$400 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em $500,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 2: 100/100 with a 100 ante Flight A Entries: 293
Sean Shah
Flight A of the opening SHRPO tournament is going big right out of the gates with nearly 300 entries rolling into Level 2. That’s $100,000 towards the $500,000 guarantee with a lot of time to go.
We found some familiar faces in the early levels including Sean Shah, Mark Cannon, and Nancy Thomas. Thomas has success in this tournament, banking more than $100K for a runner-up finish in the 2017 LHPO opener.
$400 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em $500,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 1: 100/100 Flight A Entries: 249
After some player instructions, tournament staff put cards in the air for the 2021 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open. Flight A of Event 1 will play their first four levels of the day before taking a break.
$400 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em $500,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 1: 100/100
The wait is over and now is the time to kick off the biggest series on our yearly schedule of tournaments. The 2021 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open features a whopping 43 primary trophy events and we start things off with a huge multi-day tournament.
Event 1 is a $400 buy-in Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em tournament with six starting flights and a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool. Flight A gets underway at 10 am with the second starting at 6 pm.
Players will start with 20,000 deep stacks and all Day 1 levels last 30 minutes, going up to 40 minutes on Day 2. Late registration is available until the start of Level 9 at 2:30 pm and players are limited to a single re-entry per flight.
Their day will continue until only 12.5% of the field remains and they will advance to Day 2 on Sunday in the money.
We have 20 days of tournaments, settle in for a great time.
$500,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Players begin with 20,000 in chips
Day 1 levels last 30 minutes; Day 2 levels last 40 minutes
2021 May Deep Stack Poker Series Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Event 1 $400 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed Entries: 1,102 Prize Pool: $369,170 May 20-23, 2021
Hector Pacheco, DSPS Event 1 champion
The 2021 May Deep Stack Poker Series opened on May 20 with the first of three flights of Event 1. The $400 buy-in tournament drew more than 1,000 entries and Hector Pacheco outlasted them all, dominating the final table for an outright win for $62,160.
“It was a great run,” Pacheco said after his win. “I did not do good after two buy-ins (Saturday).”
“Then I got in again around 8 o’clock and from that point on it was just smooth sailing.”
The final tally had 1,100 entries put up their buy-in, more than tripling the $100,000 guarantee, and they combined for a prize pool worth $369,170. The three starting flights had 207 players advance to Day 2 plus another 29 who joined before registration closed on Sunday.
The last 138 players took home a piece of that prize pool and they played late into the evening as the payouts increased. Event 1 reached its eight-handed final table in the early morning hours and Pacheco took a huge lead before they bagged up for Day 3.
Ryan Hogan and Pacheco had the two biggest stacks at the start of the final table and they ran into each other late. Hogan flopped two pair with kings and queens against Pacheco’s pockets aces then the board went running threes to give Pacheco the bigger two pair. It was a huge hand that had him return with 13 million of the 33 million in play.
“The aces versus king-queen,” Pacheco when asked about his biggest hands of the tournament. “That was the craziest one.”
“The two big stacks and the threes went runner-runner. That was the biggest one.”
Pacheco never blinked after the restart, using his massive stack to his advantage to push around the rest of the players until he was heads-up with Vinny Monteiro for the title. That only took one hand and Pacheco walked away with the title and the trophy.
The Puerto Rican native and Davie, FL resident is a Solutions Architect by trade and plans to stick around for the rest of the series.
“It feels great,” Pacheco said. “This is the best poker room I’ve ever been to and the staff is great. I’m going to have fun playing all week.”
Congrats Hector and thanks to all of our players who made the opening tournament a huge success.
Final table results:
1st: Hector Pacheco – $62,160 + Trophy 2nd: Vinny Monteiro – $43,630 3rd: Arkadiy Pervyy Bakhtin – $28,310 4th: John Desoto – $20,965 5th: Ryan Hogan – $15,860 6th: Marc Duquette – $12,800 7th: Paul Freedman – $9,895 8th: Rafael Lima – $7,305
$400 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 29: 50,000/100,000 with a 100,000 ante
Hector Pacheco
Before the heads-up match began, Hector Pacheco and Vinny Monteiro briefly discussed a deal to divide up the remaining prize pool but decided to play it out.
The match lasted one hand, Monteiro had his chips in the middle trying to double into a tie while Pacheco was trying to win it.
Monteiro: Pacheco:
Monteiro was looking good, flopped an open-ended straight draw on the board, but now needed to dodge diamonds. The turn completed his straight but the river gave Pacheco the flush along with the Event 1 title.
Monteiro earned $43,630 for his second-place finish while Pacheco took home $62,160 and the second biggest cash of his career.
$400 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 29: 50,000/100,000 with a 100,000 ante Players Remaining: 2 of 1,102
Arkadiy Pervyy Bakhtin
Arkadiy Pervyy Bakhtin was buoyed by his ladder up the payout and went into aggressive mode. Several shoves made it through without calls until he made one for 3,550,000 after Hector Pacheco opened to 500,000 on the button.
“OK, let’s go!” Pacheco said.
Bakhtin: Pacheco:
Bakhtin was ahead but needed to dodge Pacheco’s two live, suited cards. The flop came to improve Bakhtin to a pair of deuces, the turn gave him sevens up, but Pacheco hit the river to make a bigger two pair to send Bakhtin out in third place.
$400 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 29: 50,000/100,000 with a 100,000 ante Players Remaining: 4 of 1,102
Level 28 came to an end and players were sent on a 10-minute break. They return to blinds at 50,000/100,000 with a 100,000 ante and the average stack is 8,275,000 (83 bb)
$400 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 28: 50,000/75,000 with a 75,000 ante Players Remaining: 4 of 1,102
Ryan Hogan
Ryan Hogan opened to 175,000 from under the gun and Vinny Monteiro three-bet to 500,000 from the button. The blinds released, Hogan moved all in for 3,475,000 and Monteiro called.
Monteiro: Hogan:
“Hold!” Hogan implored again, trying for a third double.
The flop kept Hogan in the lead but Monteiro picked up a club draw on the turn. The hit the river, Monteiro made his flush, and Hogan was sent out in fifth place.
Vinny Monteiro – 9,100,000 (121 bb) Ryan Hogan – Eliminated in 5th Place ($15,860)
board, but now needed to dodge diamonds. The 
turn completed his straight but the river 
gave Pacheco the flush along with the Event 1 title.
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for a double.
board and Pacheco’s pair of kings sent Desoto out in fourth place.
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