When the World Series of Poker puts the “November Nine” on hiatus in July, the poker world normally goes into a deep slumber that takes a couple of months to come out of. That was rocked in 2013 when the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, FL, took the chance and guaranteed a $10 million prize pool No Limit Hold’em event that proved to be a worthy exercise (more on that in a bit). The Seminole Hard Rock will do it once again in 2014, announcing the dates for this year’s Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open last week.
There will be a total of 23 tournaments on the schedule for the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in 2014, covering virtually every discipline of poker imaginable. Beginning on August 14 through September 3, whatever a poker player’s tastes may fall towards – Bounty tournaments, Omaha, H.O.R.S.E., re-entry events or No Limit Hold’em – will be put on the table for the poker world to wake up to post-WSOP. The tournaments themselves are very reasonably priced (beginning at $250), but two tournaments should garner the most attention.
Starting while the Championship Event of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open is in play, the $100,000 Super High Roller will begin on Monday, September 1. The inaugural event of the World Poker Tour’s Alpha8 series, the 2013 version of this tournament drew in some of the deepest-pocketed pros that the poker world knows. 18 players contributed 21 buy-ins for the first of its kind series, with such notable names as Bill Perkins, Jason Mercier, Daniel Alaei, Joseph Cheong and Isaac Haxton falling by the wayside with nothing to show for their investment. Matt Glantz, Jeff Gross and 2013 WSOP Championship Event “November Niner” J. C. Tran were able to at least double their money, but Steve Silverman prevailed as the first champion of Alpha8 to take home $891,660.
Although it is on the schedule for the 2014 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, what isn’t known is if it will once again be a part of the Alpha8 schedule. At this time, WPT officials have not announced the future of the circuit as, following successful stops there in Florida, in London and in St. Kitts, a tournament in Johannesburg was rather sparsely attended (only nine men were at the felt in South Africa). With the announcement of the $100K event on the schedule, however, it could be assumed that Alpha8 will live on for another season.
The marquee tournament, however, will be the $5000 Championship Event. When the Seminole Hard Rock officials took that “leap of faith” and announced the tournament in 2013 with the $10 million guarantee, there was trepidation from many due to the arduous grind of the WSOP and the tournament falling so close to the close of events in Las Vegas. The players responded resoundingly, though, eventually ponying up 2384 entries over its three Day Ones, bursting through the guarantee in building a prize pool that ended up at $11,920,000.
The guaranteed prize pool brought out the major players on the tournament poker circuit, with some of them taking home some nice change along the way. Preparing for his run at the 2013 WSOP “November Nine,” Amir Lehavot would finish in 16th place, joined by David ‘Doc’ Sands, Griffin Benger and Ryan Olisar in coming up just short of the final table. At that final table, Blair Hinkle was able to outlast Justin Bonomo, Mukul Pahuja, Ray Quartomy, Sam Guilabert and Greg Lehn (second through sixth, respectively) to take down a $1,745,245 payday.
In setting the schedule for the 2014 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, Seminole Hard Rock officials dodged a couple of bullets. If they had held the tournament at the same time as in 2013, this year’s tournament would have conflicted with the opening event in Barcelona, Spain, on the Season Eleven schedule of the European Poker Tour (the 100th tournament in that fabled tour’s history). Rather than force players to choose, Seminole Hard Rock officials simply adjusted their timetables to a little later in August to start this year’s festivities.
No matter whether your bankroll is a little short or you’ve got the money to burn, the 2014 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open will once again capture the attention of the poker world post-WSOP. For a full look at the schedule, visit their website here.
