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HOLLYWOOD, Fla. - Daniel Piela of Wheaton, Ill. walked away with $144,294 after winning first place in the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em $1 Million Guaranteed event that kicked-off the 21-day Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown tournament series. The tournament, one of sixty-two events during the series, had a buy-in of $560 and brought 1,966 entries, for a total prize pool of $1,000,000, with 200 places paid.
The 42-year-old works in the mortgage industry and felt like escaping the cold for the warm Florida weather and see a few friendly faces. Upon seeing the schedule for the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, he figured he would play in the first few events.
“It was a great experience. I had a lot of fun, people are really friendly here, and I just had a really good time.” As for the tournament itself, Piela said the path to victory was far from easy. “It was really tough at times. I was short stacked a lot, especially going into the final table, but patience…it just took a lot of patience to get through it.”
"It's great to have headline events down here in South Florida. We have a lot of poker in this market, but Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino always seems to put on full featured events that bring in people from all over the country,” said Zachary Goodman of Boca Raton, Florida who also played in Event #1." "The $1 million is a great guarantee as an opening event, and is a great value for $560." he added.
The televised WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship event featuring a $5 million guarantee, the largest ever for a $3,500 buy-in, will start Thursday, April 10 at noon through final table filming on Wednesday, April 16. Players may play any or all starting flights and choose their best stack. Re-entry will be allowed through six levels.
The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown series continues through April 16 and features No Limit Hold’em, Bounty, Pot Limit Omaha, Six-Max, and Mixed events. In addition, there are several satellite tournaments, providing the ability to win entry into the Championship event for as little as $200. On-site registration for all events is available 24 hours per day. Live tournament coverage is available at www.SeminoleHardRockPokerOpen.
To review the entire schedule, please visit www.SeminoleHardRockPokerOpen.
