$570/$300K: Aaron Speer Wins $62K, a Main Event Seat and Seminole Hard Rock Guitar

2018 Winter Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino 
Tampa, Florida
Event 1
$570 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$300,000 Guaranteed

Entries: 867
Prize Pool: $433,500
December 6-9, 2018

(Tampa, Florida) — Aaron Speer is a poker champion following a win in Event 1 of the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Winter Poker Open. The victory came following a four-way chop and earned Speer, a Tampa native that now lives in Orlando, $62,008 as well as a $1,650 Main Event seat and the token guitar trophy.

A 37-year-old roofer, Speer masterfully maneuvered through a big, 867-entry field in the $570 buy-in event. The field easily surpassed the $300,000 guarantee with a final prize pool of $433,500. After six starting flights and 14 levels of Day 1 play, the competition was narrowed to only 158 by Day 2. Just the top 87 were set to score a payday and defending champion Gil Aboodi as well as Tampa standout John Dolan and Wally Maddah were among those to bust shy of a score.

Speer began the day with a good stack and stayed toward the top of the counts as the field narrowed around him. By the time play dwindled to the 10-handed final table, though, all eyes were Tony Tran. Tran went on a heater busting a number of the final table participants before Speer tamed his hot run.

On Speer’s most crucial hand, he held AhTc versus Tran’s Tx9x. There was three-way action and the flop fell KdQhJs. It wasn’t until the turn 2d that Speer and Tran got Speer’s last 2,670,000 in the middle and Tran saw the bad news — he flopped the bottom end while Speer had the top. The hand gave Speer 6,940,000 chips and proved pivotal in catapulting him into the winner’s circle a short time later.

Ultimately, Speer was chip leader at the time a chop was decided. As such, he went down as the champion and gave up an unknown amount of money to the other participants — Tran, William Kopp and Alex Ribeiro — due to the $1,650 Main Event seat reserved for first.

Here are the results of the chop:

1st: Aaron Speer – $62,008 + Trophy and $1,650 seat
2nd: Tony Tran – $51,224
3rd: William Kopp – $46,425
4th: Alex Ribeiro – $37,228

Speer has modest tournament results with each of his previous four reported cashes coming right here at the Seminole Hard Rock and totaling just over $4,700. The win and $62,008 score in Event 1 marks far and away his most notable poker accomplishment.

Final results:

1st: Aaron Speer – $62,008 + Trophy and $1,650 seat
2nd: Tony Tran – $51,224
3rd: William Kopp – $46,425
4th: Alex Ribeiro – $37,228
5th: Carlos Guerrero – $20,081
6th: Jordan Robinson – $16,009
7th: Joseph Orsino – $13,258
8th: Joseph Skarzynski – $10,554
9th: Abdel Bouanani – $7,924
10th: Karl Manouchakian – $6,564
11th: Michael McCarthy – $6,564
12th: Jason O’Loughlin – $6,564
13th: Kharlin Sued – $5,251
14th: Timothy Gualandri – $5,251
15th: Carlos Loving – $5,251
16th: Joshua Fulford – $4,366
17th: William Muniz – $4,366
18th: Bob Gallo – $4,366
19th: Jordan Holt – $3,576
20th: Anthony Dianaty – $3,576
21st: Amin Akhlaghi – $3,576
22nd: Richard Carr – $3,019
23rd: Huicun Qiao – $3,019
24th: Chuck Lum – $3,019
25th: Christopher Placko – $2,544
26th: Talesh Patel – $2,544
27th: Alex Ivan – $2,544
28th: Roberto Sanchez Silva – $2,073
29th: Sara Hall – $2,073
30th: Corey Liple – $2,073
31st: Earl Vanlandingham – $2,073
32nd: Andrew Kelsall – $2,073
33rd: David Algava – $2,073
34th: Witold Wasik – $2,073
35th: Edward Gibbs – $2,073
36th: Lawrence Kiang – $2,073
37th: Joseph Acquavella – $1,827
38th: Harry Johnson – $1,827
39th: Femi Fashakin – $1,827
40th: Rob Manjura – $1,827
41st: Lawrence Dowling – $1,827
42nd: Austin McLean – $1,827
43rd: David Arkeilpane – $1,827
44th: Robert Benford – $1,827
45th: Sherriee Williams – $1,827
46th: Kristopher Villanueva – $1,615
47th: JUlio Delgado Reyes – $1,615
48th: Jefferson Hightower – $1,615
49th: Mehdi Adibi – $1,615
50th: Mark Wiser – $1,615
51st: William Wolf – $1,615
52nd: Christopher David – $1,615
53rd: Joel Pridgen – $1,615
54th: Donald Anderson – $1,615
55th: Randolph Spain – $1,442
56th: Matthew Leecy – $1,442
57th: Harvey Vandeven – $1,442
58th: Joseph Doyle, Jr. – $1,442
59th: Kevin Blewitt – $1,442
60th: Jeffrey Bradford – $1,442
61st: Max JOnes – $1,442
62nd: Noe Acosta – $1,442
63rd: Antuan Bunkley – $1,442
64th: Tom Nguyen – $1,291
65th: Timothy Chakos – $1,291
66th: Israr Khan – $1,291
67th: Marcus Gurley – $1,291
68th: Michael Petty – $1,291
69th: James Kerr – $1,291
70th: Alex Beece – $1,291
71st: Daniel Hutter – $1,291
72nd: William London – $1,291
73rd: Sean Tansey – $1,175
74th: Nicholas Avena – $1,175
75th: John Armatas – $1,175
76th: Robert O’Rourke – $1,175
77th: John Utley, Jr. – $1,175
78th: Marvin Karlins – $1,175
79th: James Rumptz – $1,175
80th: William Billups – $1,175
81st: Li Zhou – $1,175
82nd: Christopher Laieta – $1,062
83rd: Steve Trizis – $1,062
84th: Brian Kinser – $1,062
85th: Robert Panetta, Jr. – $1,062
86th: James Renehan – $1,062
87th: Chris Adams – $1,062