Las Vegas is currently the most flooded tournament poker hotspot with the WSOP under way and a number of other live poker festivals taking place across Strip and Downtown casinos. However, Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida is readying itself to welcome a flock of poker pros and enthusiasts in less than two months for this year’s edition of its Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open series.
The major festival is set to run over 13 days starting August 2 and to feature $10 million in guaranteed prize money. A $570 Deep Stack tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million will give the official start to one of summer’s hottest annual poker events.
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino’s brand new Hard Rock Event Center will play host to the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open for the very first time. The newly launched space has already been host to another Seminole Hard Rock poker series, this spring’s Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. Nearly 80 poker tables welcomed participants in the festival for quality poker action.
For yet another year, The Big 4 will mark the culmination of Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open festivities. This year, the set of four major tournaments will feature a combined $6.5 million guarantee.
The premium events will include the $5,250 buy-in Championship with a guaranteed prize pool of $3 million, starting August 10, the $2,650 No-Limit Hold’em Single Re-Entry with a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million starting August 12, the $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry with a $500,000 guarantee, and the $25,500 High Roller with a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million, which will, too, kick off August 13.
A charity poker tournament, The Jeff Conine Celebrity Poker Classic, will once take again take place within the series. The event is organized by Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and the Charity Series of Poker and will take place on August 9. It will benefit the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital Foundation. Buy-ins for the event will amount to $300 and players will be able to re-enter unlimited times throughout it. Jeff Conine himself will attend along with more celebrities.
Last Year’s Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Big Winners
Martin Kozlov won last year’s Championship event to collect $754,083. The player outlasted a field of 887 entries after a five-day play at the host venue. The event started off with a $3-million prize pool, but the guarantee was crashed and the prize money eventually exceeded $4.3 million.
John Andress topped the field of the $25,500 High Roller for $801,450. The event drew 117 competitors who created a prize pool of $2.925 million to smash the $2 million guarantee. Alex Foxen emerged victorious over 395 entrants in the $2,650 No-Limit Hold’em Freeze-Out $1 million guaranteed for $204,600, while Bryan Altman took down the $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em $500,000 guaranteed for $118,157.
The four final tables of the Big 4 events earned collectively $5.8 million last year. As for the four winners they took home over $1.8 million for taking down the four highlight tournaments.
