The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) Main Event is down to its final table, as the field was sliced from 30 players entering Day 3 to just nine. Aaron Mermelstein entered the day’s action as the chip leader and exited in the same spot, sporting a fairly healthy lead holding 6.15 million chips.
Mermelstein’s cushion over Yi Chi Li is about 1.6 million chips, which amounts to 40 buy-ins, so that gap is not insignificant. After Li and his 4.555 million chips is Matt Berkey with 4.045 million. So despite Mermelstein’s chip lead and the fact that I just said it is “not insignificant,” we’re looking at a pretty solid battle at the top.
After those three, it actually gets quite interesting, as from fourth place to eighth place, there is just a 655,000 chip spread with all five players in the 2 million chip range. After Berkey is Adam Levy (2.675 million chips), Martin Kozlov (2.320 million), Michael Aron (2.200 million), Dylan Drazen (2.110 million), and Luke Brereton (2.020 million). The jockeying for position among those five players could be interesting.
Pulling up the rear is Joe Kuether with just 565,000 million chips. Don’t feel too bad for him, though, and not just because he is guaranteed at least $75,413. On Tuesday, he will have the enviable and exhausting task of trying to navigate two final tables, as he had already made the final table of the $1,100 buy-in event before the SHRPO Main Event had begun.
One has to wonder if Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open organizers foresaw this as a possibility when they created the schedule or if they just didn’t care. My guess is some of both. Part of what was hyped by the casino for the SHRPO was the “Big 4,” which consists of the $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Re-entry event, the $5,250 Main Event, the $2,650 Freeze Out, and the $25,500 High Roller Re-entry event. They were scheduled to create somewhat of a spectacle, with the tournaments starting on different days, but all four final tables being played today in the same room, all streamed online.
Final tables occurring at the same time has happened before, most notably at the World Series of Poker, but when you have 60-70 events, sometimes that sort of thing is inevitable. The Big 4 was intentionally done; organizers likely decided to just take the chance that someone might make more than one final table.
I have seen players try to play in two tournaments at once – I remember Barry Greenstein once scurrying between tables at the WSOP (I think it was one final table and one tournament that was part-way through) – but two final tables simultaneously is a new one.
Said final tables are just getting underway at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood. Should be a fascinating day of poker.
2017 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event – Final Table Chip Counts
Aaron Mermelstein – 6,150,000
Yi Chi Li – 4,555,000
Matt Berkey – 4,045,000
Adam Levy – 2,675,000
Martin Kozlov – 2,320,000
Michael Aron – 2,200,000
Dylan Drazen – 2,110,000
Luke Brereton – 2,020,000
Joe Kuether – 565,000
