2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
$350 Six-Max No Limit Hold’em (Single Re-Entry)

August 5, 2015

Total Entries:  141
Total Prize Pool:  $42,300

Philip Consolo was on the shorter end of a final table deal earlier in this Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open.  This time around, he made sure he was walking with the better end of it and won the Event 8 title.

Event 8 was the first of three tournaments to play out on Wednesday night and saw two sets of eliminations take place as we grew closer to our final table.  Former NBA champion Earl Barron fell in 12th place along with Jeff Nemes in 11th.  Then a short time later in near-simultaneous eliminations, Luke Doolittle went out in 10th and Steven Graham was gone in 9th.

With one more elimination to go before we reached the unofficial final table, Philip Consolo got the job done in a big way flopping quads against Gary Flur pushing the tournament to seven players and laying the foundation for his final push.  Then John Valevich caught Dor Geller’s push to knock him out in 7th place creating the official final table.

Consolo then made his second elimination of the final table as his ace-five hit trips on the flop against Roberto Berrocal’s pair of sevens ending Berrocal’s run in 6th place.  Consolo then followed that up winning a critical race against James Lehman.  Lehman, who had been making repeated all-in bets at the final table was in with queens against Consolo’s ace-king. But once again, Consolo hit an ace taking the field down to four and taking out Lehman in 5th place.

David Somers, who had bubbled Event 5 earlier in the day, then managed to get in on the action.  Somers was in a massive pot with pocket fours against John Valevich’s ace-four.  The pair held up getting Somers some much-needed chips and sending the field to three players.

Consolo, Somers and Evan Teitelbaum then decided to craft a deal to end the tournament. After all was said and done, Consolo had the chip lead and had won the championship that had eluded him earlier in the series.

Consolo looked back on his late run through the tournament.  “Last two tables were definitely intense – there were some really good players.  Lots of people left had a lot of chips so it was definitely anyone’s game and I just played my game, put my headphones on and was just hoping for the best.  I won a couple all-ins at that final table that got me chip stacked up and I took it from there.”

After the earlier near-miss in Event 3, Consolo couldn’t have been happier about the victory.  “Sounds great and feel great!  Two back-to-back final tables and this one I got the trophy.  I’ve only played two this series so it’s definitely working out for me.”

Consolo also was gracious to the team here at Seminole Hard Rock-Hollywood.  “The staff was great.  I’ve been coming here and playing tournaments since they opened so I’ve seen it grow and seen poker grow and the tournaments get bigger and bigger.  It’s awesome.”

Congratulations to our Event 8 Champion – Philip Consolo!

Results:
1st: Philip Consolo (Adventure, FL) – $7,804
2nd: David Somers (Bayonne, NJ) – 7,180
3rd: Evan Teitelbaum (Parkland, FL) – $7,000
4th: John Valevich (Brooklyn, NY) – $3,667
5th: James Lehman (Royal Palm Beach, FL) – $2,754
6th: Roberto Berrocal (Miami, FL) – $2,119