Earlier this week, some players took to Twitter to complain about the chairs in the Pavilion for the Lucky Hearts Poker Open. You spoke and we listened. Late last night, a large majority of the STAX Poker Lounge staff (including managers) took out all the chairs and brought in an entire room of replacements. Players noticed today. Seth Berger said “these chairs are much more comfortable. It was good of them to do this for us.”
The new chairs…
Abbey Daniels and Nancy Thomas took to Twitter to send out their thanks…
Thank you @STAX_Poker for the new chairs in the Pavillion. Soooo much better!
We’ve seen lots of players taking advantage of the partnership between Coconut Creek and the Marriott Heron Bay hotel. The list includes WPT winners Anthony Zinno and Will “The Thrill” Failla, and there’s been an “Uncle Krunk” Bob Panitch citing as well.
In addition to the $99 tournament rate, the hotel is offering free shuttle service to the Lucky Hearts Poker Open.
The first scheduled trip for Day 1A of the Championship Event is 11 am, which is plenty of time for the 20 minute ride and to get acclimated to the casino for the tournament’s noon start.
Players wishing to take the 11 am shuttle should meet at the Bell Desk at 10:55 am.
The hotel will make additional trips to Coconut Creek upon request, and based on availability, from 7 am – 10 pm. You can make reservation by calling the front desk or 954-753-5598.
WPT Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship
Blanda Sees Soft field in SoFla
The brash bravado of “Big Daddy” Bill Blanda (Galveston, TX) is on full display at the Coconut Creek Pavilion on the eve of the Luck Hearts Championship event.
“Big money, easy pickings,” says Blanda, who surveyed the room and what he called the “soft Florida market,” creating a whole new meaning for SoFla.
Blanda is just one of the many professional players descending on this South Florida WPT stop that boasts a $1Million Guaranteed prize pool. The field already has more than 100 entries through satellites and promotions.
In addition to Blanda and his nearly $1 million in career recorded tournament earnings, the field will include WPT winning pros Will “The Thrill” Failla (Commack, NY), Jared Jaffee (Brooklyn, NY) and Anthony Zinno (Cranston, RI).
“I haven’t played as much poker as I should be,” said Zinno, who won his WPT title for $825,000 last September at Borgata (Atlantic City, NJ), “but after decent sleep tonight, I’ll be ready to tackle Day 1A.”
Zinno says escaping the Northeast snow, the Florida sun, a direct flight and a good poker room rate all added up to a winning play. “I’ve never been to Coconut Creek before, but it all hooked me in.”
Jaffee is also glad to escape the snow.
“It’s zero degrees here (New York) and nice weather down there, so it’s pretty much a no brainer,” said Jaffee prior to making another televised WPT final table last week in Atlantic City.
Jaffee pushed his career earnings to $1.6 million with a 4th place finish ($259,000) and is looking to keep the momentum going in Florida where he won his WPT title.
“This is the first year that I feel like I have a legitimate chance at making a run at the WPT Player of the Year,” Jaffee said, adding, “anything in the South seems to work for me.”
While Jaffee, Zinno and Blanda are set to play the Championship Event, Failla is already in the series. The 15-time winner with $4.2 million in live earnings, busted out of Event 9 ($1,650 Purple Chip Bounty) and immediately jumped into a Mega Satellite for the Championship Event.
Day 1A begins 11 am Friday, followed by Day 1B Saturday. The Friday schedule also features two satellites into the Championship Event (3 pm & 8 pm) as the tournament staff offers a player friendly series.
“That’s what we want,” says Blanda, “a customer friendly, well educated, knowledgeable and professional staff.”
Blanda says these are the primary reasons he’s in SoFla. Adding that basic poker is the same everywhere, but it’s the experience that separates one tournament from another.
Blanda’s also quick to add that the quality of the field “doesn’t hurt” when he booked his trip to Coconut Creek.
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
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
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.
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:
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.
