The 2018 Lucky Hearts Poker Open festival is taking place right now at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood Florida. On Thursday night, the biggest buy-in tournament of the series, Event #12: $50,000 Super High Roller, wrapped up, and the title came down to a battle between two poker heavyweights.
Schillhabel vs. Mateos
The two-day Lucky Hearts Poker Open $50K SHR attracted 25 entries, which helped surpass the $1 million guarantee by creating a $1,232,500 prize pool. Among the participants were Poker Hall of Famer Eric Seidel, World Poker Tour champ Seth Davies, and online poker wizard Ike Haxton.
After Ben Tollerene bubbled the tournament in sixth place, Day 1 came to a halt and the final five returned for Day 2. In just the third hand of the final table, 2016 GPI Player of the Year David Peters got it in with a weak ace only to run into the bigger ace of 2017 GPI Player of the Year Adrian Mateos.
Eventually, Mateos, the youngest player in history to win three World Series of Poker bracelets, made it to heads-up play with a lead over Germany’s Stefan Schillhabel. Over the next two hours, the chip lead exchanged hands several times.
The final hand of the tournament came in Level 22 (25k/50k/5k) when Schillhabel limped the button with 3♥7♣ and Mateos checked his option holding Q♠8♥. The flop came 8♦7♠3♦. Mateos checked, and Schillhabel bet 60,000.
Mateos answered with a check-raise to 200,000. Schillhabel called, and the dealer burned and turned the 10♥. Mateos jammed for 565,000 and Schillhabel called with his two pair. A 6♦ river was no help. Mateos had to settle for second place and a $308,125 consolation prize.
“Pretty tough field. Like only two recreational players, and the rest were pros,” Schillhabel told tournament officials after the win. “The re-entries came mostly from the better players … And that final table I think was the toughest final table I’ve ever played.”
Final Table Results
1 Stefan Schillhabel (Germany) $493,000
2 Adrian Mateos (Spain) $308,125
3 Justin Bonomo (USA) $197,200
4 Nick Petrangelo (USA) $135,575
5 David Peters (USA) $98,600
“Against these guys, it’s hard to exploit them,” Schillhabel said. “So, you just have to play your best game and not be exploited yourself.”
Climbing German Money List
The Lucky Hearts Poker Open win marked the fifth-largest score of Schiillhabel’s career, bringing his lifetime tournament earnings to $8,632,702. That allowed him to leapfrog Koray Aldemir on Germany’s all-time money list and move him into 10th place.
Sitting ahead of him are 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Pius Heinz and 2014 PCA Super High Roller winner Fabian Quoss, who have $9,028,569 and $9,659,596 in earnings respectively. Both have been MIA from the poker world, so there’s a good chance Schillhabel moves up the list this year.
In fact, Schillhabel has gotten off to a hot start in 2018, notching four cashes at the PCA. That included a seventh-place finish in the $25K High Roller for $146,360 and winning the special $25,000 REG Charity Event for $213,977.
Schillhabel’s biggest score of $2.4 million came last summer when he took third in the $300K Super High Roller Bowl. He also earned seven figures, $1,298,000 to be exact, for winning the 2016 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship.
The WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Main Event begins this weekend and runs through January 24. Be sure to check back next week for a recap of the action.
