2019 Winter Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Tampa, Florida
$1,650 Winter Poker Open Main Event
$500,000 Guaranteed
Entries: 479
Prize Pool: $718,500
December 12-16, 2019
The Winter Poker Open spent 13 days awarding big money and Guitar Trophies with the Main Event headlining the schedule. The $1,650 buy-in tournament had a great turnout and it was Greenville, SC resident David Moses taking home nearly $150,000 as the WPO Main Event Champion.
The tournament featured a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool that reached $718,500 after 479 entrants joined over the three starting flights. There were 72 players advancing to Day 2 on Sunday with only 48 of them set to earn a piece of the prize pool.
Austin Buchanan bagged a huge chip lead in Flight A and no one caught him in the next two. He stayed hot on Day 2 with the chip lead for most of the day but found himself at the bottom of the counts when the final table reconvened on Monday afternoon.
SHR Tampa favorite Manny Minaya began the final table with the chip lead but dropped to the pack as Moses began to build. Buchanan was the first to be eliminated from the final table followed by Mark Scacewater. Terri-Anne Crawford, the lone woman still in the Main Event, battled over the last two days but had to settle for seventh place.
With five players remaining, Minaya and Duff Charette were the two shorter stacks and went out shortly after a break. The last three players, Moses, Justin Zaki, and TK Miles, were all talented and the stacks were virtually even when it went three-handed.
Miles took a cooler against Zaki, queens into kings, and made a valiant come back that ultimately came up short. Moses and Zaki exchanged the heads-up lead until they got the chips in with similar stacks. Moses had the best hand, it held up, and he took home the title along with $149,595 while Zaki had to settle for a $104K score.
This is the second major Seminole Hard Rock Poker title for Moses to go along with his February 2019 WSOP Circuit win in Coconut Creek.
Congratulations to David and a huge thanks to all of our players who made this a very successful series.
Main Event final table results:
1st: David Moses – $149,595
2nd: Justin Zaki – $104,750
3rd: TK Miles – $67,345
4th: Duff Charette – $44,367
5th: Manny Minaya – $34,165
6th: Nick Mann – $28,295
7th: Terri-Anne Crawford – $23,711
8th: Mark Scacewater – $19,320
9th: Austin Buchanan – $14,959
Download – Complete Main Event Results (PDF)