Four Players Take Home Six Figures in Seminole Hard Rock Reentry
Seminole Hard Rock continues to make poker dreams come true with another monster round of payouts in its latest big reentry event, at Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. This time, four players took home six-figure prizes, led by local Florida player Steven Bennett, who got $186,308 from just one $570 shell.
"This is amazing and I'm shocked," said Bennett, who had a near miss in the same event last year when he got fifth for $46,838. "I'm kind of speechless."
Bennett was joined in the winner's circle by Josias Santos ($169,966), Dominic Pacelli ($145,277) and Jack Shea ($133,663). The latter two are also Florida residents, while the former hails from Brazil. They had to overcome a final table that included former November Niner Jerry Wong and WSOP bracelet winner Peter Eichhardt.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steven Bennett | Deerfield Beach, FL | $186,308* |
| 2 | Josias Santos | Sao Paulo, Brazil | $169,966* |
| 3 | Dominic Pacelli | Lake Worth, FL | $145,277* |
| 4 | Jack Shea | Hallandale Beach, FL | $133,663* |
| 5 | Peter Eichhardt | Lidingo, Sweden | $76,129 |
| 6 | Nicholas Mahabee | Miami, FL | $59,843 |
| 7 | Jerry Wong | Margate, FL | $43,935 |
| 8 | Schuyler Thornton | Corpus Christi, TX | $29,543 |
| 9 | Rafael Fernandes | Hatfield, Spain | $21,210 |
*reflects four-way deal
The event drew 3,030 entries across its six starting flights, a pretty typical total for the wildly popular reentry events at SHR. That allowed the event to rocket past $1.5 million in prize money, well past the $1 million guarantee.
Some of the players who made a deep run into the event's final day but missed out on the final table included James Calderaro, Phil Hui, David Prociak, Marshall White and Mukul Pahuja.
Final Table Action
Eichhardt held the lead much of the way during the play down on the penultimate day, and he maintained that lead with 13,750,000 into the final table at 100,000/200,000/25,000, according to the live updates. That gave him a lead of over 5 million on second-place Shea.
Pacelli came in with the shortest stack but fortune smiled upon him early. He doubled with tens against Wong's sixes and then scored two of the first three eliminations, the second coming when his eights held in a huge flip against Schuyler Thornton's king-queen after the latter jammed nearly 20 big blinds over Pacelli's raise.
Wong then lost a race when his ace-king didn't overtake the pocket tens held by Santos, costing Wong more than half of his stack. Left with 14 big blinds, the veteran player got them in with fours in the big blind, but Bennett held jacks on the button. Both players flopped sets but Bennet's was best and Wong had to settle for seventh.
He previously won a similar event for $250,000 in January 2017.
That gave Bennett the lead while Eichhardt was in second. However, he'd slip to the short stack after the elimination of Nicholas Mahabee and had just nine big blinds. The 2016 bracelet winner was down but not out, though, and he doubled with eights against Bennett's pocket twos.
The next half hour would not be so kind, though, and Eichhardt slid back almost to 10 big blinds. He picked up pocket fives on the button and shoved again, but this time he was the one facing eights as Santos woke up with the bigger pair. No five appeared, reducing the field to four.
Those four decided to pause the clock and discuss a deal, and in short order, the deal was done. As the chip leader, Bennett snagged the trophy and most of the money for his biggest live poker cash and second six-figure score after a deep run in the 2014 WSOP Main Event.
