Event 9 – Big Names Flock To LHPO Six Max

$1,650 Six-Max Purple Chip Bounty NLH (Re-entry)

Blinds 150/300 Ante 25

We’ve already mentioned a few of the big names that took part in today’s Six Max poker festivities here at Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Coconut Creek. There was Will Failla, Seth Berger, Ronit Chamani, Ryan D’Angelo, Darryll Fish, Michael Laake, Jake Schwartz, and Joey Weissmman just to name a few. But just to show you how big a turnout we had here today, here’s a look at some of the others that took part today. Some are still in, while others are not so fortunate. There are 47 of the original 95 remaining with an average chip stack just over 30K (100 big blinds).

Bradford Albrinck – Bradford is fresh off a win at a WSOP Circuit event in Cincinnati in September 2013 for $221,994. Albrinck has $548,691 in career earnings.

Luke Brereton – hailing originally from England, Luke has had recent success in South Florida with nearly $100K in winnings since early 2013 including 5 final tables, two wins and a 2nd place finish.

Jesse Cohen – Jesse is a true tournament grinder who is a top ranked online player that goes by the name JMaster130. Cohen has over 3 million dollars in lifetime earnings online to go with his just over $500K+ live.

Jesse Cohen
Jesse Cohen

Victor Figueroa – Victor won the Championship Event at the 2012 Hard Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood for over $100K. Figueroa has $332K in reported lifetime tournament winnings.

Harrison Gimbel – Harrison burst onto the poker scene in 2010 winning the PCA Main Event for over two million dollars. He has added some WPT and WSOP cashes since then and is just shy of the three million dollar mark in career tournament winnings.

Brian Hastings – Brian is well known in the poker community for his work with CardRunners. Playing by the name Stinger885 online he also has nearly a million dollars in live tournament winnings including a WSOP bracelet in the 2012 $10,000 NLHE Heads Up tournament.

Chris Hunichen – one of the most successful online poker players in the world, Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen has over six million dollars in lifetime online winnings and has added another half a million dollars live to that total.

Byron Kaverman – with nearly two million dollars in reported lifetime tournament winnings, Kaverman is currently ranked 28th on the Global Poker Index (GPI). He’s had six scores of over $100,000 in the last three years so it’s easy to see why he’s so highly ranked.

Joe McKeehan – Joe has had success both online and live with just shy of two million in career winnings. Going by the name dude904 online he has won over a million dollars on the virtual felt. Live he recently took 1st place in a Borgata Winter Poker Open event for nearly $70K adding to the $174K he won at a WSOP Circuit event in March of 2013.

Joe McKeehan
Joe McKeehan

Athanasios Polychronopoulos – the man whose name never ends, Athanasios is more than just a name with over 2.7 million dollars in online winnings under the name Athanasios9 and over 1.5 million dollars in live earnings including 650K for winning a WSOP bracelet in 2011.

Athanasios Polychronopoulos
Athanasios Polychronopoulos

Event 9: Prize Pool and Payout Information

$1,650 Six-Max Purple Chip Bounty NLH (Re-entry)

There were 95 total entrants creating a prize pool of $95,000 (with $47,500 in bounties for a total prize pool of $142,500). 1st place will receive $32,300 and nine players will make the money. Here are the full payouts for the tournament:

 

PlaceWinnings
1st$32,300.00
2nd$18,905.00
3rd$12,350.00
4th$9,025.00
5th$6,745.00
6th$5,225.00
7th$4,180.00
8th$3,420.00
9th$2,850.00

Event 9: Wolak & Chamani Only Women in Field

$1,650 Six-Max Purple Chip Bounty NLH (Re-entry)

Blinds 100/200
88 Entries

Ronit Chamani
Ronit Chamani

Ronit Chamani (Johannesburg, South Africa) & Marsha Wolak (Fort Lauderdale) are the only two women in the field (so far) and are expecting to make deep runs.

Wolak is a WSOP bracelet holder (2011 Ladies Event) with $342,000 in career recorded tournament earnings, while Chamani has $327,000 in  earnings which includes a win in Hollywood’s 2011 Winter Poker Open Championship.

Wolak already has one $500 bounty and has more than 40k, while Chamani has less than half of her 15k starting stack.

“I’ll never miss a six-max,” says Chamani, “unless I’m very, very ill, which rarely happens because I eat well.”

It’s been well documented that Chamani is a raw food vegan gourmet chef who also works with organizations to teach sustainable gardening techniques to struggling people in South Africa.

This is the last level for entry as the cage closes after the break at ~7:20 pm.

Marsha Wolak
Marsha Wolak

Lucky Hearts Poker Open Leaderboard Update (Feb 6)

(UPDATED Feb 6th)

Participate in any event during the Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open (LHPO) tournament series to earn leaderboard points

See poker room for details

SEMINOLE HARD ROCK HOLLYWOOD TOURNAMENT LEADERBOARD
(Final – updated through Feb 5 completed events):

NAMEPOINTS
JERMAINE PHANG193.910
JONATHAN OUNJIAN175.611
STEVEN BENNETT138.286
PAUL BERENSON136.453
DANIEL GENACHTE121.605
KOREEN FORD120.500
WILLIE WIGGINS111.643
THOMAS JUNKINS101.741
KEVIN SMITH97.231
MICHAEL LAROCCA95.548
WILLY JEAN BAPTISTE91.578
ROSS WILLNER91.575
ERIC EWING89.940
JONATHAN ROSA89.678
RICARDO BOCCHINI89.040
ROBERT MILLER84.453
PAUL PRAGER83.718
MICHAEL ATTONITO83.604
TAMARA GOLDSHTEYN78.324
BARRY CHAZEN77.633
MATTHEW ELSBY74.415
MICHAEL SKLAR74.213
DEBRA NESER73.833
EDUARDO LEZICA71.774
ARLENE VAZQUEZ71.774
Leonid GOLDSHTEYN71.202
MIGUEL McKENZIE68.250
DAVID PRICE52.250
MARIO JAMES49.613
PASQUALE CAIAZZA49.610
ROY COHEN49.610
LUIS PANTOJA49.610
KRISHNA COLLINS48.045
STEVEN MILLER45.768
YUE WANG43.926
PAUL MABEL42.793
PHILIP PAUL42.790
FRANK LERCZAK42.433
JULIE MCGRATH41.933
JEROME NELOMS39.051
PERRY SHIAO38.243
SALVATORE SOLLECITO31.927
ELLIOTT ZAYDMAN31.468
NICHOLAS VISCONTI31.349
GUILLERMO HAMILTON25.488
kENNETH BERMAN24.808
MICHAEL MARKS24.808
ONEIL MC CALLA24.808
MING SHEN24.808
PAUL STEINER24.808
ROBERT TRANSUE24.808
Eugene Black24.805
IRAJ FARIAB24.805
JUNE KELLEY24.805
MICHAEL MERISIER24.805
ROBERT MIDGETTE24.805
LEONARD ST-GERMAIN24.805
Carl VIDAL24.805
Gregory Wilson Jr24.805
JOHN SAINT LOUIS23.568
MIGUEL MARTINEZ19.524
DANIEL PEARLMAN19.524
EVAN SNOW19.524
DOLPHY GARRICKS19.121
LAWRENCE GRADUS19.121
MICHAEL MC ALLISTER19.121
DANIEL TURCOTTE19.121
CLAUDY ROSIER18.366
MICHELLE ERB18.252
ROBERT KESSLER17.985
RICHARD KESSLER17.907
BIENVENIDO SANTIAGO17.628
MARK BRANNICK16.748
AGOP DOUREDJIAN BAGDASARIAN15.675
NICHOLAS FIORE13.841
LUKE ROSENBERG12.682
Noris Barcimanto12.403
PAULIUS BIKUS12.403
ANTONIO CAMPBELL12.403
STEVEN CARDARELLI12.403
JASON CASTEN12.403
Neil Crilly12.403
JAMES DELEO12.403
ELON DIAMOND12.403
THOMAS DOHERTY III12.403
CHRISTOPHER DRAWS12.403
RICHARD GANESH12.403
JOHN-THOMAS GIARRUSSO12.403
DANIEL GONZALO12.403
LUIS GUARDA12.403
RICHARD KELLEHER12.403
MARK KOTTLER12.403
W L12.403
THOMAS MILLWARD12.403
CLAUDE NGANGA12.403
MARCIN PLEWINSKI12.403
ROBERT POGGIO JR12.403
LARRY RICHIE12.403
RICHARD RUIZ12.403
PETER UDOVIK12.403
JOHN VASSER12.403
JORGE CHAVEZ12.301
ALLEN GREEN11.926
FRANCIS ADAMS11.546
DAVID PARKER11.546
JULIAN ALVARADO7.122
PERRY HUCKABY7.122
TODD KASTEN7.122
STEVEN RUTCOFSKY7.122
WILLIAM SWICICKI7.122
DANNY BLACKBURN6.719
ARTURO CARRASCO6.719
MONTY DWECK6.719
LORI PORGES6.719
STEVE RAEMAN6.719
HELENE ROSENBERG6.719
ROSALYN SHEINIS DWECK6.719
ALAN SLAKMAN6.719
JUDITH GREEN5.963
SANDRA MEYER5.963
RONALD SALZMAN5.963
ROBERT ZUCKERMAN5.963
IVAN FEIT5.583
HARRY CHAIMOWIZ5.565
ARNOLD COHEN5.565
Hubert GANTER5.225
CHARLY JOHNSON5.225

Event 9: Short Stay for Failla

$1,650 Six-Max Purple Chip Bounty NLH (Re-entry)

Blinds 150/300
83 entries

Will Failla
Failla Falls to Set

“I told them if the flop was 8-high I was going all in,”  says Will “the Thrill” Failla (Commack, NY).

True to his word, the flop of 7-5-3 gets all the chips in the middle and Failla’s in trouble.  Greg Marcus (Miami Beach) turns over a set of 7s against Failla’s pocket Jacks.

Failla doesn’t improve and sends his last 9k and $500 purple chip bounty to Marcus.

Failla is WPT Champion who quickly jumps into the 5 pm satellite looking to earn a discounted seat into tomorrow’s WPT Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship.

Marcus Makes $500
Marcus Makes $500

Event 9: Tough Table 18

$1,650 Six-Max Purple Chip Bounty NLH (Re-entry)

Blinds 50/100
72 entries

Table 18
Table 18*

An early look at the field has Table 18 as one of the tougher draws.

Seth Berger is here, fresh off his win in yesterday’s $1k for $26,520.

Also at the table is Joe McKeehen with four career wins, including a recent $70,000 score in Atlantic City, and Michael Laake, a South Florida veteran with four of his six career wins coming in Hard Rock Series.

Berger ($690,000), McKeehen ($735,000), Laake ($360,000) and Chris Hunichen ($525,000),who’s in Seat 5, have more than $2.5 million in combined career recorded earnings.

Tom Hand and Marc Duquette are no slouches either, as they are both in the $15,000 range of tournament earnings. That includes Hand’s third place finish ($1,302) in the Black Chip Bounty (Event 7) in this Lucky Hearts Poker Open.

*Seat-Name

1 Marc Duquette
2 Thomas Hand
3 Michael Laake
4 Joe McKeehen
5 Chris Hunichen
6 Seth Berger