$1,100 Big Stack Pot Limit Omaha (Re-Entry) Structure Level 5: 400/800 Total Entries: 72
Leif Force
Fresh of his runner up finish in the $1,100 WPTDeepStacks Main Event Leif Force has joined the $1,100 Big Stack Pot Limit Omaha event. Force finished runner up to Peter Eichhardt in the $2,200 Big Stack Pot Limit Omaha this past November.
2019 Lucky Hearts Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Event 23 $1,650 Purple Chip Bounty NLH (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed Entries: 115 Prize Pool: $115,000 Bounty Prize Pool: $57,500 January 21-22, 2019
Brad Coultas
After more than four hours of play Brad Coultas took down the Event 23 $1,650 Purple Chip Bounty title. Event 23 boasted a field of 115 entries easily surpassing the $100,000 guarantee. Coultas took home the biggest piece of the $115,000 prize pool with his first place finish. He earned $33,922 plus his four purple chip bounties worth $500 each.
Coultas lives in Florida and plays poker, but wouldn’t consider himself a tournament pro. “I don’t play a lot of tournaments. I’m a mid-high stakes PLO player. I’ve got a lot of buddies that are really good at tournaments and they basically tell me what I’m doing wrong and try to make me better.”
Coultas came into Day 2 in the middle of the pack. “On Day 1 I got short early so I didnt get many bounties. At the end of the day I was just picking off pots here and there. I only came to the final table with two bounties”
Here’s how the final eight stacked up before the start of play today:
The first to be eliminated was 2018 SHRPO Champion Brandon Eisen when his jack-four couldn’t improve against the start-of-day chipleader Philip Wojtuniecki. Wojtuniecki proceeded to score Jaime Wiegrefe’s bounty in seventh place as well as Jeff Hakim’s in sixth place.
Wojtuniecki put a bad beat on Hakim when he hit a straight on the river with pocket nines to crack Hakim’s set of tens.
Brad Coultas scored the next bounty when he took Corey Burbick out in fifth place. Coultas woke up with pocket kings in the big blind to beat Burbick’s under the gun shove with ace-six.
Manny Tarich, the eventual runner-up, scored Romain Follet’s fourth place bounty when his ace-queen made a higher straight than Follet’s ace-nine.
It was down to three when Tarich began his streak of getting lucky to double through Wojtuniecki, until he eventually took him out in third place. They were all in preflop with Wojtuniecki’s ace-king out in front of Tarich’s ace-ten. However, the board ran out a straight for Tarich to bring the action to heads up.
Wojtuniecki took a big chip lead into heads-up play and never relinquished it. The final hand was a cooler situation as Coultas hit a queen-high flush on the river against Tarich’s jack-high flush.
“I got lucky in certain spots, hit some gutshots, hit some flushes. I didn’t really get too many hands preflop, just won a bunch of small pots. Death by a thousand cuts.”
Here’s a look at the full results from Event 23:
1st: Bradley Coultas – $33,922 2nd: Manny Tarich – $20,988 3rd: Philip Wojtuniecki – $12,535 4th: Romain Follet – $8,050 5th: Corey Burbick – $6,095 6th: Jeff Hakim – $5,060 7th: Jaime Wiegrefe – $4,370 8th: Brandon Eisen – $3,853 9th: Nick Yunis – $3,393 10th: Daniel Monosson – $2,990 11th: Anthony Zinno – $2,990 12th: Kenneth Frey – $2,588 13th: Chad Trentacosta – $2,588 14th: Adam Adler – $2,588 15th: Anthony Ruberto Jr. – $2,588
$150 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 18: 4,000/8,000 with a 8,000 ante Players Remaining: 36 of 507
Padmanaban Kulathur-Karvannan bagged up a stack of 39,500 to reach Day 2, but he said he ran into traffic this afternoon which is why he arrived late — into the second level of the day.
When he got here about 45 minutes late, Kulathur-Karvannan was down to one big blind in his stack, but he was able to survive for more than an hour to make it to the Money Bubble and a shot at redemption with a min-cash.
In Hand #5 of hand-for-hand play on the Money Bubble, Kulathur-Karvannan moved all in UTG+1 for 32,000, and James Scott called from the big blind with .
Kulathur-Karvannan turned over , and he was in a dominant position to double up here.
The board came — Scott paired his nine on the turn, but Kulathur-Karvannan celebrated when he saw the queen on the river to give him a higher pair.
But what Kulathur-Karvannan didn’t notice is that Scott had two clubs in his hand, and the same queen he celebrated gave Scott the victory with an ace-high club flush.
It was a painful reversal, and it ruined what would have been an amazing comeback for Kulathur-Karvannan. But he took the loss in good spirits as the remaining 36 players finished in the money, guaranteed at least $395 each.
James Scott – 165,000 (21 bb) Padmanaban Kulathur-Karvannan – Eliminated
$150 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 17: 3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 ante Players Remaining: 42 of 507
At Table 5, the player on the button is all in for about 75,000 with , and needs his hand to hold to stay alive against the of Will Evans in the hijack.
The board came — Evans flopped a spade flush draw and paired his ace on the turn to win the pot and eliminate his opponent from the tournament.
Will Evans – 225,000 (38 bb)
At Table 6, a player raised under the gun to 11,000, the next player moved all in from UTG+1 for about 85,000, and Giovanni Massa moved all in over the top from late position. The original raiser folded.
The short stack turned over , and she needed to improve to stay alive against Massa’s .
The board came , and the pocket queens held up for Massa to win the pot and eliminate his opponent from the tournament.
Giovanni Massa – 245,000 (41 bb)
With 42 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 181,000 (30 big blinds). The field is less than one table away from the money.
$1,650 Purple Chip Bounty NLH (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 21: 10,000/15,000 with an 15,000 ante Players Remaining: 2 of 115
Philip Wojtuniecki
Manny Tarich shoved from the button and Philip Wojtuniecki called all in for around 300,000. Wojtuniecki tabled and appeared to be in great shape against Tarich’s .
The flop came and Tarich called for a jack. The turn brought the giving Wojtuniecki two-pair.
The river, however, was the and Tarich hit broadway to eliminate Wojtuniecki in third place.
Manny Tarich – 800,000 (53 bb) Philip Wojtuniecki – Eliminated in 3rd Place ($12,535)
2019 Lucky Hearts Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida $1,100 WPTDeepStacks Main Event $1,000,000 Guarantee Entries: 1,634 Prize Pool: $1,584,980 January 17-22, 2019
South Florida Main Event goes down as second largest on WPTDeepStacks record, Seminole Hard Rock owns the top four turnouts in the tour’s history
The WPTDeepStacks Main Event headlined the 2019 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open schedule and it had a great turnout. The 1,634 combined entries created the second biggest field in the tour’s history with more than $260,000 set aside for first place. WSOP bracelet winner Jason Young came to the final table with a big lead and dominated to win the WPTDeepStacks title after defeating Leif Force heads-up.
“Oh man, it’s been a long journey to get back here,” Young said of the win. “There’s been a lot of stuff that’s gone on in my life over the last five-six years, that I didn’t think I’d ever be back in a position like this.”
“I’m rarely speechless, and I don’t even know how to process my thoughts just quite yet about everything.”
The Main Event had a $1,000,000 guarantee and the big turnout pushed the prize pool up to $1,584,980. The last 205 players were set to make the money with 322 advancing to Day 2.
They were near the money before the first break on Day 2 and a double knockout during hand-for-hand play burst the bubble. Day 2 came to end and when the Main Event reached 27 players and Chilean pro Nick Yunis bagged up the lead going into Day 3.
Young was in the middle of the pack at the restart but began to move up the counts as the day progressed. They formed the unofficial final table with ten players remaining and he had pulled himself into the lead. Yunis’ run came to an end in tenth place and the WPTDeepStacks live-stream final table was set with Young holding that big lead.
“This was fun. This was like a picnic.” Young said about his final table chip lead. “It’s been a long time since I’ve been in a spot like this and I wasn’t going to get rattled by anything…not today.”
Playing from nine players to a winner, the matter was settled in less than four hours. UK’s Paul James Hizer picked up aces in two big, early hands to send Stephen Ibrahim and Eddy Sabat out to start the day. Young took his turn with the knockouts when he eliminated Quinn Bruno and Pedro Aldave.
He held onto the lead until he was heads-up with Force, the other WSOP bracelet winner at the final table. Force doubled into the lead but it did not last long. Young doubled back when his tens flopped a set against jacks and the Main Event was over soon after.
“I’m going to celebrate this win with my daughter Kaeley and my family,” Young said about his title. “I can’t even possibly begin to think of what’s going to happen next right now. I’m just so happy that I can finally take a breath.”
Force earned $183,540 for his runner-up result while Young earned $263,205 which includes his WPTDeepStacks Championship package.
Final table results:
1st: Jason Young – $263,205 + LHPO trophy 2nd: Leif Force – $183,540 3rd: Paul James Hizer – $119,820 4th: Kevin Chan – $89,000 5th: David Inselberg – $66,760 6th: Pedro Aldave – $53,785 7th: Quinn Bruno – $43,930 8th: Eddy Sabat – $34,125 9th: Stephen Ibrahim – $26,025
.
, and he was in a dominant position to double up here.
— Scott paired his nine on the turn, but Kulathur-Karvannan celebrated when he saw the queen on the river to give him a higher pair.
flop.
, Coultas bet 50,000 and Tarich shoved.
to defeat Tarich’s 
.
of Will Evans in the hijack.
— Evans flopped a spade flush draw and paired his ace on the turn to win the pot and eliminate his opponent from the tournament.
.
, and the pocket queens held up for Massa to win the pot and eliminate his opponent from the tournament.
and Tarich called for a jack. The turn brought the 
and Tarich hit broadway to eliminate Wojtuniecki in third place.
