Brandon Adams Ships $25K at Seminole for $370,000
Brandon Adams added to his extensive list of poker accomplishments with his second high roller win in the past six months, taking down Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $25,500 High Roller Reentry in Florida. Adams defeated a field of 40 entries to win $370,000.
In October, Adams won Poker Masters Event #4: $50,000 No-Limit Hold'em for a career-best $819,000. With his Seminole win, he's now surpassed $3 million in live cashes.
Final Table Paid Results
| Place | Player | Home Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brandon Adams | USA | $370,000 |
| 2 | Pablo Fernandez | Spain | $240,000 |
| 3 | Barry Hutter | USA | $150,000 |
| 4 | Ajay Chabra | USA | $105,000 |
| 5 | Darren Elias | USA | $75,000 |
| 6 | Shaun Deeb | USA | $60,000 |
The two-day event drew 40 entries to just sneak on to the guarantee of $1 million. As usual, it featured a star-studded field with the likes of Ari Engel, Olivier Busquet, Chance Kornuth and Ankush Mandavia among those who wouldn't see the final table.
Adams was one of the later entries, according to the live updates, but he got off to a fast start. He scored a couple of eliminations right away, ace-king over ace-queen of Ben Yu and sixes over A♣4♣ of Sebastian De Jonge to vault up among the leaders.
A monster pot developed with two tables left between Adams and Justin Young at 3,000/6,000/6,000. Three players saw an 8♦6♥2♠ flop and Adams bet 18,000. Young called from the big blind and checked the K♠. Adams bet 48,000 and Young made it 130,000. Adams called to see the K♣ fall. Young shoved for 231,000 and Adams wound up calling. Young could only muster 7♠5♠ for a busted combo draw and Adams raked in the huge pot with A♠8♠.
That gave him 1.1 million and the chip lead going into the final table.
Final Table Action
Spaniard Pablo Fernandez eliminated a short-stacked Jonathan Little in a flip right away and he followed up with a lucky knockout of Mark Fisher. Fisher opened for a min-raise and received a call from Adams before Fernandez shoved in the big blind for over 30 bigs. Fisher called off with kings but couldn't overcome A♦2♦ as two deuces hit the board.
That set the tourney on the money bubble but a resolution to the bubble question wouldn't be reached that night. They bagged for Day 2 with Adams in total command toting nearly 140 big blinds while the next stack, Ajay Chabra, had about 87 and Fernandez rated a distant third with 44.
The bubble nearly burst in sick fashion when Fernandez got in there with queens against Chabra's tens only to see a ten flop. Down to two outs, Fernandez found a Q♣ river to double.
Instead, short stack Larry Greenberg took a beat when his A♠K♠ fell to Adams' A♣Q♦ to give Adams a monster stack of 1,750,000, nearly half of the chips, at 5,000/10,000/10,000.
A sick hand then occurred for the first in-the-money elimination wherein Shaun Deeb got his last 14 big blinds in with sixes blind versus blind and Adams called with A♦2♦. A pair of deuces hit the flop and Deeb made to exit but found himself turning a boat when a six arrived. However, the last deuce hit on the river to give Adams quads.
Adams then dispatched Darren Elias, who had sank down to just a few big blinds, and continued to blast away at the shorter stacks to the point where he had nearly three-quarters of the chips.
Barry Hutter finally slowed him down, though it took ace-ten over ace-queen to do it. Hutter then picked up kings on the button and busted Chabra, who called off his own short stack with A♦9♦ and didn't get there. Hutter's luck ran out after that, though, as he lost a race to Adams to go out in third.
Adams held a lead of more than 3-1 going heads up with Fernandez. That increased to over 10-1 after Adams made queens up early on and got three streets of value. Fernandez managed one double but wouldn't find another after he got in with live Q♥10♦ against K♥2♥ only to see Adams flop a winning flush.
As good as Adams ran, it seemed he simply was never losing, and he admitted as much after the event.
"I’ve never really had a tournament where things went this smoothly from the beginning,” he told reporters. “It feels good to run that unbelievably well.”
