$3,500 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship $2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 3: 75/150 with a 25 ante Flight A Entries: 331
Vincent Spadavechia
Players are back in their seats and they are chasing two Spadavecchia’s in the top ten. Vincent leads the way and the only player over 80,000 after two hours of play. His father John more than double up his stack along the way as well.
Ana Freitas final tabled the big opening event of the 2017 SHRPO series and sits in second position with David Farber, Oscar Trestini, and Joel Harwood rounding out the top five.
$3,500 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship $2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 2: 75/150 Flight A Entries: 301
Eric Afriat
Flight A players are getting ready to hit their first break of the day as Level 2 nears an end. They’ll get a 15-minute breather before returning for two more hours of action.
We found another SHRP WPT champion in today’s field. Eric Afriat won the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship in 2014 for over $1,000,000.
$3,500 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship $2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 2: 75/150 Flight A Entries: 282
Curt Kohlberg
The history of the World Poker Tour at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood goes back to the spring of 2011, back in the glory days of $10,000 buy-in tournaments and bottomless bags of money.
The 2011 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown was the first series to feature a WPT event and created a tough final table that included two of our entrants this afternoon.
Abbie Daniels made that televised final table and finish fourth while Curt Kohlberg finished runner-up to champion Taylor von Kriegenbergh. The other three players at the final table were no softies either with Tommy Vedes, Allen Bari, and Justin Zaki filling out the lineup.
If any of them failed to get there, two big names bubbled the TV table right behind them. Inaugural $10 Million GTD SHRPO champ Blair Hinkle finished in eighth-place followed by WTP/WSOP champ James Mackey finished in seventh.
$3,500 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship $2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 1: 50/100 Flight A Entries: 256
Aaron Massey
Former HPT Player of the Year Aaron Massey is off to a nice start in the Championship. His made the nut flush and he took his opponent to value town before his seat was warm. Massey’s stack is up to 32,000 from his starting 30,000 and moving in the right direction.
Massey has some nice SHRP including a final table appearance in each of the last two Lucky Hearts Poker Open series. He also final tabled the inaugural SHRPO $1,100 Big 4 event in 2016.
$3,500 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship $2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 1: 50/100 Flight A Entries: 240
Brian Altman
The field is filling in nicely at the start of Flight A with 240 entries so far including Brian Altman, technically the defending champion.
This is the first time since 2015 that the Lucky Hearts Poker Open is running a World Poker Tour main event. In 2016 and 2017, we finished it off with a WPTDeepStacks tour event but they are back now.
Brian Altman won the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open title in 2015 and bested a field of 1,027 to earn $723,008 for his first career tournament win.
$3,500 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship $2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 1: 50/100 Flight A Entries: 191
Ivy Teves (left), Tony Dunst (center), and TD Tony Burns (right)
After announcements and introductions, WPT Commentator kicked off the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship alongside WPT Royal Flush Girl Ivy Teves and Tournament Director Tony Burns.
$3,500 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship $2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
World Poker Tour Champions Cup
The preliminary events are complete and it’s time to roll out the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship. The $2,000,000 Guarantee event returns to the series and we expect a great crowd over the next two days.
The $3,500 buy-in event features two starting flights with the first starting at noon. The second will run on Saturday at noon and all those who bag will return on Sunday for Day 2. The structure will be slow and the stacks will be deep.
Each entrant will start with a 30,000 stack and levels will last 60 minutes for Days 1 and 2. Late registration is available until the start of Level 9 at 10:15 pm and unlimited re-entries are available during that time. A 90-minute dinner break is scheduled at 6:30 pm and play will conclude at the end of Level 10.
We await the official introductions and the “shuffle up and deal” command to kick off the 2018 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship.
$2,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Players begin with 30,000 in chips
Days 1 & 2 levels last 60 minutes; Day 3 levels last 90 minutes
Final table levels last 60 minutes; Heads up levels last 30 minutes
Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
Day 1 will end after Level 10 or Tournament Director discretion
2018 Lucky Hearts Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Event 14 $2,200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Entries: 167 Prize Pool: $334,000 January 18, 2018
Zachary Donovan
Event 14 of the 2018 Lucky Hearts Poker Open was a $2,200 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) tournament. A total of 167 entries generated a prize pool of $334,000, easily surpassing the $200,000 guarantee. Predictably, the final table produced a talented bunch, including Event 13 champion Ari Engel, who finished in ninth place. Outlasting the field for the outright victory was Zachary Donovan.
After making a deep run in the WPT DeepStacks event a few days ago where he finished in 16th place, Donovan has followed that up with an impressive win leading into the heart of the Lucky Hearts schedule.
“Yeah, it’s been a good series for me. It’s good momentum going into the Main Event. I like playing here, and it’s been working out nicely.”
Donovan began the final table third in chips and within two levels had taken the chip lead without any all-in confrontations. The first elimination he scored wasn’t until three players remained when he knocked out Faraz Jaka.
With the two of them holding just about 80% of the chips in play between them, they found themselves in a classic race as Donovan held ace-king against Jaka’s queens. An ace found the flop, and Donovan found himself with a nearly a 4:1 chip lead entering heads-up play. About 10 minutes later, Donovan sealed the deal.
Despite the win and boost to his bankroll, Donovan doesn’t plan on doing things differently for the Main Event.
“It won’t change my approach, but maybe now I’ll late register.”
Results 1st: Zachary Donovan – $88,780 + trophy 2nd: Jordan Joeckel – $58,166 3rd: Faraz Jaka – $34,268 4th: Spencer Champlin – $20,858 5th: Ramon Miquel – $16,099 6th: Jeff Gross – $13,343 7th: Ben Yu – $11,556 8th: Chris Orme – $10,187 9th: Ari Engel – $8,878 10th: Alan Saltzman – $7,682 11th: Darren Rabinowitz – $7,682 12th: Adrian Mateos – $7,682 13th: Neil Patel – $6,513 14th: Bruce Kramer – $6,513 15th: Jeremy Ausmus – $6,513 16th: Olivier Busquet – $5,411 17th: Alberto Rodriguez – $5,411 18th: Stephen Song – $5,411 19th: Ryan McKnight – $4,349 20th: Dylan Linde – $4,349 21st: Ricky Guan – $4,349
made the nut flush and he took his opponent to value town before his seat was warm. Massey’s stack is up to 32,000 from his starting 30,000 and moving in the right direction.
