darren Rabinowitz – $2,082
23rd: Ryan McKnight – $2,082
24th: Roland Israelashvili – $2,082
25th: Kenneth Slater – $1,771
26th: Aaron Massey – $1,771
27th: Almedin Imsirovic – $1,771
28th: Shea Smith – $1,555
29th: Bienvenido Santiago – $1,555

*denotes heads-up deal

$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 26: 15,000/30,000 with a 5,000 ante
Players Remaining: 2 of 232

Ari Engel and Loni Harwood agreed to an ICM deal before heads-up play began.

Here were the chip counts:

Ari Engel – 1,490,000 (50 bb)
Loni Harwood – 1,295,000 (43 bb)

As chip leader, Engel is officially the winner of Event 13 of the 2018 Lucky Hearts Poker Open.

Here were their payouts:

Ari Engel – $45,688
Loni Harwood – $44,582

A recap of the tournament will be posted later tonight.

$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 26: 15,000/30,000 with a 5,000 ante
Players Remaining: 2 of 232

John Richards raised to 65,000 from the button, Loni Harwood reraised all in from the small blind for about 650,000, Ari Engel folded his big blind, and Richards tanked for a bit before he called all in for roughly 600,000.

Richards:
Harwood:

The board came down , giving Harwood a pair of jacks on the river to eliminate Richards in third place for $23,067.

Loni Harwood – 1,295,000 (43 bb)
John Richards – Eliminated

$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 26: 15,000/30,000 with a 5,000 ante
Players Remaining: 3 of 232

Haim Toorgeman raised all in from the button for 350,000, Loni Harwood reraised all in with a chip-leading stack from the small blind, and Ari Engel called all in from the big blind for 580,000.

Toorgeman:
Harwood:
Engel:

The flop came , pairing both Harwood and Engel to give them the lead with a pair of kings. Engel, though, picked up a flush draw.

Toorgeman was well behind now with his eights, but the turn was the to vault him back ahead with a set.

However, the river completed the board to give Engel an ace-high flush to eliminate Toorgeman and double through Harwood.

Toorgeman finished in fourth place for $14,031.

Ari Engel – 1,530,000 (51 bb)
Loni Harwood – 750,000 (25 bb)
Haim Toorgeman – Eliminated

$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 26: 15,000/30,000 with a 5,000 ante
Players Remaining: 4 of 232

John Richards raised to 60,000 from the cutoff, Michael Pearson called all in for 30,000 from the button, Loni Harwood reraised all in with a chip leading stack from the big blind, and Richards folded.

Pearson:
Harwood:

The board came down , no help to Pearson, ending his tournament in fifth place for $10,836.

Loni Harwood – 1,300,000 (43 bb)
Michael Pearson – Eliminated

$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 26: 15,000/30,000 with a 5,000 ante
Players Remaining: 5 of 232

Loni Harwood – 1,180,000 (39 bb)
John Richards – 610,000 (20 bb)
Ari Engel – 575,000 (19 bb)
Haim Toorgeman – 410,000 (14 bb)
Michael Richards – 10,000 (< 1 bb)

$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 24: 12,000/24,000 with a 4,000 ante
Players Remaining: 5 of 232

John Richards raised all in for 295,000 from the small blind, and Michael Pearson called from the big blind.

Richards:
Pearson:

The board came down , giving Richards nines and fours to double through Pearson.

John Richards – 610,000 (25 bb)
Michael Pearson – 7,000 (< 1 bb)

$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 24: 12,000/24,000 with a 4,000 ante
Players Remaining: 5 of 232

Ari Engel raised all in from the small blind for 279,000, and John Richards called from the big blind.

Engel:
Richards:

The board ran out , and Engel surived the scary runout to double up.

Ari Engel – 578,000 (24 bb)
John Richards – 299,000 (12 bb)

$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 24: 12,000/24,000 with a 4,000 ante
Players Remaining: 5 of 232

John Richards raised all in for 381,000 from the small blind, and Michael Pearson called from the big blind.

Richards:
Pearson:

The board came , giving Richards aces and sixes to double through Pearson.

John Richards – 782,000 (33 bb)
Michael Pearson – 205,000 (9 bb)

$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 24: 12,000/24,000 with a 4,000 ante
Players Remaining: 5 of 232

Loni Harwood raised all in from the button for 351,000, and Ari Engel isolated with a shove of his own from the small blind.

Harwood:
Engel:

The board came down , giving Harwood a queen-high straight to double through Engel.

Loni Harwood – 746,000 (31 bb)
Ari Engel – 290,000 (12 bb)