Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Poker tourney is no flop
Big money fuels Hard Rock Open
Suitcases full of cash. Entry fees of $100,000. A tournament paying out $11.9 million.
Poker players say the amount of money flying around this week at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is like nothing they’ve seen before in Florida.
“Easily the biggest week in the history of Florida poker, and really exciting to see,” says Jason Mercier, a Fort Lauderdale-based professional poker player who has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the world and has had sixfigure scores in such places as Monte Carlo, London and Barcelona.
Hard Rock poker director Bill Mason says the momentum started Aug. 8 with the first event of the 33-tournament Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open. That first tournament cost $350 to enter and drew more than 3,300 entries. Players who busted out could re-enter as often as they wanted. Two later tournaments also surpassed 3,000 entries. The state record had been 2,607, set at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in 2012.
During the past seven days, the casino has seen an increase in players, but also an infusion of cash for a $10 million guarantee tournament that ends Wednesday and had 2,384 entries at $5,300 each. The winner will receive $1.7 million.
Justin Bonomo of Toronto tweeted that he bought in five times. The gamble paid off: He’s in second place with
just six players remaining. Even if disaster strikes Wednesday, he’ll win at least $378,138.
“I was just amazed at how much money some of these guys have,” says Jon Marks of Weston, noting that two pros at his table each brought enough money to enter the tournament five times. “Another had a suitcase that he said he’d use for 20 buy-ins if he needed to. Poker reality is much different from my reality.”
Meanwhile, the World Poker Tour decided to hold its first “Super High Roller” eventMonday as part of the Open. Eighteen players each poniedup$100,000for a tournament that will be televised next year on Fox Sports 1. Phil Ivey, considered the best player in the world, wired $200,000 to the casino so he could reenter if he busted out. But he never entered, and left the casino early, citing family issues.
But the crazy cash didn’t end with the tournaments. Players who were eliminated have found action with high-stakes cash games that aren’t part of the tournament. Starting bets for Texas hold ’em have often been $50, and a “Super-Stud” game started at $2,000 per hand.
“Easily the best high-limit games we’ve ever had,” Mason says.
Florida’s poker history doesn’t include many bigmoney tales. Until 2007, state laws limited bets to $2, with a limit of three raises. Poker players were limited to $100 buy-ins until 2010.
But with every table taken over the past three weeks, Mason says, there was little room for lowerstakes players. Awaiting list filled three screens.
“The poker room was packed all weekend and when you have something like this going on, theremay not be room for everybody, but we used every table we had,” Mason said. “We’re definitely going to work on that.”