Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Spring Poker Open
Event 5: $155  No Limit Hold’em
March 10-12, 2014

Entries: 589
Prize Pool: $73,625

RECAP
Wadie Khalaf doesn’t take the lion’s share of the $73,625 prizepool that was generated in the $155 No Limit Hold’em event, but in a seven-way chop, Khalaf takes home a prize package worth $7,949 ($6,299 in cash plus the $1,650 seat into the  Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Spring Poker Open Championship event).

“It feels good,” said the Tampa poker pro. “It’s nice to have a good score here at the Hard Rock.” Khalaf grinds cash games and plays most of the tournaments in the Tampa Bay area. According to him, this is one of his bigger scores.

Khalaf showed up to the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa poker room at 2pm on Wednesday afternoon, along with the 94 other players who survived the first four flights. The bubble burst a few hours into the day, with 54 players earning a pay day of at least $295.

As the final table was looming, Amaury Lopez and Miguel Rivera began to pull away from the pack and came to the final table as the two chip leaders.

DJ Scheib got a huge double up early in the final table when his pocket queens flopped a full house against Lopez on a flop of Q-8-8. Scheib checked the flop and allowed Lopez to make a smaller full house with pocket fives when a five fell on the turn.

Khalaf also came into the final table short, but picked up chips when he won a flip against Mark Rose with his pocket tens against Rose’s A-K. That sent Rose home in 9th place and gave Khalaf a better than average stack.

Martin Welch bubbled the chop, finishing in eighth place, bubbling the chop, when he got all in preflop with pocket nines against Rivera’s K-Q. Rivera made the nut flush on the turn and had Welch drawing dead.

There was chatter throughout the rest of the level about chopping up the rest of the prizepool, but nothing was made official until they discussed it on the break.

When they came back from break, they had agreed to a chop based on chip counts and awarded Khalaf the seat and the title.

FINAL RESULTS

Main Event Schedule