The 2016 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open kicked off on July 28 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida and in the following three weeks, 28 primary event champions played their way to a South Florida title with two local players among the four winners.
For the last two years, the series was spotlighted by The Big 4, which including the championship, consists of a four-tournament finale, a $2,650 Freeze-Out, $1,100 Re-Entry, and a $25,500 High Roller. The event’s tournaments feature staggered structures which cascade toward simultaneous final tables, according to the event’s website. Poker Night in America filmed all four of the events in Hard Rock Live to be aired later on CBS Sports Network.
The 2016 BIG 4 champions are; Jason Koon, who beat his former roommate Seth Davies to win the $5,250 Championship (Event 22) and earned $1,000,000; 21-year-old Plantation resident and math major at Princeton, Bradley Snider who won the $2,650 Freeze-Out (Event 23) and the $246,400 prize in his first-ever tournament score; local favorite Ruslan Dykshteyn of Hollywood, who earned $151,000 in the $1,100 Re-Entry, which was the third-largest of Dykshteyn’s career; and the winner of the $25,500 High Roller (Event 25) was Marvin Rettenmaier, who earned $787,497 and the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open High Roller trophy.
One of the biggest events of the poker year, the Championship event of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open attracts players from all over the world who look forward to playing at the end of the summer. This year, 847 players were part of the freeze-out event (no re-entries), some of which included the biggest names in the poker world. The last 150 players standing each took home a portion of the guaranteed $5 million prize pool. Only the final nine players would go on to compete as part of The Big 4.