$1,650 Eight-Max No Limit Hold’Em (Re-Entry) Level 13: 800/1,600/200 Ante
Jamie Gold
While most eyes are on the Championship, Day 2 of the $1,650 8-Max tournament was underway with a lot of interesting names in the last 11.
2006 WSOP Main Event Champion Jamie Gold was still around with a chance for another title but fell short in 10th place after Richard Leger went out in 11th. They are now gathered on one table to find a winner.
Seat 1: Eracles Panayitou Seat 2: Long Nguyen Seat 3: Sean Giesbrecht Seat 4: Daren Stabinski Seat 5: Chino Rheem Seat 6: Ray Qartomy Seat 7: Robert Black Seat 8: Rachel Kranz Seat 9: Dan DiZenzo
$1,650 Eight-Max No Limit Hold’Em (Re-Entry) Level 12: 600/1,200/200 Ante
Day 1 of Event 16 is in the books and Robert Black is leading the way headed into Day 2 tomorrow with past event champion Daren Stabinski, WSOP Main Event Champion Jamie Gold and November Niner Chino Rheem still alive in the hunt for the title. The tournament drew 110 entries and 11 players will come back tomorrow.
Black nailed a huge hand against Long Nguyen late in the night to vault into the chip lead bagging 372,000. Daren Stabinski will once again find himself in the hunt for another Seminole Hard Rock title but will have to chase down Black with 247,800 chips. Chino Rheem is in a tight group in the next tier of chip stacks while Jamie Gold, Richard Leger and Sean Giesbrecht will try to fight back as the short stacks.
Play resumes tomorrow at 3 PM with a top prize of $44,863 on the line.
Here are the chip counts for the remaining 11 players:
Robert Black – 372,600 Daren Stabinski – 247,800 Chino Rheem – 144,800 Long Nguyen – 144,100 Dan DiZenzo – 141,200 Eracles Panayitou – 100,600 Rachel Kranz – 63,200 Ray Qartomy – 59,100 Jamie Gold – 23,000 Richard Leger – 16,200 Sean Giesbrecht – 10,400
$1,650 No Limit Hold’em Eight-Handed Level 1: 25/50
While most eyes are on the Championship playing out in the ballroom, another nice side event is kicking off at 3pm for those who missed out on Day 2 or busted early today.
Event 16 is a $1,650 buy-in tournament with an 8-handed format and $150,000 guaranteed prize pool. They will sit with 12,000 stacks and play 40-minute levels at the start. Late registration and re-entries are available until the start of Level 7, approximately 7:30pm. That is also the time when the levels will extend to one hour until they bag up at the end of Level 12.
Big buy-in, big prize pool poker gets underway at 3pm.
Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open $3,500 Championship No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $3,000,000 Guarantee
February 5th-11th, 2015
Total Entries: 1,027 Total Prize Pool: $3,286,400
Brian Altman – 2015 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open Champions
Recap: The 2015 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship kicked off on February 5 after more than two weeks of events leading up to the start. The tournament drew a huge field but in the end it was Brian Altman holding all the chips for the title and huge $723,008 first place payout.
The Championship had a $3,500 buy-in and featured a $3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. Three starting flights drew 1,027 entrants to easily surpass the guarantee to generate a $3,286,400 prize pool and the last seven players set to have a six-digit payday. Local players mixed it up with top professionals in the biggest event of the series and they held their own.
Some of those Seminole Hard Rock Poker regular grinders included Ory Hen, Robert Campbell, Scott Efron, Nigel Murray, Adam Rouse, and reigning Seminole Hard Rock Poker Player of the Year Angel Vu. Several major event winners were also in attendance with Jason Mercier, Faraz Jaka, Ryan Van Sanford, Will Failla, Allen Kessler, Shannon Shorr, and Darryll Fish seen throughout the first starting flights. Former WSOP Main Event Champion Jonathan Duhamel made his first trip to Florida to play in the Championship but he was unable to make it past Day 2. Former NFL defensive star Richard Seymour was also in the field but he also fell short of the money.
The last 100 players were set to earn a piece of the big prize pool and the money bubble burst late on Day 2 when two-time WSOP bracelet winner Josh Arieh went out in the 101st spot. Plenty of top players returned for Day 3 when they played down from the 78 players to the last two tables. Mark Dube and Brian Altman ended the day with the two biggest stacks with professionals Jared Jaffee and Justin Zaki not far behind. They quickly made it down to the final table but neither of those top players made it to the live-streamed WPT table of six hosted at the Paradise Live Theater.
Altman and Dube had 23 of the 30 million chips in play to start the last day and Jon Graham, Sanjay Gehi, and Greg Rosen were quickly eliminated. Kelly Minkin was the last female standing in the tournament but the Arizona-based attorney had to settle for a 3rd place finish and $262,912. Her knockout set up a huge heads-up battle between the players who dominated the previous two days of action. There were 260 big blinds between them when they started with Dube holding a slight lead.
Altman quickly took command of the match after just a few hands but the two Massachusetts natives were in for a long battle. It took 55 hands to settle the matter when Altman’s flopped flush topped Dube’s set of Aces.
“I stayed patient. I tried to keep pots small against him [Dube]. I don’t think I raised a single small blind all final table.” Altman commented afterwards. “I kind of played small ball and just played a lot of post-flop poker. Things were going my way, today was just my day.”
“It’s certainly nice, it’s pretty amazing that things materialized the way they did. It’s just a nice bonus to get away from the winter snow up north.” he continued.
“This is my first time here. I was very impressed with the venue, the staff, the dealers, and this beautiful casino. I was really impressed, it’s nice to check out new casinos with nice facilities.”
Final table results: 1st: Brian Altman (Longmeadow, MA) – $723,008 2nd: Mark Dube (Newbuyport, MA) – $434,462 3rd: Kelly Minkin (Phoenix, AZ) – $262,912 4th: Greg Rosen (Coral Springs, FL) – $220,189 5th: Sanjay Gehi (Atlanta, GA) – $180,752 6th: Jon Graham (Longwood, FL) – $146,245
$3,500 Championship No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Level 35: 200,000/400,000/50,000 Ante
Brian Altman
Mark Dube raised to 900,000 preflop and Brian Altman called. The flop was dealt and Altman checked. Dube bet 1.1 million and Altman raised to 2.6 million. Dube then reraised all in for 9.6 million. Altman called and they flipped over their cards.
Altman: Dube:
Turn and River:
Dube busted in second place, good for $434,467, after a deep tournament run. Altman wins the WPT Championship event at the Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open and takes home the top prize worth $723,008 for defeating a field of 1,027 players. He also took home the Seminole Hard Rock guitar pick trophy.
$3,500 Championship No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Level 35: 200,000/400,000/50,000 Ante
After a 15-minute break the two final players are back in their seats and play has resumed in the heads-up final of the WPT Championship event at the Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open. The chip stacks are as follows.
$3,500 Championship No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Level 33: 100,000/200,000/25,000 Ante
Here is a look at the current chip counts between the final two players in the WPT Championship Event at the Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open.
$3,500 Championship No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) Level 33: 100,000/200,000/25,000 Ante
Brian Altman
Brian Altman raised to 450,000 preflop and Mark Dube reraised to 1.3 million. Altman called and the first three cards were dealt . Dube bet 1.55 million and Altman called.
The turn fell and Dube moved all in. Altman tanked for a minute before calling all in. The two players then revealed their cards.
Altman: Dube:
River:
Altman won the hand to double up to 20.65 million and now holds a 2-1 chip lead over Dube, who was left with 10.15 million.
and Altman checked. Dube bet 1.1 million and Altman raised to 2.6 million. Dube then reraised all in for 9.6 million. Altman called and they flipped over their cards.
. Dube bet 1.55 million and Altman called.
and Dube moved all in. Altman tanked for a minute before calling all in. The two players then revealed their cards.
