The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open is one of the most highly preferred summer stops on the calendars of poker pros and enthusiasts not only from the US, but also from the rest of the world. This year’s edition of the festival was completed mere days ago at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
Over the course of two weeks, thousands of players sat at the tables of the host venue to contend for titles, trophies, and a portion of attractive prize pools. The SHRPO featured 18 tournaments this summer, with buy-ins for those varying from $150 all the way up through $50,000.
As announced by organizers, there were 27 players to scoop six-figure prizes from the festival. The Big 4 set of higher buy-in tournaments headlined this year’s edition of the SHRPO. The four tournaments featured an overall guaranteed prize pool of $6.5 million. Here is a little bit more about each of the four events and their respective winners.
$1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry $500,000 Guaranteed
Listed as Event #10 on the festival’s schedule, the two-day tournament attracted 633 entries who swelled the originally announced prize pool to $633,000. Bryan Altman was the player to finish first and scoop the first-place prize of $118,157 and the accompanying trophy.
Altman thus grew his live tournament earnings to over $2 million. The player is probably best known for winning the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open $3,500 Championship back in February 2015, when he won the total amount of $723,008 for his performance.
The SHRPO $1,100 tournament split the prize pool to the top 80 places, with minimum payouts starting from $1,804.
$2,650 No-Limit Hold’em Freeze-Out $1 Million Guaranteed
New York-based player Alex Foxen took down that tournament for his career best cash of $204,600. Foxen emerged as the winner from a field of 395 tournament entries. The event featured a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million, which had not been exceeded by the time registration closed.
The event awarded payouts to the top 52 finishers, min-cashes worth $4,440.
$5,250 Championship Singe Re-Entry $3 Million Guaranteed
The Championship event was indisputably the most highly anticipated one on the schedule. The tournament featured a guaranteed prize pool of $3 million, which grew to $4,301,950 due to massive interest.
The event drew 887 poker professionals and enthusiasts from all corners of the world. They battled it out for five days, until Martin Kozlov turned out to be the last man standing. The player collected $754,083 for his efforts.
Aside from the winner, 112 other players received a payout from the Championship event, with min-cashes kicking off at $2,509.
$25,500 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller $2 Million Guaranteed
Last but not least, the $25,500 also deserves attention as one of the Big 4 events. The tournament drew 117 participants who swelled the guaranteed prize pool to $2,925,000. John Andress emerged on the top, taking home $801,450 for his performance. This was the player’s largest ever live cash.
The top 16 finishers received a share of the overall prize pool, cashes starting from $55,575.
