2015 Winter Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tampa
Event #1
$350 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em ($150,000 Guarantee)
Total Entries: 741
Prize Pool: $220,650
December 3-6, 2015

Tampa, Fla. (December 6, 2015) — Steven Bennett laid claim to the lion’s share of the prize pool in Event 1 of the 2015 Winter Poker Open Sunday at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. Bennett went in the books as the $350 deep stack no limit hold’em re-entry tournament’s champion following a six-way chop that saw him score $24,583 as well as the property’s token guitar trophy.

“[I][came][here] to play this tournament,” Bennett, a resident of Deerfield beach, Fla., said. “I’m going to drive back probably tomorrow and come back for a couple of other tournaments at the end of the week […] It was a great tournament and it’s a great series.”

Event 1 was the first of 14 tournaments on the WPO schedule. As expected, the $150,000 guarantee was shattered to the tune of a $220,650 prize pool. Notables John “PearlJammed” Turner and Seminole Hard Rock Poker ambassadors Michael Laake and Wally Maddah turned out to help push the starting field to 741 entries. Those to finish in the money include Maddah, Chris De Guzman, Deborah Farmer and Jeremy Costa.

The tournament featured six starting flights beginning Thursday, December 3, Friday, December 4 and Saturday, December 5 at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. respectively. Flight A drew 81 entries and advanced 11, Flight B 76 and 10, Flight C 90 and 17, Flight D 136 and 23, Flight E 202 and 30, Flight F 156 and 24. Day 2 restarted at noon Sunday, December 6 with 115 players remaining and action concluded at about 8:30 p.m.

For Bennett, 46, the win marks, his second career tournament victory.

Event 1 final results:

1st: Steven Bennett – $24,583*
2nd: Daniel Ramirez – $24,528*
3rd: Daniel Lobato – $23,058*
4th: Karl Lind – $22,188*
5th: Thomas Clements – $21,105*
6th: Michael Poeltler – $20,796*
7th: Antuan Buckley – $7,943
8th: John Templeton – $6,068
9th: Sean Shah – $4,192
10th: Vitor Coelho – $2,758
11th: Sufian Soufan – $2,758
12th: Joshua Fulford – $2,758
13th: Joseph Wallace – $1,986
14th: Chris De Guzman – $1,986
15th: Manelic Minaya – $1,986
16th: Richard Petrovic – $1,368
17th: Nagabhushan Begur – $1,368
18th: Bradley Patton – $1,368
19th: Herbert Woodbery – $1,169
20th: Christy Pham – $1,169
21st: Marc Lowe – $1,169
22nd: Anthony Dianaty – $1,169
23rd: Timothy H. – $1,169
24th: Eric Rivkin – $1,169
25th: Gregory McNealy – $1,169
26th: Tom Nguyen – $1,169
27th: David Lappano – $1,169
28th: Adi Moshe – $1,037
29th: Misti Murphy – $1,037
30th: John Pappas – $1,037
31st: Maury Barrett – $1,037
32nd: Mohd Eid – $1,037
33rd: Deborah Farmer – $1,037
34th: Eric Wilkinson – $1,037
35th: Michael Cohen – $1,037
36th: James Smith III – $1,037
37th: Mark Scacewater – $927
38th: Jeffrey Wakefield – $927
39th: Steven Bellas – $927
40th: Christian McKean – $927
41st: Mostafa Asari Pir Al Van – $927
42nd: Kalvin Williams – $927
43rd: Dariel Lane – $927
44th: Peter Kosakowski – $927
45th: Lawrence Dowling – $927
46th: James Gibson – $916
47th: Jessie Hulen – $816
48th: David Vogel – $816
49th: Joseph Steur – $816
50th: Harlon Kinney – $816
51st: Michael Scott – $816
52nd: Dustin Bradley – $816
53rd: Ryan Hittel – $816
54th: Praveen Challagundla – $816
55th: George Hemphill – $728
56th: Christopher Kline – $728
57th: Julius Gaduang – $728
58th: Ronald Sullivan – $728
59th: Cheri Beatty – $728
60th: Rocco Defina – $728
61st: David Lawrence – $728
62nd: James Carmadella – $728
63rd: Michael Turton – $728
64th: Anatoly Zharnitsky – $640
65th: Benjamin Rehm – $640
66th: Plamen Stoyanov – $640
67th: Carlos Loving – $640
68th: Jeremy Costa – $640
69th: Dariel Polanco – $640
70th: Michael Traficante – $640
71st: Walid Maddah – $640
72nd: Ross Monteleone – $640

*Denotes a chop