2023 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed
Entries:  1,692
Prize Pool:  $5,414,400
January 20–24, 2023

Marius Gierse hasn’t played in a live poker tournament since last summer’s WSOP, but he showed up at the Lucky Hearts Poker Open and entered two tournaments — the $25,500 High Roller, where he finished fifth to earn $110,500, and the $3,500 LHPO Championship, which he won on Tuesday night for $605,000.

“It’s been a long four days, but it feels pretty damn good,” said Gierse. “It was quite the ride.”

This final day of the event started with 16 players at the final two tables, and Gierse had an average chip stack.

“I started with five million, went up to 10 million, went down to 4.5 million, went up to 17, went down to 7, so it was a roller-coaster, for sure,” said Gierse. “But I can’t complain in the end.”

The key hand for Gierse happened during the first 15 minutes of the nine-handed final table.

“I had a big flip against Jerry Wong at the start,” said Gierse. “That hand was the most important, otherwise I would have been out in ninth.”

Gierse held , and needed it to hold against Wong’s . They got it all in preflop, but it seemed inevitable after the flop came , giving Gierse a set of queens to Wong’s gutshot Royal Flush draw.

“It was almost a flip at the flop,” said Gierse. “You’ve got to win these in order to win tournaments.”

The turn was the , the river was the , and Gierse doubled up to 68 big blinds with a full house. (Click here for details.) As for Wong, he was knocked down below 20 big blinds and would eventually finish ninth.

With seven players left, Gierse found himself on the other side of this same flip, getting it all in preflop with against Daniel Clifford’s . This time, the board brought three spades, and the ace-king won the pot to knock out Clifford in seventh place and propel Gierse back into the lead. (Click here for details.)

After Gierse knocked out Martin Carnero in fifth place (pocket jacks held against ace-ten), the final four players battled for about an hour before agreeing to a deal. As chipleader, Gierse was awarded the title and the trophy.

I’m pretty blessed,” said Gierse, “and I’m lucky to win the Lucky Hearts Poker Open.”

Despite his success here, Gierse is primarily an online player, which he generally prefers over live tournaments.

“I really don’t enjoy live poker as much, mostly because people are too serious and take a lot of time,” said Gierse. “But that isn’t the case here at all. People play super fast, and people are talking, and not taking themselves too seriously. It’s super nice. So I’m very, very happy to play here and I will for sure to come back.”

Final Results:

* Indicates a four-way deal.

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 35:  300,000/600,000 with a 600,000 ante
Players Remaining:  4 of 1,692

Level 35 got underway with blinds of 300,000-600,000 and a 600,000 ante, and a short while after that, the final four players agreed to a deal to end the tournament and split the remaining prizepool.

As chipleader, Marius Gierse was awarded the title, the trophy, and $605,000.

Here are the final payouts:

1st:  Marius Gierse  –  $605,000 + LHPO Trophy
2nd:  Brian Scott  –  $555,078
3rd:  Peter Mugar  –  $500,000
4th:  Jacob Powers  –  $498,177

Congratulations to Lucky Hearts Poker Open Champion Marius Gierse!

Stay tuned for a recap of this event, which will be posted later tonight, followed by a series recap tomorrow.

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 35:  300,000/600,000 with a 600,000 ante
Players Remaining:  4 of 1,692

Level 34 came to an end, and the players took a 15-minute break. Here are their official chip counts:

Seat 1.  Peter Mugar  –  16,800,000  (28 bb)
Seat 2.  Jacob Powers  –  19,400,000  (32 bb)
Seat 3.  Brian Scott  –  23,700,000  (40 bb)
Seat 4.  Marius Gierse  –  24,700,000  (41 bb)

And here are the final table payouts:

1st:  $850,735 + LHPO Trophy
2nd:  $569,400
3rd:  $422,185
4th:  $315,935

5th:  Martin Carnero  –  $238,635
6th:  Taylor Wilson  –  $181,950
7th:  Daniel Clifford  –  $140,055
8th:  Leonard Hermann  –  $108,850
9th:  Jerry Wong  –  $85,410

With four players remaining from a field of 1,692, the average chip stack is around 21,200,000 (35 big blinds), and they are guaranteed at least $315,935 each.

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 34:  300,000/500,000 with a 500,000 ante
Players Remaining:  4 of 1,692

Brian Scott raised from UTG/cutoff to 1,100,000, Jacob Powers moved all in from the big blind for 18,800,000, and Scott went into the tank.

At one point, Scott asked Powers, “If I show, will you show?” Powers seemed to indicate that he would.

Scott tanked for a while longer before he folded face up, and Power turned over as he took the pot. Scott merely shrugged at the king high.

Jacob Powers  –  20,700,000  (41 bb)
Brian Scott  –  23,200,000  (46 bb)

With four players remaining from a field of 1,692, the average chip stack is around 21,200,000 (42 big blinds), and they are guaranteed at least $315,935 each.

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 34:  300,000/500,000 with a 500,000 ante
Players Remaining:  4 of 1,692

Peter Mugar min-raised from UTG/cutoff to 1,000,000, and Marius Gierse asked how much Mugar had left behind before he moved all in from the big blind.

Mugar quickly called all in for 9,700,000 with , and Gierse turned over . Mugar needed his hand to hold to stay alive.

The board came , and Mugar won the pot with his queen to double up in chips.

Peter Mugar  –  20,200,000  (40 bb)
Marius Gierse  –  20,000,000  (40 bb)

With four players remaining from a field of 1,692, the average chip stack is around 21,200,000 (42 big blinds), and they are guaranteed at least $315,935 each.

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 33:  200,000/400,000 with a 400,000 ante
Players Remaining:  4 of 1,692

Brian Scott raised to 1,000,000 from the button, and Peter Mugar called in the big blind.

The flop was , Mugar checked, Scott bet 1,000,000, Mugar checked-raised all in for 4,300,000, and Scott called after about 45 seconds.

Scott: 
Mugar: 

Mugar was in the lead with a pair of sevens.

The turn and river completed the board, further improving Mugar to a ten-high straight to double up.

Peter Mugar  –  11,200,000  (28 bb)
Brian Scott  –  29,600,000  (74 bb)

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 33:  200,000/400,000 with a 400,000 ante
Players Remaining:  4 of 1,692

Marius Gierse min-raised from the button to 800,000, Martin Carnero moved all in from the big blind for 7,300,000, and Gierse called with .

Carnero turned over , and needed to improve to stay alive.

The board came , and the pocket jacks held up for Gierse to win the pot and eliminate Carnero in fifth place.

Marius Gierse  –  27,200,000  (68 bb)
Martin Carnero  –  Eliminated in 5th Place  ($238,635)

With four players remaining from a field of 1,692, the average chip stack is around 21,200,000 (53 big blinds), and they are guaranteed at least $315,935 each.

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 33:  200,000/400,000 with a 400,000 ante
Players Remaining:  5 of 1,692

Taylor Wilson raised under the gun to 6,500,000, leaving himself just 400K behind, and Brian Scott thought for a while before calling from the big blind. (Scott had thought Wilson was all in.)

The flop came , Scott moved all in, and Wilson called all in for 400,000 with for a pair of sevens.

But Scott turned over , and Wilson needed to improve to stay alive.

The turn card was the , the river card was the , and Scott won the pot with his pocket tens to eliminate Wilson in sixth place.

Brian Scott  –  33,000,000  (83 bb)
Taylor Wilson  –  Eliminated in 6th Place  ($181,950)

With five players remaining from a field of 1,692, the average chip stack is around 16,900,000 (42 big blinds), and they are guaranteed at least $238,635 each.

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 33:  200,000/400,000 with a 400,000 ante
Players Remaining:  6 of 1,692

Brian Scott raised to 800,000 from the hijack, and Marius Gierse called on the button.

The flop was , Scott checked, Gierse bet 700,000, and Scott called.

The turn was the , Scott checked, Gierse bet 2,300,000, Scott raised to 6,000,000, and Gierse called.

The river was the , Scott shoved for 9,700,000, and Gierse went into the tank for about four minutes before he folded.

Brian Scott  –  25,700,000  (64 bb)
Marius Gierse  –  17,700,000  (44 bb)

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 33:  200,000/400,000 with a 400,000 ante
Players Remaining:  6 of 1,692

Martin Carnero min-raised under the gun to 800,000, Jacob Powers moved all in from the hijack for about 19,000,000, and everyone else folded.

Action returned to Carnero, who carefully removed his sunglasses and said, “I’m going to need a couple of minutes.”

Carnero went into the tank, and was quietly talking to himself about the possible hands Powers could have.

Eventually, Carnero folded, and Powers held up his cards like he was about to show them to the table.

Carnero said, “I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to see it.”

Powers flipped over his cards and showed , and Carnero breathed a sigh of relief as he was let off the hook, knowing he made the right fold.

Taylor Wilson jokingly said, “Are you sure you don’t want to see it?”

Wilson said he folded pocket queens, and then he said to Powers, “Thank you for showing me.”

Jacob Powers  –  20,700,000  (52 bb)
Martin Carnero  –  9,700,000  (24 bb)

With six players remaining from a field of 1,692, the average chip stack is around 14,100,000 (35 big blinds), and they are guaranteed at least $181,950 each.