Marius Gierse hasn’t played in a live poker tournament since last summer’s WSOP, but he showed up at the Lucky Hearts Poker Open and entered two tournaments — the $25,500 High Roller, where he finished fifth to earn $110,500, and the $3,500 LHPO Championship, which he won on Tuesday night for $605,000.

“It’s been a long four days, but it feels pretty damn good,” said Gierse. “It was quite the ride.”

This final day of the event started with 16 players at the final two tables, and Gierse had an average chip stack.

“I started with five million, went up to 10 million, went down to 4.5 million, went up to 17, went down to 7, so it was a roller-coaster, for sure,” said Gierse. “But I can’t complain in the end.”

The key hand for Gierse happened during the first 15 minutes of the nine-handed final table.

“I had a big flip against Jerry Wong at the start,” said Gierse. “That hand was the most important, otherwise I would have been out in ninth.”

Gierse held , and needed it to hold against Wong’s . They got it all in preflop, but it seemed inevitable after the flop came , giving Gierse a set of queens to Wong’s gutshot Royal Flush draw.

“It was almost a flip at the flop,” said Gierse. “You’ve got to win these in order to win tournaments.”

The turn was the Click here for details.) As for Wong, he was knocked down below 20 big blinds and would eventually finish ninth.

With seven players left, Gierse found himself on the other side of this same flip, getting it all in preflop with Click here for details.)

After Gierse knocked out Martin Carnero in fifth place (pocket jacks held against ace-ten), the final four players battled for about an hour before agreeing to a deal. As chipleader, Gierse was awarded the title and the trophy.

I’m pretty blessed,” said Gierse, “and I’m lucky to win the Lucky Hearts Poker Open.”

Despite his success here, Gierse is primarily an online player, which he generally prefers over live tournaments.

“I really don’t enjoy live poker as much, mostly because people are too serious and take a lot of time,” said Gierse. “But that isn’t the case here at all. People play super fast, and people are talking, and not taking themselves too seriously. It’s super nice. So I’m very, very happy to play here and I will for sure to come back.”

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Final Results:

Place	First Name	Last Name	Prize Amount
1	Marius	Gierse	$605,000*
2	Brian	Scott	$555,078*
3	Jacob	Powers	$500,000*
4	Peter	Mugar	$498,177*
5	Martin	Carnero	$238,635
6	Taylor	Wilson	$181,950
7	Daniel	Clifford	$140,055
8	Leonard	Hermann	$108,850
9	Jerry	Wong	$85,410
10	Konstantin	Held	$85,410
11	Cero	Zuccarello	$67,680
12	Wasim	Assaf	$67,680
13	Scott	Margereson	$54,165
14	Tyler	Stafman	$54,165
15	Frank	Funaro	$43,780
16	Kharlin	Sued	$43,780
17	Claudio	Piedrabuena	$35,745
18	Benjamin	Grise	$35,745
19	Anatoly	Nikitin	$35,745
20	Saber	Salum Penayo	$35,745
21	Lewe	Thiesen	$29,480
22	Matthew	Wantman	$29,480
23	Michael	Tweedlie	$29,480
24	Jordan	Sparagana	$29,480
25	Joe	McKeehen	$24,570
26	Joe	Firova	$24,570
27	James	Carroll	$24,570
28	Nathan	Russler	$24,570
29	Imari	Love	$24,570
30	Chris	Tryba	$24,570
31	Aram	Oganyan	$24,570
32	Andrew	Ostapchenko	$24,570
33	Jarrett	Mullins	$20,690
34	Kevin	Garosshen	$20,690
35	Jon	Borenstein	$20,690
36	Richard	Alati	$20,690
37	Donald	Delancy	$20,690
38	David	Hagmann	$20,690
39	Landon	Tice	$20,690
40	Igor	Hot	$20,690
41	Naoum	Zarcadoolas	$17,605
42	Joseph	Crowley	$17,605
43	Gary	Hays	$17,605
44	Jonathan	Lewis	$17,605
45	Anthony	Dalpra	$17,605
46	Michael	VanderWoude	$17,605
47	Dana	Caruso	$17,605
48	Nadya	Magnus	$17,605
49	Deividas	Daubaris	$15,140
50	Samuel	Laskowitz	$15,140
51	Jesse	Lonis	$15,140
52	Jorge	Gomez	$15,140
53	Christopher	Frank	$15,140
54	Blake	Whittington	$15,140
55	Eric	Lea	$15,140
56	Nir	Cohen	$15,140
57	Joshua	Wallace	$13,155
58	Sebastiaan	De Jonge	$13,155
59	Derek	Sudell	$13,155
60	Nicolas	Noguera	$13,155
61	Sean	Shah	$13,155
62	Joshua	Garber	$13,155
63	Juan	Corsi	$13,155
64	Jake	Ferro	$13,155
65	Anthony	Licastro	$11,560
66	Charles	Wooden	$11,560
67	Howard	Feingold	$11,560
68	Erik	Nomberg	$11,560
69	Jason	Hickey	$11,560
70	Nicholas	Verderamo	$11,560
71	Dane	Cass	$11,560
72	Darren	Rabinowitz	$11,560
73	Denys	Shafikov	$10,270
74	Gil	Aboodi	$10,270
75	Petar	Kalev	$10,270
76	David	Laufer	$10,270
77	Glen	Cressman	$10,270
78	Norberto	Charuf Diab	$10,270
79	Michael	Lydon	$10,270
80	Michael	Kamenjarin	$10,270
81	Vladimir	Grechnikov	$9,225
82	Joey	Weissman	$9,225
83	Martin	Zamani	$9,225
84	Mike	Chiappetta	$9,225
85	Chad	Pyykonen	$9,225
86	Billy	Pilossoph	$9,225
87	Daniel	Swartz	$9,225
88	Rui	Bouquet	$9,225
89	David	Novosel	$9,225
90	Michael	Monicatti	$9,225
91	Robert	Wailber	$8,380
92	Richard	Coleman	$8,380
93	Joseph	Field	$8,380
94	Aleksandar	Petrovic	$8,380
95	Salvatore	Sidoti	$8,380
96	Alex	Foxen	$8,380
97	Cyril	Darmouni	$8,380
98	Jebhar	Patterson	$8,380
99	Colby	Covington	$8,380
100	Sergey	Sergeev	$7,700
101	Jeremy	Ausmus	$7,700
102	Pete	Chen	$7,700
103	Michael	Amato	$7,700
104	Shanmukha	Meruga	$7,700
105	Ziya	Rahim	$7,700
106	Jeremy	Wien	$7,700
107	Matthew	Lambrecht	$7,700
108	Jesse	Kertland	$7,700
109	Ariel	Mantel	$7,700
110	Bryan	Buonocore	$7,700
111	Joseph	Cappello	$7,700
112	James	Katz	$7,700
113	Erik	Cajelais	$7,700
114	John	Ypma	$7,700
115	Joseph	Pombriant	$7,700
116	Jim	Gilbert	$7,700
117	Bryce	McVay	$7,700
118	Daniel	Kusnerak	$7,155
119	Christoph	Csik	$7,155
120	Rudy	Mamo	$7,155
121	Antornio	Serrao Jr.	$7,155
122	A.J.	Kelsall	$7,155
123	Ryan	Remington	$7,155
124	Richard	Alsup	$7,155
125	Sheldon	Libfeld	$7,155
126	Jeff	Madsen	$7,155
127	Petko	Tsakov	$7,155
128	Romeo	Mendoza	$7,155
129	Joseph	McArthur	$7,155
130	Marc	Goldman	$7,155
131	Kurt	Lichtman	$7,155
132	Todd	Ivens	$7,155
133	Ross	Santos	$7,155
134	Ivaylo	Sivinov	$7,155
135	Timothy	Little	$7,155
136	Matthew	Schulte	$6,725
137	Chad	Wassmuth	$6,725
138	Frederic	Konowitz	$6,725
139	Jeff	Trudeau Jr.	$6,725
140	Tuan	Phan	$6,725
141	Stephen	Brite	$6,725
142	Haim	Or Krief	$6,725
143	Scott	Levitt	$6,725
144	Stanley	Lee	$6,725
145	Anthony	Spinella	$6,725
146	Miles	Reinhard	$6,725
147	Aaron	Rosenthal	$6,725
148	Fawaz	Siddiqui	$6,725
149	William	Slepcevich	$6,725
150	Paul	Holliday	$6,725
151	Fred	Paradis	$6,725
152	Scott	Bohlman	$6,725
153	Spencer	Champlin	$6,725
154	Lyle	Diamond	$6,400
155	Christopher	Audrain	$6,400
156	Daniel	Chalifour	$6,400
157	Stephen	Song	$6,400
158	Sebastian	Gallego	$6,400
159	David	McMahon	$6,400
160	Ren	Lin	$6,400
161	Oleksandr	Gnatenko	$6,400
162	Brent	Sibley	$6,400
163	Timothy	Ulmer	$6,400
164	William	Eitze	$6,400
165	Daniel	Jiacopello	$6,400
166	Matthew	Waxman	$6,400
167	Haim	Gabay	$6,400
168	George	Rakitzis	$6,400
169	Joseph	Hanna	$6,400
170	Alexander	Ziskin	$6,400
171	Jorge	Aristizabal	$6,400
172	Raffaello	Locatelli	$6,160
173	Ariel	Rosello	$6,160
174	Fabian	Gumz	$6,160
175	Maksim	Rozenfeld	$6,160
176	Florian	Gaugusch	$6,160
177	Javier	Gomez Marquez	$6,160
178	Barry	Roth	$6,160
179	Mihails	Morozovs	$6,160
180	Ryan	Depaulo	$6,160
181	Arsenii	Karmatchkii	$6,160
182	Cliff	Maloney	$6,160
183	Jeremy	Becker	$6,160
184	Joe	Serock	$6,160
185	Brian	Murphy	$6,160
186	Christopher	Lewis	$6,160
187	Ramin	Hajiyev	$6,160
188	Nicholas	Tucker	$6,160
189	Hagai	Stein	$6,160
190	Paul	Balzano	$6,000
191	Daniel	Mulhall	$6,000
192	Gediminas	Uselis	$6,000
193	Gregory	Anda	$6,000
194	Roman	Pipman	$6,000
195	Sundiata	Devore	$6,000
196	Jon	Gottlieb	$6,000
197	Paul	Gellenbeck	$6,000
198	Luke	Graham	$6,000
199	Richard	Whitebrook	$6,000
200	Gabriel	Abusada	$6,000
201	Nancy	Birnbaum	$6,000
202	Richard	Yau	$6,000
203	Steven	Rivero	$6,000
204	Ken	Aldridge	$6,000
205	Bohdan	Slyvinskyi	$6,000
206	Victor	Nissim	$6,000
207	Aaron	Kupin	$6,000
208	Nicholas	Agnew	$5,915
209	Aaron	Steury	$5,915
210	Zhen	Cai	$5,915
211	Ryan	Eriquezzo	$5,915
212	Curtis	King	$5,915

* Indicates a four-way deal.

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Payouts
Level 35:  300,000/600,000 with a 600,000 ante
Players Remaining:  4 of 1,692

Level 35 got underway with blinds of 300,000-600,000 and a 600,000 ante, and a short while after that, the final four players agreed to a deal to end the tournament and split the remaining prizepool.

As chipleader, Marius Gierse was awarded the title, the trophy, and $605,000.

Here are the final payouts:

1st:  Marius Gierse  –  $605,000 + LHPO Trophy
2nd:  Brian Scott  –  $555,078
3rd:  Peter Mugar  –  $500,000
4th:  Jacob Powers  –  $498,177

Congratulations to Lucky Hearts Poker Open Champion Marius Gierse!

Stay tuned for a recap of this event, which will be posted later tonight, followed by a series recap tomorrow.

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Payouts
Level 35:  300,000/600,000 with a 600,000 ante
Players Remaining:  4 of 1,692

Level 34 came to an end, and the players took a 15-minute break. Here are their official chip counts:

Seat 1.  Peter Mugar  –  16,800,000  (28 bb)
Seat 2.  Jacob Powers  –  19,400,000  (32 bb)
Seat 3.  Brian Scott  –  23,700,000  (40 bb)
Seat 4.  Marius Gierse  –  24,700,000  (41 bb)

And here are the final table payouts:

1st:  $850,735 + LHPO Trophy
2nd:  $569,400
3rd:  $422,185
4th:  $315,935

5th:  Martin Carnero  –  $238,635
6th:  Taylor Wilson  –  $181,950
7th:  Daniel Clifford  –  $140,055
8th:  Leonard Hermann  –  $108,850
9th:  Jerry Wong  –  $85,410

With four players remaining from a field of 1,692, the average chip stack is around 21,200,000 (35 big blinds), and they are guaranteed at least $315,935 each.

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Payouts
Level 34:  300,000/500,000 with a 500,000 ante
Players Remaining:  4 of 1,692

Brian Scott raised from UTG/cutoff to 1,100,000, Jacob Powers moved all in from the big blind for 18,800,000, and Scott went into the tank.

At one point, Scott asked Powers, “If I show, will you show?” Powers seemed to indicate that he would.

Scott tanked for a while longer before he folded face up, and Power turned over as he took the pot. Scott merely shrugged at the king high.

Jacob Powers  –  20,700,000  (41 bb)
Brian Scott  –  23,200,000  (46 bb)

With four players remaining from a field of 1,692, the average chip stack is around 21,200,000 (42 big blinds), and they are guaranteed at least $315,935 each.

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Payouts
Level 34:  300,000/500,000 with a 500,000 ante
Players Remaining:  4 of 1,692

Peter Mugar min-raised from UTG/cutoff to 1,000,000, and Marius Gierse asked how much Mugar had left behind before he moved all in from the big blind.

Mugar quickly called all in for 9,700,000 with , and Gierse turned over . Mugar needed his hand to hold to stay alive.

The board came , and Mugar won the pot with his queen to double up in chips.

Peter Mugar  –  20,200,000  (40 bb)
Marius Gierse  –  20,000,000  (40 bb)

With four players remaining from a field of 1,692, the average chip stack is around 21,200,000 (42 big blinds), and they are guaranteed at least $315,935 each.

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Payouts
Level 33:  200,000/400,000 with a 400,000 ante
Players Remaining:  4 of 1,692

Brian Scott raised to 1,000,000 from the button, and Peter Mugar called in the big blind.

The flop was , Mugar checked, Scott bet 1,000,000, Mugar checked-raised all in for 4,300,000, and Scott called after about 45 seconds.

Scott: 
Mugar: 

Mugar was in the lead with a pair of sevens.

The turn and river completed the board, further improving Mugar to a ten-high straight to double up.

Peter Mugar  –  11,200,000  (28 bb)
Brian Scott  –  29,600,000  (74 bb)

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Payouts
Level 33:  200,000/400,000 with a 400,000 ante
Players Remaining:  4 of 1,692

Marius Gierse min-raised from the button to 800,000, Martin Carnero moved all in from the big blind for 7,300,000, and Gierse called with .

Carnero turned over , and needed to improve to stay alive.

The board came , and the pocket jacks held up for Gierse to win the pot and eliminate Carnero in fifth place.

Marius Gierse  –  27,200,000  (68 bb)
Martin Carnero  –  Eliminated in 5th Place  ($238,635)

With four players remaining from a field of 1,692, the average chip stack is around 21,200,000 (53 big blinds), and they are guaranteed at least $315,935 each.

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Payouts
Level 33:  200,000/400,000 with a 400,000 ante
Players Remaining:  5 of 1,692

Taylor Wilson raised under the gun to 6,500,000, leaving himself just 400K behind, and Brian Scott thought for a while before calling from the big blind. (Scott had thought Wilson was all in.)

The flop came , Scott moved all in, and Wilson called all in for 400,000 with for a pair of sevens.

But Scott turned over , and Wilson needed to improve to stay alive.

The turn card was the , the river card was the , and Scott won the pot with his pocket tens to eliminate Wilson in sixth place.

Brian Scott  –  33,000,000  (83 bb)
Taylor Wilson  –  Eliminated in 6th Place  ($181,950)

With five players remaining from a field of 1,692, the average chip stack is around 16,900,000 (42 big blinds), and they are guaranteed at least $238,635 each.

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Payouts
Level 33:  200,000/400,000 with a 400,000 ante
Players Remaining:  6 of 1,692

Brian Scott raised to 800,000 from the hijack, and Marius Gierse called on the button.

The flop was , Scott checked, Gierse bet 700,000, and Scott called.

The turn was the , Scott checked, Gierse bet 2,300,000, Scott raised to 6,000,000, and Gierse called.

The river was the , Scott shoved for 9,700,000, and Gierse went into the tank for about four minutes before he folded.

Brian Scott  –  25,700,000  (64 bb)
Marius Gierse  –  17,700,000  (44 bb)

$3,500 LHPO Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Payouts
Level 33:  200,000/400,000 with a 400,000 ante
Players Remaining:  6 of 1,692

Martin Carnero min-raised under the gun to 800,000, Jacob Powers moved all in from the hijack for about 19,000,000, and everyone else folded.

Action returned to Carnero, who carefully removed his sunglasses and said, “I’m going to need a couple of minutes.”

Carnero went into the tank, and was quietly talking to himself about the possible hands Powers could have.

Eventually, Carnero folded, and Powers held up his cards like he was about to show them to the table.

Carnero said, “I don’t want to see it. I don’t want to see it.”

Powers flipped over his cards and showed , and Carnero breathed a sigh of relief as he was let off the hook, knowing he made the right fold.

Taylor Wilson jokingly said, “Are you sure you don’t want to see it?”

Wilson said he folded pocket queens, and then he said to Powers, “Thank you for showing me.”

Jacob Powers  –  20,700,000  (52 bb)
Martin Carnero  –  9,700,000  (24 bb)

With six players remaining from a field of 1,692, the average chip stack is around 14,100,000 (35 big blinds), and they are guaranteed at least $181,950 each.