The 2024 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $5,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event featured a $3,000,000 guarantee. With 865 entries, that goal was easily surpassed, with $4,195,240 ultimately paid out among the top 109 finishers.
New York stock trader Paul Snead walked away with the largest share, earning $529,428 and the trophy after striking a heads-up deal with Clemen Deng.
“It feels amazing, I just feel like the Hard Rock is my home turf now. I’m originally from New York and still live there and Florida now. Foxwoods used to be my home turf, but now I totally feel comfortable here and playing here. I love the way that they run tournament here, it’s just great,” Snead told Seminole Hard Rock Poker blog reporters after coming out on top.
This was the largest tournament score yet for Snead, topping the $257,334 he earned as the 21st-place finisher in the 2008 World Series of poker main event. He now has more than $2.3 million in recorded tournament earnings, with three of his top five cashes now coming in events held at Seminole Hard Rock properties around Florida.
The final day of this event began with just eight remaining from the field of 865 entries, with Snead in second chip position behind only Deng. Snead closed the gap early on when his pocket sevens outran the pocket jacks of Sterling Savill (8th – $80,000).
Loni Hui was the next to fall. After losing a big pot against Brandon Kessous, she got all-in against the same opponent with K-J suited facing A-3. Kessous made aces and nines to send the two-time bracelet winner to the rail in seventh place ($103,000).
Tyler Montoya, not far removed from a 61st-place finish in this year’s WSOP main event, placed sixth in this tournament for $133,000. His final hand saw his pocket eights run into the pocket kings of Deng, which held to narrow the field to five.
A battle of the blinds ended Billy Pilossoph’s run in fifth place ($175,000). Pilossoph shoved with K-9 from the small blind and was called by Deng, who held K-Q in the big blind. Both players paired their king, with Deng’s kicker playing to earn him the knockout.
A classic race resulted in Jack Thu’s elimination in fourth place ($230,000). Thu’s A-9 was in a fair fight against Kessous’ pocket eights, but the later made an eight-high straight on a seven-high runout to win the pot.
Kessous was soon the one who was all-in and at risk. His final stand pitted A-J against the pocket jacks of Snead. Neither player connected with the board and Kessous earned $310,000 as the third-place finisher.
Snead held 23,350,000 to Deng’s 19,900,000. The two soon came to a deal that saw Deng awarded $512,522 as the runner-up, while Snead secured the title and $529,428. This was Deng’s largest score yet, bringing his career earnings to over $1.9 million.
