Ryan Depaulo Wins Event 12, With a First Prize Nearly as Large as the Guarantee 1s1k4m

Ryan Depaulo

Event #12 of the 2021 Lucky Hearts Poker Open was a $600 Six-Max No-Limit Hold’em event, and the field of 434 entries more than quadrupled the guaranteed prizepool of $50,000.

Ryan Depaulo won the event outright (without the benefit of a deal) to claim the trophy, the title, and the first prize of $41,485. You might notice that Depaulo’s first prize was nearly as large as the guarantee on the entire prizepool.


Final Results:

Place First Name Last Name Prize Amount
1 Ryan Depaulo $41,485
2 Daniel Swartz $29,105
3 Arthur Demmerley $20,690
4 Christopher Hewitt $14,935
5 Alan Wentz $10,950
6 Hiroaki Harada $8,150
7 Michael Esquivel $6,170
8 Kenny Nguyen $6,170
9 Michael Perrone $4,745
10 Michael Foley $4,745
11 $3,710
12 Richard Scola $3,710
13 Aaron Thivyanathan $2,950
14 Joshua Rivera $2,950
15 Edward Mroczkowski $2,385
16 Aaron Baltzell $2,385
17 Michael Bernstein $1,965
18 Juan Rodriguez $1,965
19 Alberto Sabogali $1,645
20 Marcus Gurley $1,645
21 Gabriel Boria $1,645
22 Frederick Hoban $1,645
23 Richard Davis $1,645
24 Ricardo Eyzaguirre $1,645
25 Brandon Miller $1,405
26 Zhi Wu $1,405
27 Brett McCormick $1,405
28 Javier Sarache $1,405
29 Soheb Porbandarwala $1,405
30 Joshua Adkins $1,405
31 Ryuan Slowik $1,220
32 Justin Harvell $1,220
33 Haile Kuo $1,220
34 Trung Van $1,220
35 Sean Miller, Jr. $1,220
36 Sean Thomson $1,220
37 Michael Esposito $1,080
38 Joseph McKeehen $1,080
39 Theodoros Stamelatos $1,080
40 Reynel Hernandez $1,080
41 Josias Cardoso Dos Santos $1,080
42 Stephen Proulx $1,080
43 Michael Brendan $975
44 Myung Shin $975
45 Edgar Varas $975
46 Ilyas Muradi $975
47 Anthony Askey $975
48 Robert Abner $975
49 Spencer Alexander $895
50 Maxwell Worth $895
51 Philip Rigby $895
52 Frederico Dabus $895
53 Thanhlong Nguyen $895
54 Jason Young $895
55 Perry Shiao $840
56 Hamid Izadi $840
57 Tuan Pham $840
58 Stephen Cleghorn $840
59 Michael Stashin $840
60 Tsz Shing $840
61 David Berman $805
62 Jonah Miller $805
63 Kevin Buldo $805
64 Andrew Brinkley $805
65 Daniel Quesada $805
66 Christopher Nomikos $805
67 Ryan Luker $785
68 Charles Odenz $785
69 Richard Collier $785
70 Jason Blodgett $785
71 Jennifer Borsini $785
72 Christopher Blik $785
73 $785
Ryan Depaulo

Event 12: Final Table Begins with Alan Wentz as Chipleader 17k4w

$600 Six-Max NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 23:  15,000/25,000 with a 25,000 ante
Players Remaining:  7 of 434

Event 12 – Final Table

When the field for the six-max reached the final seven players, there was a random redraw for seats at the final table. Here’s the lineup, along with their chip counts:

Seat 1.  Chris Hewitt  –  795,000  (32 bb)
Seat 2.  Michael Esquivel  –  760,000  (30 bb)
Seat 3.  Ryan Depaulo  –  580,000  (23 bb)
Seat 4.  Alan Wentz  –  1,605,000  (64 bb)
Seat 5.  H. Harada  –  550,000  (22 bb)
Seat 6.  D.J. Swartz  –  650,000  (26 bb)
Seat 7.  Art Demmerley  –  1,575,000  (63 bb)

And here are the final table payouts they’re playing for:

1st:  $41,485 + LHPO Trophy
2nd:  $29,105
3rd:  $20,690
4th:  $14,935
5th:  $10,950
6th:  $8,150
7th:  $6,170

Event 12: Three Straight All-In Situations to Break Table 23 3s4d4j

$600 Six-Max NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 13: 1,500/2,500 with a 2,500 ante
Players Remaining:  59 of 434

Jason Young won the 2019 WPTDeepStacks Lucky Hearts Poker Open, outlasting a field of 1,634 to earn $263,205.

The player on the button moved all in, and Jason Young called all in from the small blind for 21,500 with QsQc. The button turned over 9s8s, and Young needed his hand to hold to stay alive.

The flop came Qd9h8c, though the queen was the last card revealed, giving Young a brief moment where he thought he had been outflopped. Instead, he was in a dominant position with a set of queens against a lower two pair.

The turn card was the Qh, the river card was the 5s, and Young won the pot with quad queens to double up in chips.

Jason Young  –  48,000  (19 bb)

Aaron Thivyanathan

The next hand, the player in the big blind got it all in with KhKc against the 9s9h of Aaron Thivyanathan in the small blind.

The board came 10h7c2dQd9d, and Thivyanathan spiked a nine on the river to win the pot with a set of nines, eliminating his opponent.

The next hand, before Thivyanathan could finish stacking his chips, the player who doubled up Jason Young two hands earlier got it all in from the hijack with Kh10h. But he was dominated and facing elimination against Thivyanathan’s KsKd on the button.

The board came AhQd3c6h6c — the short-stacked player flopped a gutshot straight draw, but improved no further. Thivyanathan won the pot with his pocket kings to eliminate yet another player.

Aaron Thivyanathan  –  297,000  (119 bb)

With only three players left on the table, they paused to wait for new players, but instead it was their turn in the breaking order, and these players departed for their new seats elsewhere in the tournament field.

With 59 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 110,000 (55 big blinds). The field is in the money, with the remaining players guaranteed at least $840 each.

Event 12: Javier Sarache Knocks Out the Bubble to Get Everyone Into the Money 2z5f2m

$600 Six-Max NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 12: 1,000/2,000 with a 2,000 ante
Players Remaining:  73 of 434

Javier Sarache

In the second hand of hand-for-hand play on the Money Bubble, two players got it all in after a flop of 8d3d2h.

The player in the big blind was all in for 20,000 with 10s10h, and he was covered by Javier Sarache on the button with QhJd. The short stack was ahead and poised to double up.

But the turn card was the 4c, and the river card was the Qd — Sarache rivered a higher pair to win the pot, eliminate his opponent, and burst the Money Bubble.

Javier Sarache  –  145,000  (73 bb)

With 73 players left, the average chip stack is about 89,000 (45 big blinds).

Event 12: Prize Pool and Payouts with $41,485 to the Six-Max Champ 4u515f

$600 Six-Max NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed | Structure | Payouts
Level 12: 1,000/2,000 with a 2,000 ante
Players Remaining: 84 of 434

The numbers were released and the $600 Six-Max NLH tournament officially drew 434 entries to push the $50,000 guaranteed prize pool up to $227,850. The biggest Six-Max field in our history will pay out the last 73 positions with $785 for a min-cash and $41,485 to the next LHPO champion.

2021 Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 12
$600 Six-Max NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed
Entries: 434
Prize Pool:  $227,850
January 19, 2021

1st: $41,485 + LHPO Trophy
2nd: $29,105
3rd: $20,690
4th: $14,935
5th: $10,950
6th: $8,150
7th-8th: $6,170
9th-10th: $4,745
11th-12th: $3,710
13th-14th: $2,950
15th-16th: $2,385
17th-18th: $1,965
19th-24th: $1,645
25th-30th: $1,405
31st-36th: $1,220
37th-42nd: $1,080
43rd-48th: $975
49th-54th: $895
55th-60th: $840
61st-66th: $805
67th-73rd: $785

Event 12: Dropping Quickly 294d5p

$600 Six-Max NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 11: 1,000/1,500 with a 1,500 ante
Players Remaining: 90 of 434

Joe McKeehen

The Six-Max field is moving right along, just about how you’d expect for a short-handed action-filled tournament. They are down to 15 tables and 90 players remaining with a dinner break on the horizon.

We found a few new faces in the Seminole Ballroom today including 2015 WSOP Main Event champ Joe McKeehen and WSOP Circuit Coconut Creek winner Hamid Izadi.

Hamid Izadi

Event 12: Registration Closed with 434 Entries 2g3w1p

$600 Six-Max NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 9: 500/1,000 with a 1,000 ante
Entries: 434

The record-breaking day continued today in the Seminole Ballroom with the $600 Six-Max NLH field putting up 434 entries into the field when registration closed after the second break. That’s a clear beat of the 349 entries in the same event during the 2019 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open.

  • 2021 LHPO (January) – 434 entries
  • 2019 SHRPO (August) – 349 entries
  • 2016 Showdown (April) – 312 entries
  • 2019 SHRPO (August) – 288 entries
  • 2017 Showdown (March) – 274 entries

Event 12: Chris Hewitt and Allan Bieler Up Big 6i461y

$600 Six-Max NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5: 200/400 with a 400 ante
Entries: 360

Chris Hewitt

The first came to an end and players are back in action in the huge Six-Max field. We have 360 entries so far with no signs of slowing.

Chris Hewitt looks like the biggest stack in the room after running his 15,000 starting stack up to 62,000 in two hours. Four-time SHRP champ Allan Bieler isn’t far behind with right around 50,000 heading into Level 5.

Allan Bieler

Event 12: Coming from Near and Far 6s371q

$600 Six-Max NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3: 100/200 with a 200 ante
Entries: 273

Steve Trizis

The steady parade of entrants continues in the Six-Max and we will have a full house before the close registration in a couple of hours. They are piling in.

Two recent entries come from separate parts of the state. Steve Trizis, 2016 WPTDeepStacks Tampa Main Event final table member, came over to the east coast of the Sunshine State to take his shot. Jason Young is from this side and the 2019 WPTDeepStacks Hollywood Main Event champ means business today.

Jason Young

Event 12: Quick to 200 h2u5f

$600 Six-Max NLH (Single Re-Entry)
$50,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2: 100/100 with a 100 ante
Entries: 213

Fred Dabus

Running a big Six-Max tournament on Tuesday has not slowed the players down, they are still g up as quick as they can be processed into the game. The entry count jumped over 200 in the first level and moving right along.

Fred Dabus had an early seat in the short-handed game, a familiar face around the SHRP poker rooms with big cashes here and in Tampa and in Coconut Creek. But Dabus had his top score a few years ago with a WSOP final table appearance in 2015, finishing eighth out of 2,497 in a $1,000 No Limit Hold’em bracelet event.