The Pot Limit Omaha 8 tournament is continuing the trend of great turnouts for our non-hold’em games. We have 47 entries in the first hour and will most likely top the 97 we drew for this tournament last year.
David Shmuel ran well in the 2017 tournament. The Hollywood regular booked his first major SHRP trophy last year and followed that up with another RRPO title a week later. Shmuel’s won another tournament this past August in the SHRPO Pot Limit Omaha game for three trophies in less than a year.
Sunday was a busy day in the Hard Rock Event Center, so much so that the series expanded to an outer room. The Event 1 restart utilized all 76 tables in the Event Center but that did not last long.
We saw 676 players return for Day 2 and they played down to the money well before the first break of the day with 450 taking home some money. The brisk pace continued but we still had 16 players remaining when they hit the 3am hard stop.
While Event 1 was playing down, we had two one-day trophy events running alongside.
The $360 Black Chip Bounty had a $30,000 guaranteed prize pool and the 219 entries more than doubled that amount between the regular and bounty prize pools. They played in the Salon East most of the day but redraw the final three tables back into the Event Center.
Event 7 had the biggest buy-in of the series so far and it drew some big players as we approach the Championship later in the week. The $1,100 buy-in tournament had a $100,000 Guarantee and it also easily surpassed its mark with 170 entries.
$570 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) $250,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 3: 100/200 with a 200 ante Flight A Entries: 82
Chris Nominkos
Flight A of Event 1 is bringing a nice early crowd to the Event Center with 82 entries after an hour of play. That is a good sign for another huge prize pool number by the time registration closes on Tuesday evening.
Chris Nomikos knows a little something about making a big result in this tournament. Last November he rolled into his Thanksgiving holiday after banking more than $33,000 for a second place finish in a six-way deal at the $570/$250,000 Guarantee final table in 2017.
$360 Pot Limit Omaha 8 (Re-Entry) Structure Level 1: 25/50
After four straight days of one-day non-hold’em games, we took a little break on Sunday but return today with another. Event 9 is a $360 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha 8 tournament that will once again attract our players who enjoy this variant of the game.
They will start out with 10,000 stacks and all levels will last 30 minutes. Late registration is available until the start of Level 9 at 4:30pm with re-entries allowed during that time should anyone bust out. There is a dinner break schedule at 6pm and they will return to play down to the PLO8 champ later in the evening.
Cards fly at noon and we expect another fun, competitive tournament.
Players begin with 10,000 in chips and 30-minute levels
Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
This is a one-day tournament and plays until completion
We aren’t quite done the big opening multi-day tournament but we have another on deck for those who don’t find themselves among the final 16 in Event 1.
Event 8 is a $570 buy-in tournament with four starting flights over two days and it sports a $250,000 guaranteed prize pool. This is how we roll into the Thanksgiving holiday.
Players start with 20,000 deep stacks and all levels last 30 minutes on Day 1 switching to 40 on Day 2. Late registration and re-entries are available until the start of Level 9 at 3:30pm and they will play 14 levels today before bagging up. The tournament will also utilize the big blind ante format where the player in the big blind will post the ante for the entire table.
Flight A kicks off at 11am in the Hard Rock Event Center and it should be another great showing.
$250,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Players begin with 20,000 in chips
Single ante will be paid from the big blind for the entire table
Day 1 levels last 30 minutes; Day 2 levels last 40 minutes
Late registration/re-entry available until start of Level 9
Day 1 will end after Level 14 or Tournament Director discretion
2018 Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Event 7 $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Entries: 170 Prize Pool: $164,900 November 18, 2018
Raminder Singh wins $1,100 no-limit hold’em
Raminder Singh’s trophy case is full of trophies from poker tournaments he has won. From looking at his results, he owns nearly two dozen of them.
In the early hours of Monday morning, he earned another one in the $1,100 no-limit hold’em. In a heads-up chop with Travis Jackson, Singh came out on top of the 170-entry field and earned $37,706 for his efforts, along with the hardware.
Some players love trophies to show off to their friends and family. They validate their skill on the felt. Singh has another motivation for taking the trophies back to his South Florida home.
They are to continually push his daughter to be a better athelete.
“My daughter, Sonya, she’s into ice skating and she wins a lot of trophies too,” said Singh. “She wins some in ice skating and I win some in poker. This is to inspire her. When I take a new trophy home, she is quite inspired to win more in ice skating and do well. That is a great inspiration as a dad.”
Singh is a family man through and through. His mile-long list of victories, including a WSOP Circuit ring from a main event victory, all come from South Florida. He rarely leaves the area, let alone the state to play a poker tournament.
Every single victory he has to his name have all come in South Florida. With multiple businesses to run and two kids to raise, he sticks to local tournaments in order to be there for his family.
In the last six weeks alone, he’s won three tournaments before his victory at the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood.
“Those are all amateur trophies, I call it,” said Singh. ” I call myself a true amateur in the Slum Donkey Poker Community.”
Singh is part of a larger group of poker players that formed the Slum Donkey Poker Community. They share hand histories and results with each other. Singh is an amateur by definition, but his skills rival most pros.
“I’m one of the decent amateurs,” said Singh. “I’ll describe it like that, but I enjoy poker in my free time.”
Singh expertly navigated the final table. He came into the unofficial final table near the top of chips, bunched together with a few other big stacks.
He opted to get a feel for the table before really turning up the pressure.
“I tried to sit back and take some time as a decent stack,” said the Delray Beach native. “And try to observe the final table. There were players combined from various tables. Later on, when I had a good handle on the play of the various players, I decided to change my game and play accordingly.”
As the table got shorter, Singh started to accumulate chips at a rapid pace. He was the chip leader three-handed when chop talks arose. They were nixed by the short stack, Lucas Braga, who ended up busting in third and left Singh heads-up with Jackson.
After looking at the ICM numbers, the two players agreed to a chop. Singh had the larger stack and got the slightly bigger payout, giving him credit for the win.
He noted that he doesn’t usually chop, but there were events on Monday’s schedule that he wanted to be rested to play.
The 170-entry field paid the top 24 spots. Here are the full results:
1st: Raminder Singh – $37,706* 2nd: Travis Jackson – $34,311* 3rd: Lucas Braga – $16,910 4th: Sherrie Williams – $10,290 5th: David Jackson – $7,940 6th: Edward McNamara – $6,580 7th: Ann Coffen – $5,689 8th: Jason Budish – $4,978 9th: Derek Bowers – $4,434 10th: Gavin O’Rourke – $3,694 11th: Guy Naimi – $3,694 12th: Vitor Coelho – $3,694 13th: Hiren Dharani – $3,125 14th: Hyndi Khomutetsky – $3,125 15th: Dovid Goldfischer – $3,125 16th: Kathryn Lindsey – $2,597 17th: Sukhjinder Hare – $2,597 18th: Chris Moorman – $2,597 19th: Roberto Bendeck – $2,102 20th: Paul Domb – $2,102 21st: Jordan Joeckel – $2,102 22nd: Scott Wright – $1,608
2018 Rock N’ Roll Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood, Florida Event 6 $360 No-Limit Hold’em Black Chip Bounty Entries: 219 Prize Pool: $43,800 Bounty Prize Pool: $21,900 November 18, 2018
Tyler Dietz wins $360 Black Chip Bounty
Tyler Dietz made the trek down to South Florida from Niagara Falls, NY to play the $360 deep stack no-limit hold’em with a $1 million guaranteed prize pool.
He fired a few bullets in that event, busted before the money and didn’t earn the six-figure payout he had hoped for. He will, however, bring a trophy back to Western New York. After falling short in his desired event to win, he hopped in the $360 no-limit hold’em black chip bounty.
The 22-year-old defeated a 219-entry field and earned $10,446 for his efforts, as well as $100 for every player he knocked out.
“I busted that one a few times and took it over here,” said Dietz after his victory. “And I won it.”
Dietz came into the final table with an overwhelming chip lead, but ran into a few bumps in the road along the way. In the end, they just delayed the inevitable – Dietz’s first Hard Rock trophy.
“I was putting a little pressure on and I ran into a few hands,” said Dietz about the final table action. “I got it in ahead and got rivered about three or four times. Got pretty low and then just won some flips.”
In the end, it was Dietz heads-up for the title against Patrick Spence. Spence was eliminated in second for $7,306 and Dietz picked up Spence’s bounty and kept his own.
The bounty aspect encouraged a little more action than in a normal no-limit hold’em tournament. It made the experience more enjoyable for the eventual winner.
“I definitely called some all ins light and other people called all ins light,” said Dietz. “It made it better when I picked up a hand or when someone else picked up a hand. It was pretty cool.”
Unfortunately for the business major at Niagara Community College, the five-figure score and the victory will be the last of the series for him. He has school commitments back in New York and won’t be able to compete in the rest of the series.
“I got to go back to school this week,” said Dietz. “So, I’m going home.”
The 219-entry field paid out the top 28 spots. Here are the full results:
1st: Tyler Dietz – $10,446 2nd: Patrick Spence – $7,306 3rd: Nick Ahmadi – $4,490 4th: Beau Dickinson – $2,731 5th: Michael Merisier – $2,109 6th: Joseph Orsino – $1,748 7th: Dmitriy Konikov – $1,489 8th: Carlos Medina Chintan – $1,270 9th: Jake Embres – $1,045 10th: Charles Gomez – $920 11th: Elias Nassif – $920 12th: Cameron Collins – $920 13th: Peter Hsu – $788 14th: Daniel Kasper – $788 15th: Timothy Tackett – $788 16th: Ryan Jaworski – $657 17th: Fabio Santos – $657 18th: Juan O’Campo – $657 19th: Randy Marker – $526 20th: Edison Barrera – $526 21st: Cory Litke – $526 22nd: Henry Miller – $405 23rd: Ethiel Garcia – $405 24th: Dwight Barclay – $405 25th: Vontz Burke – $325 26th: Donald Scheib – $325 27th: Robert Logan – $325 28th: Carlo Rodriguez – $303
$360 Deep Stack NLH (Re-Entry) $1,000,000 Guaranteed | Payouts End of Level 32: 100,000/200,000 with a 200,000 BB ante Players Remaining: 16 of 4,558
Devond Marshall
After finishing level 32, the final 16 players hit the hard stop at 3 a.m. and have bagged up their chips. They will return at 2 p.m. on Monday to play down to a winner.
They will all be chasing Devond Marshall, who finished the day with 10,750,000, just edging out Kharlin Sued for the chip lead. Sued finished with 10,025,000.
When they return, everybody is guaranteed a cash of at least $6,085, but the eventual winner will take home $218,794.
Here’s a look at the seat draw and chip counts for the final 16 players.
