2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood
Event #5
$150 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Total Entries: 1,841
Total Prize Pool: $220,920
Brian Woods’ tournament resume isn’t very extensive, but the poker dealer from Jacksonville, FL prefers quality scores over quantity.
Woods added his second career tournament cash to his resume on Wednesday evening, but made it count by outlasting a massive field of 1,841 players and earning the win in a four-way chop.
Woods took home the lion’s share of the chop and went home with $34,653 in the $150 No Limit Hold’em Re-Entry event.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet, honestly,” said Woods after his win. “I feel like I played well. I feel like I won some good flips. I feel good, man.”
Woods’ only other recorded tournament cash was a final table at an earlier series in Jacksonville. He made that final table as well and finished fifth for over $13,000. Woods is more of a cash game player and also deals poker full time, but after a final table a few months ago, he decided to give tournaments another shot.
“I just started playing more tournaments,” said Woods. “I mostly just play cash. Coming out of that Jacksonville series, I felt a lot like, just for the value of buying in for $150, you got to take a shot.”
Woods took his shot and made it with the win. He was only scheduled to play this event, but with another five-figure score under his belt, he’s thinking about changing plans.
“To be completely honest with you, I wasn’t planning on it,” said Woods about playing a full slate of events. “But I definitely feel like I should give it a shot. I’m running hot right now.”
Woods was born in Chicago, but was raised in New Orleans. He moved out to Jacksonville after some family members retired in the area. He moved out there to be closer to his family and started dealing poker games in the area.
At the outset of the final table, Woods was the runaway chip leader. The rumblings of a chop started during nine-handed play. After running the ICM numbers, Woods was the main reason a deal wasn’t reached. He wanted more money than what was being offered, but he wasn’t afraid to continue playing.
“I play fearless,” said the 31-year-old. “So my style is conducive to playing it out because I feel like a lot of guys will tighten up a little bit. When they first offered it, I thought I wouldn’t take anything less than $40,000. I thought with the chips that I had, I thought I could for sure win.”
They continued to play until they were down to the final four players. The blinds were getting big, stacks were getting shallower, and the money jumps were getting bigger. After running the numbers again, Woods agreed to a deal.
“Once we got down to four, I saw how close in chips we were at that point,” said Woods. “At this point, I guess I’ll take $34,000. With the structure and the blinds the way they were, you were just one flip away from fourth place money.”
Here is a look at the final table results:
1st: Brian Woods – $34,653
2nd: Jay Moron – $30,180
3rd: Jonathan Ounjian – $28,880
4th: Michael Goldfarb – $21,725
5th: Ricardo Eyzaguirre – $9,610
6th: Eric Riley – $7,401
7th: Matthew Wilkins – $5,633
8th: Roy Paulena – $4,131
9th: Anthony Perrotta – $2,960