The 2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open opening event was completed last night after an additional day of play. Nicholas Mahabee was declared the champion of the multiple starting flight $360 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry). The player’s share of the prize pool totaled $66,435. In addition, he also took home a shiny guitar pick tournament trophy.
Mahabee emerged as the winner after striking a six-way deal with his five remaining opponents at the final table. Once there were only six hopefuls left to contend for the title and after playing for a while, they decided to split what had remained of the prize pool almost evenly. The trophy went to the chip leader at that point. The four contenders with the most chips collected $66,435 each. The last two took home $66,434.
Event 1 on the popular poker festival’s schedule drew 2,570 entries. Although the tournament originally guaranteed a prize pool of $500,000, the figure was exceeded late on Saturday to eventually reach $771,000. The top 250 finishers received a share of the prize pool. The bubble burst on Sunday.
The event was scheduled to be completed on Sunday but there were ten players left at the time organizers decided to call it a day. The survivors returned at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood for an additional day of play. Harjinder Chawla was leading the remaining contenders with 8,625,000 in chips.
It took two hours of play for four players to be eliminated and the six hopefuls left at the table to take a short break. They played for a little while after the break and eventually decided to split the prize pool and to crown Mahabee the tournament champion. Based on his position in the eventual chip counts ranking, Vito Polera took 2nd place in the event. Harjinder Chawla finished 3rd, followed by Martin Markov, Tom Gity, and Ryan Brown.
Brian Phillis took 7th place in the tournament for $23,901. It could be said that the player was the final table’s headliner. Last year, he almost won the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $5,250 No-Limit Hold’em Championship Freezeout. Eventually, he finished runner-up to Omar Zazay. The player collected $575,000 for his deep run into the major event.
Jennifer Parker received $16,191 for her 8th place. Lunique Petiote finished 9th for a payout of $11,565. Sean Iannucci rounded out the unofficial final table to scoop a $7,710 share of the prize pool.
