The 2023 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) kicked off back on July 26 and culminated on Tuesday with the conclusion of a quartet of poker tournaments dubbed “The Big Four.”
In between, there were some notable winners including Justin Liberto, who we previously covered here, as well as Shaun Deeb, who we recapped here. Other winners included Lawrence Berg (Event #21: $1,100 HORSE for $21,110), Nick Palma (Event #22: $600 Deep Stack Six-Max NLH for $16,446), and Stanley Lee (Event #31: $1,100 Purple Chip Bounty Turbo NLH for $17,740).
It was also a good series for Anthony Zinno, who laid claim to two titles. First, he topped a field of 119 runners to win Event #27: $1,100 8-Handed PLO for $25,714, and a couple of days later bested a 92-entry field to win Event #38: $1,100 Deep Stack Mixed PLO for $18,274.
Here’s a look at the results for “The Big Four.”
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Championship Ends in 4-Way Deal; Farid Jattin the Champ
The premier tournament of the series was the $5,300 buy-in, $3 million GTD SHRPO Championship, which drew 1,070 entries and blew past its guarantee by offering up a $5,189,500 prize pool.
The final table was a stacked affair with plenty of poker superstars, and four of them wound up striking a deal that ultimately saw Farid Jattin, who was the chip lead, claim the title and $655,000 in prize money.
“I think the moment I stopped defining my life by poker results, the results started coming by nature,” Jattin told SHRPO reporters. “I’m playing for my family now — for my wife, for my brother, for my parents. I’m very thankful for poker, but eventually, you’ve got to disconnect.”
He added: “This is an amazing venue. I think besides Vegas, it’s the capital of poker nowadays in the States. It’s very professional, with a very good atmosphere. And they blow the guarantees out of the water.”
2023 SHRPO Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Farid Jattin | $655,000* |
| 2 | Shannon Shorr | $545,000* |
| 3 | Omer Rotman | $490,762* |
| 4 | Kitty Kuo | $480,763* |
| 5 | Jim Collopy | $223,925 |
| 6 | Koray Aldemir | $180,130 |
| 7 | Nadya Magnus | $148,885 |
| 8 | Mike Leah | $118,115 |
| 9 | Philipe Pizzari Pinto | $87,960 |
*Denotes four-way deal.
Others to cash the tournament were Ryan Riess (10th – $87,960), Asher Conniff (15th – $53,710), Natasha Mercier (16th – $43,800), Darren Elias (17th – $43,800), Justin Liberto (20th – $36,120), and Sheddy Siddiqui (24th – $29,840).
Mermelstein Nabs High Roller Title
The two-day Event #47: $25,500 Big 4 High Roller had 86 entrants, which squeaked by the $2 million guarantee by generating a $2,124,200 prize pool that was paid out to the top dozen finishers. Ultimately, World Poker Tour (WPT) champ Aaron Mermelstein finished as the last player standing to claim the title and $614,645 first-place prize.
“It feels great, it’s always good to beat the $25k, and it’s special because I’ve won it before and it’s all the best players out here. It feels amazing, so I’m glad I could close it out,” said Mermelstein, who won the tournament back in 2019.
“I love the venue, I mean the Hard Rock is one of the best places to play. It’s a clean environment, the hotel is amazing, the tournaments are really good, and I run good here so that adds to it.”
$25,500 High Roller Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aaron Mermelstein | $614,645 |
| 2 | Marcos Exterkotter | $441,085 |
| 3 | Brandon Wittmeyer | $276,150 |
| 4 | Isaac Kempton | $189,055 |
| 5 | Daniel Rezaei | $125,330 |
| 6 | Mike Chiappetta | $93,465 |
| 7 | David Coleman | $76,470 |
| 8 | Viktor Ustimov | $65,850 |
| 9 | Frank Funaro | $63,725 |
Others to cash the tournament but fall just short of the final table were Joey Weissman (10th – $61,600), Justin Saliba (11th – $59,475), and Alex Foxen (12th – $57,350).
Sepiol Holds Off Kornuth to Win $2,700 Big 4 NLH
Event #43: $2,700 Big 4 No-Limit Hold’em had 411 entrants compete for a portion of a $1,006,950 prize pool. The final table played host to some big names in the poker world, including the red-hot Bin Weng, but in the end, it was grinder Dan Sepiol emerging victorious to claim the title and $204,735 top prize.
Sepiol began heads-up play down 4:1 in chips against well-known poker pro Chance Kornuth, and while it took a while – it was the last tournament of the day to finish – Sepiol completed the comeback.
“It feels great, the final table was full of really good players, and I ran really, really hot,” said Sepiol, a MSPT champ who lives in Las Vegas. “I just played my game and my strategy, and tried to not get too ahead of myself so I could make every decision when it came up.”
He added: “I’m used to playing cards and going on swings, and you just can’t let it affect your emotions. I won three or four all-ins against Chance so that obviously helped.”
$2,700 Big 4 NLH Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dan Sepiol | $204,735 |
| 2 | Chance Kornuth | $142,335 |
| 3 | Michael Wang | $92,790 |
| 4 | Nitis Udornpim | $62,000 |
| 5 | Leoard August | $47,680 |
| 6 | Bin Weng | $39,525 |
| 7 | Michael Rocco | $33,180 |
| 8 | Hamed Zia | $26,885 |
| 9 | Brian Altoman | $20,600 |
James Carroll Wins Event #46: $1,100 Deep Stack NLH
The two-day Event #46: $1,100 Big 4 Deep Stack NLH had 515 runners, which offered up a $515,000 prize pool. Coming out on top of that tournament, thanks in no small part to an uncanny run of cards, was WPT champ James Carroll.
“It was one of the strangest days of poker I’ve ever had. I think in the four hours of play I had pocket aces or pocket kings 16 times, no exaggeration,” Carroll told SHRPO reporters. “I got dealt a lot of big hands today so it would have been tough for me to not win.”
He added: “It’s just nice, because the series as a whole was bad for me. I almost played the $25k instead, but I decided to try this one at the last second, and then just sort of ran up a stack. Yeah, for sure, I wasn’t at peak confidence and decided to play smaller and it worked out.”
$1,100 Deep Stack NLH Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Carroll | $100,000 |
| 2 | Rajasekar Govindan | $68,100 |
| 3 | David Laufer | $44,815 |
| 4 | Scott Dehm | $31,445 |
| 5 | Darren Rabinowitz | $24,150 |
| 6 | Kevin Payton | $20,100 |
| 7 | Liam Hagens | $16,700 |
| 8 | Richard Ganesh | $13,340 |
| 9 | David “ODB” Baker | $10,000 |
List of 2023 SHRPO Winners
All told, the 54-tournament series catered to a combined 17,645 entrants and awarded $18,028,605 in prize money. Here’s how things broke down.
| Date | Tournament | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 26-31 | Event #1: $400 Deep Stack NLH | 6,253 | $2,063,490 | Johnny Bromberg | $219,090 |
| 7/26/23 | Event #2: $400 Seniors 50+ | 214 | $71,690 | Dan Van Dyke | $12,192 |
| 7/26/23 | Event #3: $600 Deep Stack Big O | 145 | $76,125 | David Shmuel | $18,903 |
| 7/26/23 | Event #4: $200 Quad Stack Double Green Chip Bounty | 243 | $26,730 | Eric Ward | $3,625 |
| 7/27/23 | Event #5: $600 Limit Omaha 8 | 89 | $46,725 | David Thurston | $14,600 |
| 7/27/23 | Event #6: $600 Deep Stack Six-Max PLO | 173 | $90,825 | Sam Sternfield | $23,260 |
| 7/27/27 | Event #7: $200 Big Stack NLH | 340 | $54,400 | Zachary Harrell | $11,300 |
| 7/28/23 | Event #8: $600 Eight-Game Mix | 100 | $52,500 | Nick Zivolich | $8,020 |
| 7/28/23 | Event #9: $600 Double Black Chip Bounty Turbo NLH | 85 | $28,050 | Carlos Bermudez | $9,030 |
| 7/28/23 | Event #10: $600 Black Chip Bounty 5-Card PLO | 158 | $67,150 | Donald Maloney | $15,653 |
| 7/29/23 | Event #11: $600 Mixed PLO | 139 | $72,975 | Chris Tsiolis | $20,425 |
| 7/30/23 | Event #12: $400 Deep Stack NLH | 460 | $154,100 | Ethan Bennett | $18,001 |
| July 30-31 | Event #13: $1,100 Deep Stack NLH | 186 | $180,420 | Jason Min | $38,100 |
| July 31-August 1 | Event #14: $600 Deep Stack PLO | 429 | $223,060 | Peter Ng | $44,270 |
| 7/30/23 | Event #15: $300 Quad Stack Black Chip Bounty NLH | 312 | $48,460 | Antuan Bunkley | $8,239 |
| 7/30/23 | Event #16: $400 Deep Stack Turbo NLH | 81 | $27,540 | Kevin Naim | $8,785 |
| July 31-August 1 | Event #17: $1,100 Deep Stack Seniors 50+ | 117 | $113,490 | Steven Bennett | $33,010 |
| July 31-August 2 | Event #18: $200 Big Stack NLH | 1,756 | $280,960 | Jose Ordonez | $33,354 |
| 7/31/23 | Event #19: $400 Black Chip Bounty NLH | 180 | $42,300 | John Binns | $9,810 |
| 7/31/23 | Event #20: $600 Deep Stack Turbo PLO | 40 | $21,200 | Christopher Hice | $8,690 |
| 8/1/23 | Event #21: $1,100 HORSE | 61 | $59,170 | Lawrence Berg | $21,110 |
| 8/1/23 | Event #22: $600 Deep Stack Six-Max NLH | 169 | $88,725 | Nick Palma | $16,446 |
| 8/1/23 | Event #23: $10,000 Deep Stack NLH | 84 | $798,000 | Justin Liberto | $257,000 |
| 8/1/23 | Event #24: $600 Double Black Chip Bounty PLO | 75 | $24,375 | Rafael Lima | $6,825 |
| 8/1/23 | Event #25: $300 Quad Stack Black Chip Bounty NLH | 171 | $26,505 | Esteban Garcia | $6,540 |
| 8/1/23 | Event #26: $1,100 Deep Stack Turbo NLH | 67 | $67,000 | Min Zhang | $23,450 |
| 8/2/23 | Event #27: $1,100 8-Handed PLO | 119 | $115,430 | Anthony Zinno | $25,714 |
| August 2-3 | Event #28: $1,100 Deep Stack NLH | 251 | $243,470 | Mike Graffeo | $55,285 |
| 8/2/23 | Event #29: $25,500 High Roller PLO | 22 | $543,400 | Shaun Deeb | $239,100 |
| 8/2/23 | Event #30: $200 Quad Stack Double Green Chip Bounty NLH | 350 | $38,500 | Diana Prkacin | $5,076 |
| 8/2/23 | Event #31: $1,100 Purple Chip Bounty Turbo NLH | 124 | $62,000 | Stanley Lee | $17,740 |
| August 3-4 | Event #32: $2,700 Eight-Game Mix | 65 | $159,250 | Sam Sternfield | $55,745 |
| August 3-4 | Event #33: $2,200 Deep Stack NLH | 227 | $454,000 | Mike Vanier | $105,570 |
| 8/3/23 | Event #34: $50,000 Super High Roller | 17 | $824,500 | Brandon Wilson | $362,780 |
| 8/3/23 | Event #35: $600 Black Chip Bounty NLH | 194 | $82,450 | Tanupat Punjarojanakul | $13,774 |
| 8/3/23 | Event #36: $1,100 Deep Stack Turbo NLH | 64 | $64,000 | Gil Ben-Simhon | $23,025 |
| August 4-8 | Event #37: $5,300 SHRPO Championship | 1,070 | $5,189,500 | Farid Jattin | $655,000 |
| 8/4/23 | Event #38: $1,100 Deep Stack Mixed PLO | 92 | $89,240 | Anthony Zinno | $19,274 |
| 8/4/23 | Event #39: $300 Black Chip Bounty Turbo NLH | 165 | $38,875 | Chase Carlin | $6,695 |
| August 5-6 | Event #40: $1,100 Limit Omaha 8 | 38 | $36,860 | Eugene Kotlyarevskiy | $15,110 |
| 8/5/23 | Event #41: $300 Quad Stack NLH | 204 | $52,020 | Alejandro Arana Torres | $12,595 |
| 8/6/23 | Event #42: $400 Deep Stack HEROS | 65 | $21,775 | Matthew Kaplan | $7,625 |
| August 6-8 | Event #43: $2,700 Big 4 Deep Stack NLH | 411 | $1,006,950 | Dan Sepiol | $204,735 |
| August 6-8 | Event #44: $200 Deep Stack NLH | 614 | $98,240 | Nir Peleg | $11,107 |
| 8/6/23 | Event #45: $600 Deep Stack Turbo NLH | 45 | $23,850 | Samuel Ganzfried | $9,300 |
| August 7-8 | Event #46: $1,100 Big 4 Deep Stack NLH | 515 | $515,000 | James Carroll | $100,000 |
| August 7-8 | Event #47: $25,500 Big 4 High Roller | 86 | $2,124,200 | Aaron Mermelstein | $614,645 |
| 8/7/23 | Event #48: $1,100 Deep Stack Five-Card PLO | 118 | $114,460 | Kevin Schaffel | $29,308 |
| August 7-8 | Event #49: $600 Deep Stack Turbo PLO | 49 | $25,970 | Jonathan Borenstein | $9,605 |
| 8/8/23 | Event #50: $500 Deep Stack NLH | 107 | $35,845 | Frank Dimeglio | $8,425 |
| 8/8/23 | Event #51: $10,000 Deep Stack NLH | 113 | $1,084,800 | Viktor Ustimov | $221,332 |
| 8/8/23 | Event #52: $400 Triple Stud | 35 | $11,725 | David Brookshire | $4,805 |
| 8/8/23 | Event #53: $1,100 Deep Stack Six-Max PLO | 136 | $131,920 | Greg Levine | $36,370 |
| 8/8/23 | Event #54: $300 Quad Stack Black Chip Bounty NLH | 222 | $34,410 | Adam Rothschild | $7,780 |
The next big series at the Seminole Hard Rock in South Florida – the Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open – is slated to take place November 15-28.
Executive Editor U.S.
Executive Editor US, PokerNews Podcast co-host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.