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Nicholas Chong Wins His First Seminole Hard Rock Trophy After a Long Final Table Battle

2025 Lucky Hearts Poker Open
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Hollywood, Florida
Event 14
$1,100 Triple Stack No-Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed
Entries:  312
Prize Pool:  $302,640
January 12-14, 2025

Event 14 Champion Nicholas Chong
Event 14 Champion Nicholas Chong

There were three starting flights for Event 14 over the past two days, attracting 312 entries to generate a prizepool worth $302,640. Forty players survived those flights to make Day 2 and finish in the money.

Day 2 was a long one, running more than 13 hours, with more than four hours just for the battle between the final three players. It was a lot of small ball back-and-forth at that point, with only two all-in-and-call situations in those final four hours.

The first all-in situation came when Rafael Rodriguez shoved AdKh into Nicholas Chong’s QdQc — Rodriguez caught an ace on the river, but it was too little, too late, as Chong had clinched the hand on the turn with a set of queens. Rodriguez was eliminated in 3rd place. (Click here for details.)

The second all-in situation was the final hand, when Matthew Lambrecht shoved ace-six into Nicholas Chong’s queen-jack. (Click here for details.) With a queen on the flop and another queen on the river, Chong won the pot, the title, the trophy, and $60,340 with trip queens.

“I’m really happy, but really, really tired,” said Chong. “It was a long day today.”

Chong loves playing here at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood, and the biggest tournament cash of his career came here last year, when he finished second in Event #1 at the 2024 Lucky Hearts Poker Open, earning $221,375.

Even though it was a six-figure payday, it was still a second-place finish, and coming out on top today was special for Chong.

“This is my first trophy here,” said Chong. “I’m really happy, and I wish to get more from the Hard Rock, both Tampa and here. This is my favorite casino for playing poker. It’s really lucky for me, and I never go home empty-handed.”


Results:

Place First Name Last Name Prize Amount
1 Nicholas Chong $60,340
2 Matthew Lambrecht $41,500
3 Rafael Rodriguez $31,000
4 Kevin DiPasquale $23,100
5 Michael Garcia $17,400
6 Cangir Elcin $13,300
7 David DiBernardi $10,200
8 Feiwen Wu $7,900
9 Zhen Cai $6,200
10 Martins Adeniya $6,200
11 Kevin MacDonald $5,200
12 Pasquale Caiazza $5,200
13 Denis Cyr $4,360
14 Alexander Rosenblatt $4,360
15 Ben Warrington $4,360
16 Timothy Mulroy $3,580
17 Eric Thoren $3,580
18 Bryan Schultz $3,580
19 Scott Zakheim $3,580
20 Peter Kinseth $2,920
21 Calais Campbell $2,920
22 Samuel Ganzfried $2,920
23 Daniel Vranich $2,920
24 Haim Toorgeman $2,320
25 Nikolai Tulin $2,320
26 Tamas Hartman $2,320
27 Aaron Flores $2,320
28 Jacob Kauffman $2,320
29 Christopher Bucceri $2,320
30 A.J. Kelsall $2,320
31 David Nathaniel $2,320
32 Adam Nattress $1,940
33 Kevin Ordet $1,940
34 Miguel Capriles $1,940
35 Mica Lamar $1,940
36 Craig Pollak $1,940
37 Dion Jagroo $1,940
38 Benjamin Zamani $1,940
39 Joost Schippers $1,940
40 Yury Parad $1,940

The post Nicholas Chong Wins His First Seminole Hard Rock Trophy After a Long Final Table Battle appeared first on Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood Poker.

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