On the last hand of play, Julio Novo limped from the small blind and Marcus Seitz jammed from the big.
Julio counted out his remaining chips — 42,600 — and decided he didn’t want to return for day 2 with only 10 big blinds so he called all-in. “I didn’t want you to call, I just wanted to take what’s out there” Marcus said as he showed his .
Julio rolled over and figured he could jump into Flight C which is just getting rolling if he busted.
The board changed his plans, however, as it ran out giving Julio a pair of 8s and the double-up.
$150 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed
Level 1: Blinds 25/50
The third of seven starting flights is underway here in the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Poker Room. Players began with 12,000 chips and all levels are 30 minutes long.
Late registration and re-entry are available until the start of level 9 (about 10:30pm).
Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Winter Poker Open Event 1: $350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) December 4-7, 2014
Entries: 769 Total Prize Pool: $230,700
Yong Wolfer – 1st Place
RECAP
“It feels great! I’m excited,” is how Yong Wolfer (Rochester, NY) summed up his experience winning this event. When they reached the ten-handed final table, he had almost a quarter of all the chips in play. The final ten decided on an chip-based chop with Wolfer collecting $39,273, the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Winter Poker Open Signature Guitar Trophy, and the $1,650 seat in the Championship event.
The opening event of the Winter Poker Open was a two day event that featured six starting flights over three days. Due to this, it was actually the third event of the series to reach a conclusion. The total number of entries was 769 building a total prize pool of $230,700, which crushed the guarantee of $150,000.
Wolfer entered this event twice. In Flight D, he had “a bad run of cards and played too aggressively with no cards”. Things went better for him in Flight E and he bagged 167,000, putting him 29th out of 129 returning players. Today, he played “very aggressively, picking his spots” and that helped him to build a huge chip lead over the final ten players.
He came down for vacation and to play poker, sort of a poker-cation, and is usually a cash-game player, preferring $2/$5 and $5/$10 No Limit. This is his best career cash in a tournament and has sparked his desire to play more tournaments.
Wolfer has a home improvement business back home and has to get back to it, but would like to return to play more events during this series. “I love Florida. The area and the casino are very nice. I just can’t get over the weather.”
$150 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry) $100,000 Guaranteed
End of Level 14: Blinds 1,500/3,000/400 ante
There were 22 players remaining out of 171 entries in this flight. Chip average for this flight is 93k.
They’ve bagged up and will return Thursday at 12 noon for Day 2.
Here they are with their chip counts:
Fletcher McKinney 228,000 Gabriel Tuduraohe 214,000 Paul Stanechewski 130,000 Robert Sheets 121,000 Lawrence Dowling 118,000 Eric Wilkinson 117,500 Mike Harwood 116,500 Edward Compton 106,000 Michael Bronzo 96,000 Edith Norman 89,000 Wally Maddah 82,000 Garth Fuddens 80,500 Taylor Patterson 74,500 Ronald Hollis 73,500 Ross Valenza 66,000 Curtis Deltynt 65,000 Stephen Snedeker 61,000 Mary Louise Martin 58,500 Fabio Lonard 56,500 George Perez 32,500 Phouthasin Vorasame 31,500 Sandford Sero 29,500
After some tough negotiations, this event has ended in a 10-way ICM chop! Yong Wolfer (Rochester, NY) takes 1st place, the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Winter Poker Open Signature Guitar Trophy, and the $1,650 seat in the Championship event.
Here’s how they finished and what they earned:
Place Name Earnings 1st Yong Wolfer $39,273 2nd Richard Clayton $23,532 3rd Hristos Tsironis $23,002 4th Charles Bell $17,172 5th Tom Osmun $14,575 6th Roberto Durante $12,190 7th Marc Kropf $10,706 8th Scott Queckboerner $9,487 9th Tom Nguyen $8,480 10th Kirsten Olieberg $4,784
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and figured he could jump into Flight C which is just getting rolling if he busted.
giving Julio a pair of 8s and the double-up.
