Kicking the tournament poker season back into gear, the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open will start play in its Main Event at noon today in Hollywood, FL.
In just its third year in existence, the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open has had a significant impact on the tournament poker world. The inaugural event in 2013 was something that was previously unheard of in the poker community. The hosts of the event, the Seminole Indian tribe of Florida, set a $10 million guarantee on the tournament and utilized three starting days for the $5250 tournament. Even with the three starting days, many in the tournament poker world didn’t believe that, especially after the grind (and the bankroll hit) that the recently completed 2013 World Series of Poker had created, anyone would show up for the tournament.
What happened is part of the annals of poker history. A total of 2384 entries were eventually tallied up by the 2013 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event, building a prize pool that crushed the $10 million guarantee by $1,920,000. The eventual champion, Blair Hinkle, walked away with a $1,745,245 payday and 337 other players caught a piece of the prize pool.
Fast forward to last August and the Seminoles tried to catch lightning in a bottle again. Keeping the guarantee at $10 million, the 2014 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open looked to draw in another huge throng of players, but the stage was a bit different this time around. Instead of being the only game in the tournament poker world, other events – most notably the 100th event in the history of the European Poker Tour in Barcelona, Spain, the World Poker Tour’s stop at one of its longest running events, the Legends of Poker, in Los Angeles, CA and the WinStar Casino in Oklahoma’s $2.5 million guaranteed Main Event – battled for a spot on the tournament poker calendar. The result was a drop in entries for the 2014 version of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event.
“Only” 1499 players came to Florida last year for the tournament, creating more than a $2.5 million overlay for the Seminoles in their event. True to their word, the Seminole Indians came up with the extra money for the prize pool, ensuring the $10 million guarantee would be honored and paying out 300 of the entrants in the field. In what was the continuation of one of the most dominant tournament poker runs in recent memory, Daniel Colman (coming off winning the $1 million buy-in “Big One for One Drop” at the 2014 WSOP) would defeat a valiant Mike Leah to take home the $1,446,710 first place prize.
So what have the Seminoles learned in the two years that they’ve run the tournament? For 2015, it seems as if they have learned to set their expectations a bit lower than in previous years.
The 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event is a $5 million guaranteed event with the same $5250 ($250 juice) buy-in. Unlike the previous years, however, this year’s tournament will not feature any rebuys (in the previous two events, some players took up to 7 shots at the tournament). With just the one shot, the risk is well worth the reward as the first place prize is a guaranteed $1 million.
Even with the lower guaranteed prize pool, players are still lining up to take their shot at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event. Former WPT champions Anthony Zinno, Marvin Rettenmaier,Will Failla and Jared Jaffee will be joined by the recently crowned WSOP National Champion Loni Harwood, Allen Kessler, Matt Glantz and Matt Stout, whose Charity Series of Poker held its second annual event last night and raised $32,000 that was split between the Broward County Habitat for Humanity and the international arm of the same organization. It is also possible that Phil Laak and Jennifer Tilly may step into the event as they have been at the Hard Rock this week for the action on the tables.
Which way with the tides turn for the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event in 2015? Late registration will be open for the tournament until 10PM tonight, at which time the story for this year’s tournament will be told.
