2026 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 43
$5,300 SHRPO Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed
Entries:  673
Prizepool:  $3,262,704
August 7-11, 2026

There were 673 entries in the five-day $5,300 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship, and after an incredible final table that played out very quickly and then very slowly, Joe McKeehen defeated David Greufe heads-up to win the title, the trophy, and $462,600.

“Down here in Florida, I don’t feel like I’ve ever done as well as I should have,” said McKeehen, who won the WSOP Main Event in 2015 and has more than $22 million in career live tournament earnings. “It feels like every time I get into the situation, I just can’t. This time around, I was very focused.”

McKeehen started the final table third in chips with 59 big blinds, behind chipleader David Greufe (130 big blinds) and Loni Hui (108 big blinds). This was the lineup:

Seat 1.  Joe McKeehen  –  4,400,000  (59 bb)
Seat 2.  Loni Hui  –  8,125,000  (108 bb)
Seat 3.  Darren Rabinowitz  –  1,275,000  (17 bb)
Seat 4.  Jose Nadal  –  1,350,000  (18 bb)
Seat 5.  Frankie Rivera  –  1,675,000  (22 bb)
Seat 6.  Dan Chalifour  –  2,400,000  (32 bb)
Seat 7.  David Greufe  –  9,725,000  (130 bb)
Seat 8.  Eddie Pak  –  1,650,000  (22 bb)
Seat 9.  Robert-Andrei Burlacu  –  2,075,000  (28 bb)

“The way the chips were distributed at the beginning was really weird,” said McKeehen. “You had two people with a lot. Me in third place, kind of in the middle, and everyone else was not that deep. So it was actually a really weird situation for me. I had to think about it a lot last night, especially when I saw the table draw with one of the biggest stacks [Hui] to my direct left. I had to figure out how to play it.”

It was Loni Hui who took control of the final table early, notching three of the first four knockouts to take the lead with five players remaining.

“Honestly, I really didn’t do much at all until five-handed, when I caught a bluff for a lot of chips,” said McKeehen.

In that hand, Greufe bluffed the flop, turn, and river with ten high and no draws, and McKeehen check-called him down with a flopped top pair to win a huge pot worth 58 big blinds. (Click here for the full details on that hand.)

Greufe was able to bounce back from that hand, eliminating short stacks Frankie Rivera (fifth place) and Eddie Pak (fourth place). At that point, Hui and Greufe were once again the big stacks, with McKeehen pretty far behind.

“Even three-handed, the same two people had all the piles, and I just had a little more than I started with,” said McKeehen. “But I caught some cards and I won some big pots. It seemed every time the pot got really big, especially three-handed, I had the best hand. That was helpful.”

Two key hands came against Hui.

First, McKeehen check-called all three streets against Hui. Unlike Greufe in that earlier hand, Hui wasn’t bluffing and turned over , but McKeehen flopped trip queens with to win a pot worth 58 big blinds. That pot evened up McKeehen and Hui with 82 big blinds each, leaving Greufe in the lead with 106 big blinds. (Click here for the full details on that hand.)

A short while after that, Hui four-bet all in preflop with , but she ran into McKeehen’s . The best hand held up, and Hui was eliminated in third place. (Click here for the full details on that hand.)

To summarize the final table to this point, seven players busted in a little more than three hours — barely more than two of the 90-minute levels. There were seven all-in-and-call situations, and the short stack lost every single time.

The heads-up battle would be a completely different story. These were the official counts at the start of heads-up play:

Joe McKeehen  –  19,925,000  (159 bb)
David Greufe  –  13,750,000  (110 bb)

“I knew it was going to be a really long heads-up battle,” said McKeehen. “We both started over 100 big blinds deep, because all those people busted really fast. It was a very, very thoughtful tournament. I had to use all my brain power.”

Heads-up play lasted longer than the rest of the final table to that point, and McKeehen summed it up rather well.

“The heads-up was crazy,” said McKeehen. “I immediately had like a 20-to-1 chip lead, but he came back, and he had me at almost 20-to-1 himself, and then I somehow pulled it off.”

The key hand early in heads-up was when Greufe bluffed all three streets on a board of with , and McKeehen check-called him down with a flopped pair of sixes that rivered a flush, turning over . That gave McKeehen an 18-to-1 chip lead, and it looked like heads-up would be over much sooner than expected. (Click here for the full details on that hand.)

But Greufe bounced back, doubling up five times over the next hour or so to take the lead. And because they were relatively deep, only one of those hands was all in preflop.

In that fifth double-up hand, they got it all in on the river with the board showing . McKeehen bet, Greufe moved all in, and McKeehen tank-called with for trip tens. But Greufe turned over for trip tens with a slightly better kicker to earn the double-up and take a nearly 3-to-1 lead. (Click here for the full details on that hand.)

“I couldn’t fold three of a kind to him, and I really wanted to. I got pipped by one,” said McKeehen about that hand. “I thought that might have been the end of it, but luckily I had some chips left.”

A short while later, they played a hand to the river on a board of . With 2.7 million in the pot, Greufe bet 300,000, McKeehen raised to 3,000,000, and Greufe three-bet shoved all in. McKeehen snap-folded, leaving himself with just nine big blinds. (Click here for the full details on that hand.)

It took a while, but McKeehen was able to grind his way back to only a 2-to-1 deficit, when they played a big hand on a board of . Greufe check-raised the flop, bet the turn, and shoved the river with for a ten-high straight. But McKeehen snap-called with for an ace-high flush to turn the tables and take a 2-to-1 lead himself. (Click here for the full details on that hand.)

Momentum stayed on McKeehen’s side as he won a nice pot with a higher two pair to take a 4-to-1 chip lead, and not long after that Greufe shoved 15 big blinds with into McKeehen’s . The best hand held up, and McKeehen won the title, the iconic SHRPO Guitar Tower trophy, and $462,600. (Click here for the full details on that final hand.)

“We swung so much back and forth,” said McKeehen. “I ran really good for a while, then he ran really good for a while, and I ran great at the end. I just won every hand that I needed to, every time the pot got big.”

McKeehen is a regular in the big tournament series held here at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood.

“This place is great,” said McKeehen. “The dealers are incredible, and the floor staff is amazing. This place runs bigger stuff too, which is nice. I can play the $10,000, and they had a $25,000, which I fortunately had to skip this time around. I’m not sad about it.”

“And the prizepools are large,” McKeehen continued. “Not many places are getting 700 people for a $5K anymore. So this place is still drawing, and I’m happy to come every time. I’ll be back again.”

Final Results:

The post After a Quick-Then-Slow, Up-and-Down, Back-and-Forth Final Table, Joe McKeehen Wins the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship appeared first on Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood Poker.

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