The poker action in Florida didn’t stop with the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open series, as sister property Seminole Hard Rock Tampa is keeping the ball rolling with the Tampa Poker Classic.
In the first big tournament of the festival, the $600 No Limit Hold’em Reentry, two players earned just shy of $80,000 apiece as Michial Drake and Lawrence Cheng agreed to divvy up the remaining monies evenly after outlasting 996 other entries. It was Drake (pictured) snagging the trophy, but both took identical payouts.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michial Drake | Louisville, Kentucky | $79,319* |
| 2 | Lawrence Cheng | Jacksonville, Florida | $79,319* |
| 3 | David Ormsbee | Orlando, Florida | $44,087 |
| 4 | Abdul Amer | Galena, Ohio | $32,491 |
| 5 | Mansoor Kader | Land O Lakes, Florida | $24,257 |
| 6 | David Kilcoyne | Churchville, Pennsylvania | $18,347 |
| 7 | Maxwell Young | North Palm Beach, Florida | $14,062 |
| 8 | Anthony Askey | Richmond, Virginia | $10,924 |
*reflects heads-up deal
Neither Drake nor Cheng had much in the way of recorded live cashes according to The Hendon Mob, with a total of about $30K between them, nearly all of that attributed to Drake. Neither player had any live wins of any sort, at least as far as recorded tournaments go.
Others cashing among the 100 paid spots included Jeff Trudeau Jr., Mark Hodge, Damon Ferrante, James Poper and Raminder Singh, who just missed the final table with a 14th-place finish.
Overall the event had to be considered a success for the property. While it’s far from the 4,000 entries that have packed a similar event in the Hollywood property a few years back, drawing almost 1,000 is no mean feat these days especially with a cap of 30 active tables. The prize pool of $513,970 was miles above the token $150K guarantee.
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Other Early Winners and Looking Forward to Main Event
In addition to the big reentry, a couple of smaller events already wrapped up in the series. Event #1 $400 No Limit Hold’em Reentry saw 411 runners to more than double the $50K guarantee, and a rarely seen seven-way even deal ended play with everyone involved earning $12,932. Additionally, Hristos Tsironis came out on top of Event #3 $200 No Limit Hold’em Reentry, though his $10,404 came after a deal as well, with Davy Ridout grabbing $7,000 for his share out of the $42,400 prize pool.
This week will see a slew of satellites and side events lead into the $300,000 guaranteed Main Event, which has a $1,700 price point and kicks off with the first of three starting flights on Thursday.
PokerNews will likely provide a recap when a champion is crowned early next week.
Photo courtesy of Seminole Hard Rock Tampa