A former November Niner, a lifetime $5 million winner, and a WSOP bracelet holder all made the final table for the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship event. But no one was able to outlast Brandon Eisen, an accomplished but relatively unknown grinder who left with $771,444, nearly doubling his lifetime tournament winnings.
The $5,250 buy-in series finale event capped off a successful post-WSOP poker series in South Florida that saw top pros such as Jake Schindler, Alex Foxen, and Ryan Riess leave with hardware.
The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, Florida, considered by many one of the best poker rooms east of Las Vegas, will host another major series, the Rock n’ Roll Poker Open, starting Nov. 14.
Tough Pros Flock to Florida
The 2018 SHRPO Championship event had 914 entries, generating a $4.4 million prize pool. Many top pros, including local legend Jason Mercier, were among the 115 players who cashed.
Notable Players in the Money
Cliff Josephy (114th) $7,758
Matt Berkey (105th) $8,733
Jeff Madsen (80th) $11,747
Mike Leah (63rd) $13,919
Jason Mercier (37th) $17,333
Shannon Shorr (28th) $20,037
John Racener (23rd) $28,637
Loni Harwood (19th) $34,045
Joseph Cheong (8th) $102,843
Jeremy Ausmus (2nd) $540,459
Tough competition continued when the final table began. Just about everybody there had an impressive poker record. Joe Cheong, 3rd place finisher in the 2010 WSOP Main Event, was quick to exit in 8th place after losing a tough hand to Jeremy Ausmus, and he had less than kind words for his fellow November Niner.
A10o < KJo aipf to the douche @jeremyausmus 8th. First 6fig score of the year at least
— Joseph Cheong (@subiime) August 14, 2018
Epic Heads-Up Duel, 5-Year Tournament Grind
Heads-up play lasted longer than it took to go from nine players down to two. It took just 61 hands to lose the first seven final table players. But getting rid of the last one took an epic heads-up battle between Ausmus and Eisen, capping off for Eisen what has been a five-year tournament grind.
SHRPO Championship Final Table Results
- Brandon Eisen $771,444
- Jeremy Ausmus $540,459
- StoyanObreshkov $349,889
- Ryan D’Angelo $258,615
- Adam Adler $195,491
- Ido Ashkenazi $156,215
- Jared Griener $129,308
- Joseph Cheong $102,843
- Marcos Exterkotter $77,132
Ausmus and Eisen each had more than 100 big blinds when heads-up play began.
It wasn’t until the 84th hand between the two of them when Ausmus put his remaining 19-big-blind stack in preflop with K-5 against Eisen’s Q-J. Ausmus lost the tournament when Eisen hit two-pair.
Eisen has an impressive up-and-coming poker resume that began five years ago when he won a $200 Venetian Deep Stack for about $6,400. He followed that up with a 2nd place finish at the Venetian in a $300 for another $4,400.
From there, Eisen, who hails from Millani, Hawaii, would go on to add 46 more tournament cashes to his Hendon Mob page for $744,868 in winnings.
His most notable cashes during that span include 3rd place in the 2014 WSOP $1,111 Little One for One Drop ($283,895), 2nd place in a $300 event at the 2015 WPT Choctaw ($110,880), and 2nd place in a $600 Venetian Deep Stack ($146,219) earlier this summer.
But with his 49th career cash, the SHRPO Championship, he Eisen brings his lifetime winnings up to more than $1.5 million, which makes him the all-time winningest Hawaiian in the history of poker.
