$300 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed | Structure Level 5: 200/400 with a 400 ante Players Remaining: 140 of 203
Registration closed on the first flight of Event 2 and it continued the trend from yesterday with another great turnout. Flight A of the $100,000 guarantee tournament drew 203 entries to put $66,990 towards the prize pool with two more big weekend flights to go.
This one is going to be huge.
Flight A will continue to play throughout the day into the evening and until only 21 players remain. Those players will bag up their chips for a Day 2 return on Sunday already in the money coming back.
2020 Winter Poker Open Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa, Florida Event 1 $300 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed Entries: 335 Prize Pool: $83,750 December 2, 2020
Irfan Khairi, Event 1 Champion
The Winter Poker Open returned to Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Tampa on December 2 and it had a great kickoff. Event 1 of the series had a $300 buy-in with a $50,000 guaranteed prize pool and it attracted an incredible 335 entries on the first day of the series.
Those entries combined to push the prize pool up to $83,750 with more than $18,000 set aside for the champion. The tournament drew a slew of our local regulars and past champions including David Dibernardi, Mario De La Puente, Peter Walsworth, Bryce McVay, Josias Santos, Karl Manouchakian, and Wally Maddah.
The last 34 players were set to take home some cash and they made the money soon after the dinner break. The field steadily dropped until they formed the final table with everyone eyeing the big money and guitar trophy.
Dan Hanselman and Justin Howard were quickly eliminated from the final table and the last five settled in for a long grind with deep stacks. Ken O’Donnell, Carlos Aranda, and Jeremy Zides all took turns with the chip lead but it came down to a heads-up match between Austin Reilly and Irfan Khairi.
Reilly, a two-time WSOP Circuit winner, held nearly a 2-to-1 chip lead at the start of heads-up play but that changed when Khairi turned a full house to best Reilly’s flopped trip sixes. Soon after, Khairi made another full house to take the rest of Reilly’s chips for the win.
Reilly took home $11,390 for his runner-up finish while Khairi earned $18,063 and the Hard Rock Guitar Trophy. The Orlando resident had several close calls in the past but booked his first career tournament win with his victory.
Congrats to Irfan and thanks again to all of our players who came out to support the Poker Room in our first event of the series.
Event 1 results:
1st: Irfan Khairi – $18,063 + Guitar Trophy 2nd: Austin Reilly – $11,390 3rd: Ken O’Donnell – $7,349 4th: Jeremy Zides – $5,025 5th: Carlos Aranda – $3,936 6th: Patrick Hamilton – $3,059 7th: Justin Howard – $2,596 8th: Dan Hanselman – $2,178 9th: Mario De La Puente – $1,851 10th: Anthony Askey – $1,591 11th: Vanessa Waich – $1,591 12th: Vaughn Wagner – $1,591 13th: David Dibernardi – $1,382 14th: Rickey Evans – $1,382 15th: Josias Santos – $1,382 16th: Daniel Chandler – $1,214 17th: Jonmikel MacNichols – $1,214 18th: Jeremy Becker – $1,214 19th: Czeslaw Szerszen – $1,131 20th: Kevin Rodriguez – $1,131 21st: Judes Chenet – $1,131 22nd: Christina Read – $1,047 23rd: Tracy Allen – $1,047 24th: Karl Manouchakian – $1,047 25th: Derrick Cutler – $984 26th: Julie McCrary – $984 27th: Jerome Hall Jr – $984 28th: Alexander Chiang – $888 29th: David Edwards – $888 30th: Ryan Luker – $888 31st: Thomas Koscak – $888 32nd: David McElroy – $888 33rd: Wilfor Marentes Pinto – $888 34th: Jason Javino – $888
The first big tournament on the WPO schedule ran late into the evening and now it’s time to roll out the first big multi-flight tournament on the schedule. Event 2 has a $400 buy-in with a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool and three starting flights. The first kicks off at 11am in the Poker Room with another on Friday and Saturday at the same time.
Tournament players sit down to 20,000 starting stacks and all levels will last 30 minutes. Late registration is open until the start of Level 3 at noon with re-entries available until the start of Level 5 at 1:30pm. Their day will come to an end when only 10% of the starting field remains, rounding up, and those players will return on Sunday for Day 2.
Cards go in the air in a few minutes and we will pick up coverage after registration has closed.
$100,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
Players begin with 20,000 in chips and 30-minute levels
Late registration available until the start of Level 3
Re-entry available until the start of Level 5
Day 1 will end at 10% of the field or Tournament Director discretion
$300 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 28: 40,000/80,000 with a 80,000 ante
Irfan Khairi
Irfan Khairi began heads-up play with Austin Reilly looking to double back into contention. That chance came early.
With the board reading , Reilly checked and Khairi bet 275,000. Reilly raised to 550,000 and Khairi called after a short think.
The river came and Reilly announced all in. Khairi called for 1,895,000 and showed for the turned full house. Reilly showed for flopped trip sixes, not good enough to prevent him sending the lead across the table.
$300 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 27: 30,000/60,000 with a 60,000 ante Players Remaining: 4 of 335
Carlos Aranda
Action folded around to Carlos Aranda and he moved all in from the button for ~320,000. Irfan Khairi folded his small blind and Ken O’Donnell called in the big.
O’Donnell: Aranda:
Aranda had two live, suited cards, missed the flop, but picked up an open-ended straight flush draw. Most of those outs went out the door when the hit the turn to give O’Donnell a full house. Aranda could not hit one of his two outs on the river to go out in fifth place.
Ken O’Donnell – 1,900,000 (32 bb) Carlos Aranda – Eliminated in 5th place ($3,936)
$300 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 27: 30,000/60,000 with a 60,000 ante Players Remaining: 5 of 335
Patrick Hamilton
Ken O’Donnell opened the action from under the gun to 125,000 and Patrick Hamilton moved all in from the button. The blinds folded and O’Donnell called with the bigger stack.
O’Donnell: Hamilton:
Hamilton’s pair was dominated and he couldn’t find a miracle on the board to exit in sixth place.
Ken O’Donnell – 1,650,000 (28 bb) Patrick Hamilton – Eliminated in 6th place ($3,059)
$300 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts Level 26: 25,000/50,000 with a 50,000 ante Players Remaining: 6 of 335
There was a cooldown after Justin Howard was eliminated but Jeremy Zides heated it back up. He moved all in for 425,000 from the small blind after Ken O’Donnell raised to 125,000 from the button. O’Donnell called with a chance to send Zides out.
Zides: O’Donnell:
Zides was ahead but had to dodge two live cards to double. The board ran out board and Zides pair of aces was good enough to double.
Jeremy Zides – 950,000 (19 bb) Ken O’Donnell – 950,000 (19 bb)
, Reilly checked and Khairi bet 275,000. Reilly raised to 550,000 and Khairi called after a short think.
and Reilly announced all in. Khairi called for 1,895,000 and showed 
for the turned full house. Reilly showed 
for flopped trip sixes, not good enough to prevent him sending the lead across the table.
flop for trip nines. The 
turn and 
river completed the board and we had our first 2020 WPO champion.
board to exit in fourth place.
board to exit in sixth place.
