Blair Hinkle, Steven Silverman Big Winners at Seminole Hard Rock
Winning the SHRPO Main Event gave Hinkle a first prize that nearly equaled his career tourney winnings of $1.77 million going into the tournament. Bonomo also earned a six-figure prize for his runner-up finish, pushing his career earnings up over $7 million.
The poker world's attention was directed toward south Florida over the last week where the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL hosted two noteworthy tournaments with big prize pools that attracted many of poker's elite. One was the inaugural World Poker Tour Alpha8 event, a "super high roller" $100K tourney in which Steven Silverman won the $891,660 first prize. The other was a $10 million guaranteed event with a $5,300 buy-in that saw Blair Hinkle take away the top prize of $1,745,245.
Silverman the Man at Alpha8 Florida
On one side of the Seminole Hard Rock over in the "Hard Rock Live" concert arena the first ever WPT Alpha8 Florida event played out on Monday and Tuesday, a $100,000 buy-in event that ultimately attracted a total of 18 players. Three of those would choose the option to re-enter the event on the first day, thus making for a total of 21 entries and a $2,206,500 total prize pool.
Nine of those 18 players survived the first day of play, with Daniel Perper having bought in two times and busted twice. Others failing to survive that first day of play included Andrew Lichtenberger, Jason Koon, Tom Hall, Chris Klodnicki, Brandon Steven, Dan Shak, Erik Seidel, and Philip Gruissem.
Players returned on Tuesday with Matt Glantz the chip leader and Bill Perkins the short stack among the final nine. Perkins soon was eliminated, thus setting up the official eight-handed final table, although only the top four finishers in the tournament made the money.
Jason Mercier had begun Day 2 second in chips, but he suffered a sequence of unlucky hands to fall in eighth, with Daniel Alaei and Joseph Cheong following him to the rail thereafter.
Isaac Haxton then became aggressive on the huge money bubble at five-handed, and enjoyed the chip lead for a time before he, too, experienced some misfortune to become the fifth-place finisher. Both Haxton and Alaei joined Perper as the only players to buy in twice into the event, with none of the three cashing.
Glantz would then go out in fourth after falling in a hand versus Jeff Gross, and after the dinner break Gross would next go out in third after losing the last of his chips to Silverman.
That set up heads-up between Steven Silverman and a player who is having a heck of a year, current 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event chip leader J.C. Tran. The pair were almost dead even in chips to begin heads-up play, and Tran even nudged out in front before Silverman won a big preflop all-in when his 9d-9c held against Tran's Ah-Jh.
Just three hands later Tran was all in with Qs-8c against Silverman's Qd-9h, and when the flop came 8s-Td-5h Tran had gained the lead in the hand. But the 9s fell on the turn to give the advantage back to Silverman, and after the Qh fell on the river, Silverman had won.
$100,000+R WPT Alpha8 Florida results:
1st: Steven Silverman -- $891,660
2nd: J.C. Tran -- $526,890
3rd: Jeff Gross -- $364,770
4th: Matt Glantz -- $243,180
Huge Score for Hinkle in SHRPO Main Event
Meanwhile over on the other side of the casino the 30-plus tournament, three-week long Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open was coming to a big finish with the completion of the $5,000+$300 buy-in Main Event, a much-hyped tourney featuring an eye-popping $10 million guarantee.
That guarantee meant the tournament needed at least 2,000 entries to avoid an overlay, but with three Day 1 flights and unlimited re-entries (including the option to abandon one's stack from an earlier Day 1 flight and re-enter with a full starting stack on a later one), the chances of reaching that goal were increased.
Ultimately the goal was met, with 1,605 unique players and 2,384 entries total. There were 779 re-entries all told, with one player re-entering eight times. The total prize pool added up to $11,920,000, split among the top 338 finishers.
Justin Bonomo re-entered five times during those Day 1 flights. He'd end up with a top five stack to start Day 2 and would remain among the leaders all of the way to yesterday's six-handed final table where he began play in second position behind chip leader Blair Hinkle.
Ultimately those two made it to what became a lengthy and exciting heads-up battle that lasted almost six hours. Finally Hinkle edged out in front to a more than 6-to-1 chip lead, then a hand arose that saw Bonomo check-raising all in on a Qd-9s-5c-Jc board and Hinkle calling immediately. Bonomo had Qs-8c but was already drawing dead as Hinkle had a king-high straight with Ks-10h.
The win gave Hinkle a first prize that nearly equaled his career tourney winnings of $1.77 million going into the event. Bonomo also earned a six-figure prize for his finish, pushing his career earnings up over $7 million.
$5,300+R Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open ME results:
1st: Blair Hinkle -- $1,745,245
2nd: Justin Bonomo -- $1,163,500
3rd: Mukul Pahuja -- $872,625
4th: Ray Qartomy -- $639,925
5th: Samuel Bernabeau Guilabert -- $494,490
6th: Greg Lehn -- $378,138