2022 Seminole Hard Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
$3,500 WPT RRPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed
Entries: 1,541
Prize Pool: $4,931,200
November 25-30, 2022
After two second-place finishes for WSOP bracelets in the past few years, Andrew Wilson has broken thru with a major victory in a live tournament, defeating Josh Kay in an epic heads-up battle on Wednesday night to win the WPT Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open Championship.
“It feels pretty incredible,” said Wilson, who overcame a field of 1,541 entries to win $785,800. “I picked the right moment to finally come out on top. It’s going to take a little while to sink in, but it’s what I’ve been going for ever since I first started playing.”
This was one of the toughest WPT final tables in a long time, with half of the seats filled with WPT champions — defending RRPO Champion Gediminas Uselis, two-time WPT champ Chad Eveslage, and three-time WPT champ Brian Altman.
“As far as WPT final tables are concerned, I think this is definitely one of the tougher ones that I’ve been a witness to,” said Wilson. “All of these guys have had so much success live, and I assume they’ll continue to do so in the future. Especially since they play these stops over and over again, and they continually show this level of success.”
Wilson began the six-handed WPT Final Table with a massive lead, holding 43% of all the chips for a stack worth 167 big blinds.
Wilson had a big chip lead for most of the final table, eliminating short-stack Robel Andemichael in the first 10 minutes (click here for details), and knocking out defending champion Gediminas Uselis within the first half hour (details here).
Brian Altman was sent home in fourth place, but this time it was Kay who scored the knockout. (Click here for details.) Three-handed play continued for more than an hour and a half, but eventually Eveslage found himself on the wrong end of an aces-vs.-jacks cooler against Wilson, and Eveslage was out in third place. (Click here for details.)
“You had to fight for every pot,” said Wilson, “because these guys weren’t going to just roll over.”
Wilson began heads-up play with a 3-to-1 chip lead over Kay, but then Wilson won a massive pot to increase his lead to 10-to-1. (Click here for details.) Wilson had been on one of the hottest WPT Final Table runs we’ve ever seen, and there was no reason to think it would change.
But it did.
Shortly after that, Wilson got about as close to a WPT title as you can get. Down 10-to-1 in chips, Kay got it all in preflop with , only to see Wilson turn over . Kay was dominated and facing elimination.
But the board came , forcing a chopped pot with two pair on the board and an ace kicker. Even though he was saved by the river, Kay was still down 10-to-1 in chips. But that chopped pot seemed to give him new life.
Everything had been going right for Wilson, and then suddenly everything started going wrong. Over the next 20 minutes, Kay won three straight all-ins to take the lead.
Thanks to the great blind structure, they were still incredibly deep — Kay had 115 big blinds to Wilson’s 78 big blinds, so this wasn’t a simple shove fest. The heads-up battle would continue for another hour or so, and the momentum went back and forth between them.
Kay made some impressive moves at this final table, but in the final hand (click here for details), Kay picked the wrong spot to make a stand when Wilson was showing strength with a big preflop reraise. After a flop of , Wilson bet, and Kay moved all in with for middle pair.
Wilson snap-called with , and the kings held up for Wilson to win the title, the trophy, and $785,800.
“It’s surreal,” said Wilson. “I was in England watching the World Cup. I was of two minds of whether to stay in England and carry on watching the World Cup with my friends, but I had already taken a month-long break from poker. I decided to kickstart myself since I was going to play the WPT at the Wynn, so I thought this would be a great stop to come to for the weather and the great field. One singular bullet [buy-in] later, it’s been quite the decision.”
Final Results:
Place | First Name | Last Name | Prize Amount |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Andrew | Wilson | $785,800 + $10,400 WPT World Championship seat |
2 | Josh | Kay | $525,000 |
3 | Chad | Eveslage | $390,000 |
4 | Brian | Altman | $290,000 |
5 | Gediminas | Uselis | $219,000 |
6 | Robel | Andemichael | $167,000 |
7 | Eric | Bonin | $129,000 |
8 | Ryan | Dougherty | $100,000 |
9 | Ted | McNamara | $78,500 |
10 | Steve | Karp | $78,500 |
11 | Denys | Shafikov | $62,500 |
12 | Phong "Turbo" | Nguyen | $62,500 |
13 | Jacob | Dolehanty | $50,000 |
14 | Dung | Nguyen | $50,000 |
15 | Joey | DiPascale | $40,500 |
16 | Nicholas | Verderamo | $40,500 |
17 | Anthony | Zinno | $33,100 |
18 | David | Nowling | $33,100 |
19 | Martins | Adeniya | $33,100 |
20 | Andrew | Ostapchenko | $33,100 |
21 | Badr | Imejjane | $27,400 |
22 | Max | Kingstone | $27,400 |
23 | Willie | Wiggins | $27,400 |
24 | Michael | Stashin | $27,400 |
25 | Dennis | Rodriguez | $22,900 |
26 | Michael | Lee | $22,900 |
27 | Aristoteles | Neto | $22,900 |
28 | Jason | Min | $22,900 |
29 | Juan | Endara | $22,900 |
30 | Edward | Holyoke | $22,900 |
31 | Mike | Vela | $22,900 |
32 | Kyle | Merron | $22,900 |
33 | Nikita | Kalinin | $19,300 |
34 | Brock | Wilson | $19,300 |
35 | Ronald | McMillen | $19,300 |
36 | Jeff | Trudeau | $19,300 |
37 | Michael | Belov | $19,300 |
38 | Raymond | Roberty | $19,300 |
39 | Jim | Collopy | $19,300 |
40 | Pasquale | Caiazza | $19,300 |
41 | Giovanni | Fazio | $16,500 |
42 | Basar | Kirang | $16,500 |
43 | Joonhee | Yea | $16,500 |
44 | Dimitry | Agrachov | $16,500 |
45 | Jason | Klapman | $16,500 |
46 | Jakub | Paulik | $16,500 |
47 | Mark | Dickstein | $16,500 |
48 | Frank | Funaro | $16,500 |
49 | Giuseppe | Iadisernia | $14,200 |
50 | Hossein | Pezeshkan | $14,200 |
51 | Hitesh | Patel | $14,200 |
52 | Jimmy | Born | $14,200 |
53 | Kevin | Ho | $14,200 |
54 | Alex | Keating | $14,200 |
55 | David | Kahan | $14,200 |
56 | Darren | Elias | $14,200 |
57 | Marcos | Exterkotter | $12,450 |
58 | Kevin | Eyster | $12,450 |
59 | David | Shmuel | $12,450 |
60 | Jonathan | Akiba | $12,450 |
61 | Miguel | Capriles | $12,450 |
62 | Josh | Reichard | $12,450 |
63 | Constantinos | Psallidas | $12,450 |
64 | Stewart | Chantler | $12,450 |
65 | Jeremy | Joseph | $11,000 |
66 | Nate | Silver | $11,000 |
67 | Long | Nguyen | $11,000 |
68 | Clemen | Deng | $11,000 |
69 | Armand | Matti | $11,000 |
70 | Aram | Ognayan | $11,000 |
71 | Cangir | Elcin | $11,000 |
72 | Stephen | Ticsay | $11,000 |
73 | Cosmin | Joldis | $9,800 |
74 | Matthew | Leecy | $9,800 |
75 | Charles | Kassin | $9,800 |
76 | Akash | Seth | $9,800 |
77 | Rajai | Wazwaz | $9,800 |
78 | Igor | Tretyakov | $9,800 |
79 | Alejandro | Gonzalez Olachea | $9,800 |
80 | Marcello | Del Grosso | $9,800 |
81 | Chance | Kornuth | $8,850 |
82 | Jonathan | Rosa | $8,850 |
83 | Juliet | Hegedus | $8,850 |
84 | Christian | Harder | $8,850 |
85 | Rajasekar | Govindan | $8,850 |
86 | Anastasios | Kotsaris | $8,850 |
87 | Roman | Pipman | $8,850 |
88 | Lewe | Thiesen | $8,850 |
89 | Adil | Khan | $8,000 |
90 | Lily | Kiletto | $8,000 |
91 | Michael | Miller | $8,000 |
92 | Michael | Wetcher | $8,000 |
93 | David | Aronson | $8,000 |
94 | Antonio | Lievano | $8,000 |
95 | Juan | Montoya | $8,000 |
96 | Spencer | Champlin | $8,000 |
97 | Dylan | Poler | $8,000 |
98 | Paul | Gellenbeck | $8,000 |
99 | Scott | Weidema | $8,000 |
100 | Robert | Kessler | $8,000 |
101 | Marcus | Stein | $8,000 |
102 | Garrick | Young | $8,000 |
103 | Dhesikan | Ananchaperumal | $8,000 |
104 | Randy | Sim | $8,000 |
105 | Senthuran | Vijayaratnam | $7,300 |
106 | Maria | Konnikova | $7,300 |
107 | Ugis | Steinman | $7,300 |
108 | Fawaz | Siddiqui | $7,300 |
109 | Andrew | Arbogast | $7,300 |
110 | Anes | Kovacevic | $7,300 |
111 | Lionel | Sabab | $7,300 |
112 | Johnny | Landreth | $7,300 |
113 | Chad | Himmelspach | $7,300 |
114 | Boris | Kravets | $7,300 |
115 | Tony | Sinishtaj | $7,300 |
116 | Zachary | Vuong | $7,300 |
117 | Dana | Caruso | $7,300 |
118 | Tamas | Lendvai | $7,300 |
119 | Allen | Kessler | $7,300 |
120 | Connor | Rash | $7,300 |
121 | Dorian | Rios | $6,750 |
122 | Christopher | Frank | $6,750 |
123 | Justin | Zaki | $6,750 |
124 | Tony | Dunst | $6,750 |
125 | Rafael | Farah Jarufe | $6,750 |
126 | Aaron | Gunn | $6,750 |
127 | Aaron | Thivyanathan | $6,750 |
128 | Elias | Nassif | $6,750 |
129 | Michael | Hooper | $6,750 |
130 | Natasha | Mercier | $6,750 |
131 | Scott | Robbins | $6,750 |
132 | Paul | Balzano | $6,750 |
133 | Christopher | Barton | $6,750 |
134 | Ethan | Yau | $6,750 |
135 | Conrad | De Armas | $6,750 |
136 | Taylor | von Kriegenbergh | $6,750 |
137 | David | Gillen | $6,300 |
138 | Matthe | Davenport | $6,300 |
139 | Casey | Hatmaker | $6,300 |
140 | Eric | Siegel | $6,300 |
141 | Dmitry | Savelyev | $6,300 |
142 | Joseph | Cheong | $6,300 |
143 | Ryan | Rivers | $6,300 |
144 | John | McDonald | $6,300 |
145 | Oniel | McCalla | $6,300 |
146 | Ryan | Riess | $6,300 |
147 | Mike | Chiappetta | $6,300 |
148 | Paul | Snead | $6,300 |
149 | Jeremy | Drobushevich | $6,300 |
150 | Ray | Qartomy | $6,300 |
151 | Byron | Kaverman | $6,300 |
152 | Tom | Gottlieb | $6,300 |
153 | Michael | Yehudai | $5,950 |
154 | Albert | Nguyen | $5,950 |
155 | Rogen | Chhabra | $5,950 |
156 | David | Nathaniel Jr. | $5,950 |
157 | David | McGowan | $5,950 |
158 | Joseph | Rossi | $5,950 |
159 | T.K. | Miles | $5,950 |
160 | Osman | Hadziosmanovic | $5,950 |
161 | Robert | Lofaso | $5,950 |
162 | Eric | Yanovsky | $5,950 |
163 | Donnie | Phan | $5,950 |
164 | Nicholas | Carballo | $5,950 |
165 | Nohad | Teliani | $5,950 |
166 | Daniel | Rezaei | $5,950 |
167 | Shiva | Dudani | $5,950 |
168 | Tony | Cousineau | $5,950 |
169 | Lanny | Vaysman | $5,700 |
170 | Sheldon | Gross | $5,700 |
171 | Ryan | Colton | $5,700 |
172 | Michael | Jozoff | $5,700 |
173 | John | Hewett Fauver | $5,700 |
174 | Kevin | Moynihan | $5,700 |
175 | Santiago | Soriano Ramos | $5,700 |
176 | Brandon | Caputo | $5,700 |
177 | Eliyahu | Friedman | $5,700 |
178 | Jaspal | Brar | $5,700 |
179 | Scott | Heligman | $5,700 |
180 | Michael | Wang | $5,700 |
181 | Kahlil | Francis | $5,600 |
182 | Adam | Calabrese | $5,600 |
183 | Jebhar | Patterson | $5,600 |
184 | Jeremy | Ausmus | $5,600 |
185 | Robert | French | $5,600 |
186 | Marc | Evanier | $5,600 |
187 | Kevin | Oakes | $5,600 |
188 | Yashveen | Mudireddy | $5,600 |
189 | Donald | Delancy | $5,600 |
190 | Scott | Davis | $5,600 |
191 | Ricardo | Eyzaguirre | $5,600 |
192 | Landon | Tice | $5,600 |
193 | Frank | Riccordino | $5,600 |