2025 Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 35
$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed
Entries:  1,162
Prize Pool:  $3,718,400
January 17-21, 2025

From a field of 1,162 entries, the Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship came down to nine players on Tuesday afternoon. It was a long four days leading up to this, including a very late night the night before, but on Tuesday the nine-handed final table played down to a winner in just four hours.

The final hand was simultaneously dramatic and anti-climactic, as Spencer Champlin made a bold bluff on the river with king high, unaware that Martins Adeniya had made a flush. Adeniya quickly called to win the title, the trophy, and $512,600.

It’s the biggest live tournament win of Adeniya’s career, and it comes at a great time — and a not-so-great time.

“It’s just perfect timing,” said Adeniya after his victory. “I’ve got a baby on the way in April, and I’m getting married in two weeks. The only problem is I’m missing my fiancée’s birthday today.”

When Adeniya returns home with a championship trophy and half a million dollars, we expect his fiancée Dana will forgive him.

The Championship had two starting flights with unlimited re-entries, but Adeniya only needed one entry. But that’s not to say it was an easy path.

“I lost nearly half my stack in the first couple levels of the tournament,” said Adeniya. “Then someone ran a big bluff on me, but I hero called.”

Adeniya bagged a nice stack on Day 1, but he was down to about 20 big blinds by the time the Money Bubble came around on Day 2.

“I had two of the chipleaders to my left,” said Adeniya, “so it was quite a tricky bubble to navigate. And I was actually put all in on the bubble with aces, and had to fold aces on the bubble.”

Adeniya went on to finish Day 2 among the larger stacks (15th of 56), but Day 3 would be an incredibly long day. Luckily for Adeniya, he got better as the day went on.

“Yesterday was pretty long,” said Adeniya about Day 3. “We played until 3:30 in the morning, and we were on the featured table the entire time so it was quite tiring and draining.”

With 15 players left, Adeniya doubled thru then-chipleader Yingui Li, getting it all in on the turn with pocket queens on a ten-high board against Li’s flush and straight draw. Li missed his outs, and that kickstarted a run for Adeniya where he would take the lead with 14 players left, and hold onto it for most of the rest of the tournament.

Day 3 played so long because they were trying to reach the final eight players, but they went three hours with no eliminations. The blinds kept increasing, so when they returned on Tuesday afternoon to play to a winner, the average chip stack was only worth 26 big blinds, even though they had been playing a slow structure with 90-minute levels.

Well, the math caught up to the players, and on Tuesday afternoon it only took four hours to play down from nine to a winner.

Incredibly, the top seven finishers in this event all earned the top live tournament cash of their careers. For Ryan Hogan, it was the second career-high cash of this series, as he finished third in Event #1 to earn $116,750, then nearly doubled it by cashing for $205,000 for fourth place here in the Championship.

Even though he is from London, Adeniya has been a regular presence in our big events here at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood.

“It’s a nice place with good weather,” said Adeniya. “Right now in London it’s like zero degrees, so it’s nice to have some sunshine. The people here are great, there’s lots of stuff to do, and there are good cash games and good tournaments. I love it here.”

---

Results:

Place	First Name	Last Name	Prize Amount
1	Martins	Adeniya	$512,600*
2	Spencer	Champlin	$425,000*
3	Caio	De Lucca	$275,000
4	Ryan	Hogan	$205,000
5	Joost	Schippers	$156,000
6	Adam	Nattress	$119,000
7	Kyle	Taddei	$92,000
8	Ryan	Hoenig	$71,000
9	Ricardo	Eyzaguirre	$56,000
10	Brock	Wilson	$56,000
11	Long	Nguyen	$46,500
12	Vencent	Welch	$46,500
13	Yingui	Li	$39,000
14	Michael	Dwyer	$39,000
15	Ben	Miner	$39,000
16	Christian	Roberts	$32,500
17	Ben	Scrogins	$32,500
18	Scott	Frier	$32,500
19	Nadeem	Hirani	$32,500
20	Greg	Baird	$27,500
21	Ricky	Landais	$27,500
22	Julian	Pineda	$27,500
23	Josh	Reichard	$27,500
24	Raj	Vohra	$23,100
25	Artem	Suhak	$23,100
26	Kaifan	Wang	$23,100
27	Cherish	Andrews	$23,100
28	Dan	Stavila	$23,100
29	Nick	Funaro	$23,100
30	Ken	Fishman	$23,100
31	Gareth	McMahon	$23,100
32	Justin	Carey	$19,400
33	Clement	Michaud	$19,400
34	Chris	Conrad	$19,400
35	Emmanuel	McKenzie	$19,400
36	Carlos	Bermudez	$19,400
37	Vitalijs	Zavorotnijs	$19,400
38	T.K.	Miles	$19,400
39	Anthony	Zinno	$19,400
40	David	DiBernardi	$16,300
41	Jason	Hickey	$16,300
42	Asher	Conniff	$16,300
43	Daniel	Swartz	$16,300
44	Anatoly	Nikitin	$16,300
45	Owen	Savir	$16,300
46	Brent	Hart	$16,300
47	Tuan	Nguyen	$16,300
48	Kevin	Calenzo	$13,800
49	Rusty	Wadsworth	$13,800
50	Guillermo	Hamilton	$13,800
51	Todd	Ivens	$13,800
52	Derek	Nold	$13,800
53	Scott	Wright	$13,800
54	Jason	Rocha	$13,800
55	Olivier	Rebello	$13,800
56	David	Nathaniel Jr.	$11,500
57	John	Racener	$11,500
58	Niall	Costigan	$11,500
59	Steve	Buckner	$11,500
60	Anibal	Pabon	$11,500
61	Max	Young	$11,500
62	Padraig	O'Neill	$11,500
63	Kharlin	Sued	$11,500
64	Michael	Gathy	$9,600
65	Frank	Funaro	$9,600
66	Tom	Dobrilovic	$9,600
67	Dan	Heimiller	$9,600
68	Ramel	Diaz-Warner	$9,600
69	Martin	Carnero	$9,600
70	Harrison	Gimbel	$9,600
71	Frank	Stepuchin	$9,600
72	Carl	Carodenuto	$9,600
73	Michael	Newman	$9,600
74	Robert	Kennedy	$9,600
75	Ky	Nguyen	$9,600
76	Frederic	Normand	$9,600
77	Mica	Lamar	$9,600
78	Matthew	Sabia	$9,600
79	Robert	Grossman	$9,600
80	Brandon	Kessous	$8,200
81	Jamie	Flynn	$8,200
82	Steve	Karp	$8,200
83	Jonathan	Tamayo	$8,200
84	Elvyn	Bello Santos	$8,200
85	Vinicius	Lima	$8,200
86	Tyler	Phillips	$8,200
87	Matthew	Leecy	$8,200
88	Andrew	Moreno	$8,200
89	Danilo	Alvarenga	$8,200
90	Jonathan	Borenstein	$8,200
91	Brandon	Sunshine	$8,200
92	Marcos	Exterkotter	$8,200
93	Timothy	Pai	$8,200
94	Brett	Bader	$8,200
95	Gabe	Ramos	$8,200
96	Jordan	Westmorland	$8,200
97	Jonathan	Akiba	$8,200
98	Ren	Lin	$8,200
99	Keven	Stammen	$7,000
100	Fabio	Santos	$7,000
101	Eric	Afriat	$7,000
102	Frank	Brannan	$7,000
103	Robert	LeBeau	$7,000
104	Frank	Lagodich	$7,000
105	James	Raymond	$7,000
106	Glenn	Becker	$7,000
107	Alessio	Isaia	$7,000
108	Taha	Maruf	$7,000
109	Eric	Bonin	$7,000
110	Nikolai	Tulin	$7,000
111	Domenic	Armano	$7,000
112	Jonathan	Jaffe	$7,000
113	Tony	Dunst	$7,000
114	Michael	Graffeo	$7,000
115	David	Jackson	$7,000
116	Shon Shlomo	Perez	$7,000
117	Eric	Yanovsky	$7,000
118	Gary	Greenlee	$6,400
119	Alain	Medesan	$6,400
120	Filipp	Khavin	$6,400
121	Nadya	Magnus	$6,400
122	Sterling	Savill	$6,400
123	Ari	Oxman	$6,400
124	Ben	Warrington	$6,400
125	Steven	Sanzone	$6,400
126	Jerry	Wong	$6,400
127	Buck	Bucceri	$6,400
128	Isaac	Kempton	$6,400
129	John	Wilder	$6,400
130	Stephen	Kehoe	$6,400
131	Viktor	Kovachev	$6,400
132	Anthony	Cousineau	$6,400
133	Steve	Yagudaev	$6,400
134	Maksim	Pisarenko	$6,400
135	David	Adam-Castrillo	$6,400
136	Haim	Toorgeman	$6,400
137	Chad	Eveslage	$6,400
138	Joel	Gola	$6,400
139	Kurt	Jewell	$6,400
140	Harvey	Vandeven	$6,400
141	Alexander	Lampropoulos	$6,400
142	Adam	Lucosky	$6,400
143	Ben	Ludlow	$6,400
144	Igor	Merda	$6,400
145	Brian	Barros-Vazquez	$6,400
146	Kamil	Zeman	$6,400

* Indicates the adjusted payouts from a heads-up deal.

2025 Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 53
$300 Quad Stack Black Chip Bounty NLH (Re-Entry)
Entries:  188
Prize Pool:  $28,300
Bounty Prize Pool:  $18,700
January 21, 2025

Event 54 of the 2025 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open was a $300 Quad Stack Black Chip Bounty No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry). A field of 188 entries generated a prize pool of $28,300, with an additional $18,700 set aside for bounties.

Earning the victory was Anderson Montana, winning outright for $6,980.

Place	First Name	Last Name	Prize Amount
1	Anderson	Montana	$6,980
2	Alon	Shahar	$4,800
3	Matan	Lemel	$2,900
4	Sajibul	Alam	$1,765
5	Jack	Battaglia	$1,365
6	Allan	Carlisle	$1,130
7	Scott	Norman	$960
8	Rafael	Maciel Menezes	$840
9	Juan	Montoya Bernal	$720
10	Timothy	Amidon	$620
11	Brandon	Choran	$620
12	Donald	Somers	$620
13	Harrison	Ruggiero	$525
14	Peter	Bodnar	$525
15	Dolphus	Powers	$525
16	Monaliza	Kenny	$435
17	Shawn	Wilmot	$435
18	Benjamin	Sriqui	$435
19	Patrick	Evangelista	$350
20	Ayed	Shweihat	$350
21	Edward	Galpine	$350
22	Douglas	Montone	$350
23	Eldo	Rodriguez	$350
24	Gilfred	Bertin Jr.	$350

2025 Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 51
$400 Triple Stack Six-Max NLH (Re-Entry)
Entries:  158
Prize Pool:  $52,140
January 21, 2025

Event 51 of the 2025 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open was a $400 Triple Stack Six-Max No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry), drawing a field of 158 entries and a prize pool of $52,140.

A heads-up chop took place and Mitchell Ellis was the chip leader at the time, making him the official Event 51 winner for $11,328.

Place	First Name	Last Name	Prize Amount
1	Mitchell	Ellis	$11,328*
2	Steve	Karp	$11,327*
3	Aaron	Flores	$6,025
4	Eric	Zheng	$4,165
5	Michael	Tarafa	$3,000
6	Christopher	Bucceri	$2,185
7	Jared	Gable	$1,660
8	John	Binns	$1,660
9	Arthur	Azen	$1,300
10	Richard	Head	$1,300
11	Nathan	Rush	$1,060
12	Sandeep	Velkuru	$1,060
13	Andrew	Schneider	$890
14	Jorge	Galarza	$890
15	John	McConnell	$775
16	Benjamin	Goldstein	$775
17	Frederick	Robitalle	$705
18	Fady	Khabbaz	$705
19	George	Hortelano	$665
20	Andrew	Becker	$665

*denotes heads-up chop

2025 Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 53
$1,100 Deep Stack Six-Max Pot-Limit Omaha (Re-Entry)
Entries:  115
Prize Pool:  $111,550
January 21, 2025

Event 53 of the 2025 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open was a $1,100 Deep Stack Six-Max Pot-Limit Omaha (Re-Entry), drawing a field of 115 entries for a prize pool of $111,550.

Taking it down was Steven Levy, winning outright for $31,595.

Place	First Name	Last Name	Prize Amount
1	Steven	Levy	$31,595
2	Samuel	Ebert	$20,500
3	John	McDonald	$13,700
4	Dante	Cianfarra	$9,370
5	Kharlin	Sued	$6,660
6	Todd	Ivens	$4,910
7	Vadim	Shlez	$3,755
8	Glen	Cressman	$3,755
9	Ryan	Brown	$3,000
10	Artem	Suhak	$3,000
11	Jeffrey	Kenny	$2,465
12	Dechang	Zhang	$2,465
13	David	Lichentin-Rubintin	$2,125
14	Travell	Thomas	$2,125
15	Mikhail	Chykilov	$2,125

2025 Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 52
$5,000 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed
Entries:  153
Prize Pool:  $726,750
January 21, 2025

Event 52 of the 2025 Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open was a $5,000 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry), drawing a field of 153 entries for a prize pool of $726,750.

Emerging victorious was Michael Berk, winning outright for $175,350 and his second six-figure score of the series, having previously chopped the one-day $10K event for $179,260.

Place	First Name	Last Name	Prize Amount
1	Michael	Berk	$175,350
2	Artem	Metalidi	$117,000
3	Kyle	Julius	$87,000
4	Johan	Schumacher	$65,000
5	Brock	Wilson	$49,000
6	Michael	Gathy	$37,500
7	Jonathan	Tamayo	$29,000
8	Cherish	Andrews	$22,400
9	Mathew	Frankland	$17,600
10	Joshua	Stewart	$17,600
11	Stoyan	Madanzhiev	$13,800
12	Kevin	MacDonald	$13,800
13	Byron	Kaverman	$11,400
14	Nadya	Magnus	$11,400
15	Anton	Wigg	$11,400
16	Mike	Gao	$9,500
17	Florian	Ribouchon	$9,500
18	Asher	Conniff	$9,500
19	David	Jackson	$9,500
20	Jason	Raber	$9,500

$5,000 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Prize Pool:  $726,750  | Payouts
Level 25:  25,000/50,000 with a 50,000 ante
Players Remaining:  1 of 153

Michael Berk raised all in with his chip-leading stack from the button and Artem Metalidi thought for a bit before he called all in for 470,000 in the big blind.

Berk showed , while Metalidi showed .

The board ran out , giving Berk a set of fours to eliminate Metalidi and win Event 52 outright for $175,350. Metaldi finished runner-up for $117,000.

A recap of Event 52 will be posted later tonight.

$5,000 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Prize Pool:  $726,750  | Payouts
Level 25:  25,000/50,000 with a 50,000 ante
Players Remaining:  2 of 153

Artem Metalidi raised all in for 235,000 from the button and Michael Berk called in the big blind .

Metalidi showed and needed his hand to hold up to survive.

The board ran out , safe for Metalidi to double up.

Artem Metalidi  –  520,000  (10 bb)
Michael Berk  –  2,540,000  (51 bb)

1st:  $175,350 + LHPO Trophy
2nd:  $117,000

$5,000 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Prize Pool:  $726,750  | Payouts
Level 25:  25,000/50,000 with a 50,000 ante
Players Remaining:  2 of 153

Kyle Julius raised to 100,000 from the button, Michael Berk reraised all in for 1,240,000 in the small blind, and Julius called with .

Berk showed and needed to improve to survive.

The board ran out , giving Berk a flush right off the bat to double through Julius.

Michael Berk  –  2,580,000  (52 bb)
Kyle Julius  –  225,000  (5 bb)

The next hand, Berk raised all in with his chip-leading stack from the button, Artem Metalidi folded his small blind, and Julius called all in for about 175,000.

Berk: 
Julius: 

The board came , giving Berk queens and nines to eliminate Julius in third place.

Michael Berk  –  2,825,000  (56 bb)
Artem Metalidi  –  235,000  (5 bb)
Kyle Julius  –  Eliminated in 3rd Place  ($87,000)

1st:  $175,350 + LHPO Trophy
2nd:  $117,000

$5,000 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Prize Pool:  $726,750  | Payouts
Level 25:  25,000/50,000 with a 50,000 ante
Players Remaining:  3 of 153

Johan Schumacher was all in for 445,000 on the button against Michael Berk in the small blind.

Schumacher: 
Berk: 

The board came , giving Berk aces and tens to eliminate Schumacher.

Michael Berk  –  1,240,000  (25 bb)
Johan Schumacher  –  Eliminated in 4th Place  ($65,000)