2024 Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 25
$2,200 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed
Entries:  163
Prize Pool:  $326,000
January 17-18, 2024

Javier Zarco has had a nice run of success here at the lineup of Seminole Hard Rock tournament series over the years, but he was happy to pick up his first guitar pick trophy by winning Event 25 at the 2024 Lucky Hearts Poker Open. He adds it to a trophy case that also holds a World Series of Poker Circuit gold ring, and he bumped his career earnings over $3.4 million.

We caught up with him post-victory for the winner’s interview, and here is what he had to say right after getting handed that trophy. “It feels very good, it’s actually my first win in this casino, I haven’t always run too good here even though I’ve been coming here over all of these years. I think my best finish before was a fourth place, so it feels amazing to finally close one out, it feels good.”

This was the fifth tournament that Zarco has won overall, so we asked him about how that previous experience making other deep runs at final tables was able to help him here today. “It definitely helps, but in the past couple years I haven’t been able to close out a couple final tables that I made. I almost final tabled a milly maker this year and I fell short, so I try to take away those lessons from the final tables that I couldn’t close, and put them to use here. I made a couple of crazy folds here, and they ended up working out,” said Zarco.

The final table played fast this afternoon with stacks seeing wild swings while the blind structure whittled down the remaining big blinds in play. Zarco opened up about his adjustments to those swings with this response. “It was crazy, because with the last four we pretty much all had the same stacks at 1 million with the big blinds at 50k. We were all 20 big blinds deep and we were playing for a lot of money. It was a matter of not making big mistakes, and just letting them make the mistakes, and not me. And obviously the cards held, so that worked out,” said Zarco.

Zarco had some of his good friends on the rail today throughout his run at the final table, and they were even cheering him on when we asked how it felt to have that support as he won the title. Zarco responded, “It’s good, in poker we’re almost always losing, so when you actually win you want to really enjoy it and celebrate it with your friends. We lose more than we win, so it’s important to celebrate the wins.”

It also sounded like his plans to celebrate will take place here at Seminole Hard Rock both tonight and through the next couple of days remaining in the tournament series. “I don’t know, we’re probably going to go have dinner, and then I kind of want to play in the $1k, but they’re probably not going to let me [laughs]. I will be in the main this weekend, so hopefully I can keep the momentum going for that,” said Zarco.

Zarco is a citizen of the world who is originally from Spain and has lived in England in addition to attending Lindenwood University here in St. Charles, Missouri to get his higher education. So to close out the interview we asked how he uses that unique background in his approach to poker.

“I think the landscape of poker is very different in Europe than it is in the U.S. You have to adjust to different styles, it’s definitely different strategies if you’re playing in Europe compared to here. I’ve played most of my life in the U.S. since I went to university here, so I grew up playing this type of meta, which actually helps you know where people are. Most people who come over from Europe they’re obviously good at poker, but sometimes they don’t know how to adjust to American meta. I think it helps me that I know everybody and I’ve played for so long that I have a lot of information from the people I’ve played. When I see a table, I know everybody, so that’s the information that’s really helpful,” said Zarco.

Here is a look at the final results for the tournament:

$2,200 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 26: 25,000/50,000 with a 50,000 ante
Remaining Players: 1 of 163

Javier Zarco and Spencer Champlin have agreed to a chop heads up to bring Event 25 to a close. Zarco was crowned as the winner of the tournament, and he took home $73,910 along with his first LHPO guitar pick trophy. Champlin was awarded $68,345 thanks to his deep run in the tournament.

That concludes our coverage of the final table, but stay tuned for an interview with the winner and recap for the event that will be posted later today.

$2,200 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 26: 25,000/50,000 with a 50,000 ante
Remaining Players: 2 of 163

Javier Zarco got all in for 1.18 million preflop from the small blind preflop holding pocket threes, and Spencer Champlin had him covered with in the hole.

The final board read , and Zarco doubled up to survive with 2,485,000, and Champlin was down to 1.59 million. The two players then asked to pause the clock to discuss a chop after the hand was finished.

Javier Zarco – 2,485,000 (49 bb)
Spencer Champlin – 1,590,000 (31 bb)

$2,200 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 26: 25,000/50,000 with a 50,000 ante
Remaining Players: 2 of 163

David Oshry was all in short preflop from the button, and both Javier Zarco (small blind) and Spencer Champlin  (big blind) called to cover him.

The two live players then checked down , and Champlin flipped over . That was enough to top the tabled by Oshry, and Zarco mucked his hand.

Oshry was eliminated in third place, good for $33,440, and Champlin was up to nearly 3 million after collecting the pot to give him over a 2:1 chip advantage before the start heads-up play against Zarco.

Spencer Champlin – 2,800,000 (56 bb)
Javier Zarco – 1,200,000 (24 bb)
David Oshry – Eliminated in Thrid Place ($33,440) 

$2,200 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 26: 25,000/50,000 with a 50,000 ante
Remaining Players: 3 of 163

Matt Lambrecht was all in preflop for 850,000 from the button with pocket kings, and Spencer Champlin had him covered holding pocket sevens on the small blind.

The board ran out with a seven right in the window, and read by the end. Lambrecht was eliminated in fourth place, good for $20,350. Champlin stacked up 2.05 million after collecting the pot, which is about the same amount of chips his remaining two opponents held combined.

Matt Lambrecht – 2,050,000 (41 bb)
Spencer Champlin – Eliminated in Fourth Place ($20,350)

$2,200 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 25: 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 ante
Remaining Players: 4 of 163

Here is a look at the updated chip counts as the final four players approach the first break of the day.

Seat 3: Matt Lambrecht – 1,250,000 (31 bb)
Seat 5: Spencer Champlin – 930,000 (23 bb)
Seat 6: David Oshry – 850,000 (21 bb)
Seat 8: Javier Zarco – 550,000 (13 bb)

$2,200 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 25: 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 ante
Remaining Players: 4 of 163

Alex Yen was all in for 520,000 preflop from the small blind with pocket sevens, and Matt Lambrecht chose to call and cover him holding on the big blind.

The board was dealt , and Yen was eliminated in fifth place for a payout worth $15,915. Lambrecht stacked up 1,375,000 after collecting the pot.

Matt Lambrecht – 1,375,000 (34 bb)
Alex Yen – Eliminated in Fifth Place ($15,915)

$2,200 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 25: 20,000/40,000 with a 40,000 ante
Remaining Players: 5 of 163

Spencer Champlin moved all in preflop from the cutoff, and Javier Zarco called all in for 475,000 on the small blind. The two players then flipped over their cards.

Zarco:
Champlin: [As

Board:

Zarco doubled up to survive with 1,050,000, and Champlin was at 1.2 million after the hand.

Javier Zarco – 1,050,000 (26 bb)
Spencer Champlin – 1,200,000 (30 bb)

$2,200 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 24: 15,000/30,000 with a 30,000 ante
Remaining Players: 5 of 163

There was less than 200,000 in the pot with the flop reading   when Matt Lambrecht got all in for 350,000 with in the hole. Javier Zarco called to cover him holding , and the turn and river hit the table .

Lambrecht doubled up to survive with 790,000 after collecting the pot thanks to a flush on the river, and Zarco was down to less than 300,000.

Matt Lambrecht – 790,000 (26 bb)
Javier Zarco – 280,000 (9 bb)

$2,200 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 24: 15,000/30,000 with a 30,000 ante
Remaining Players: 5 of 163

Brian Hastings fell from contention when his held on the button couldn’t catch up to the that Alex Yen possessed on the big blind.

Hasting takes home a cash worth $13,025, and Yen stacked up 1,165,000 after collecting the pot.

Alex Yen – 1,165,000 (38 bb)
Brian Hasting – Eliminated in Sixth Place ($13,025)