Francois Zayas Turns $360 into Over $100K at Seminole Hard Rock
Seminole Hard Rock's latest monstrous reentry event, appropriately dubbed $360 Ultimate Reentry at Rock 'n' Roll Poker Open, ended Monday evening with a multi-way deal that saw seven players turn $360 into more than $50,000 after surviving a 3,570-entry field.
The most lucrative cut went to Miami resident Francois Zayas, who walked away from the negotiations with $107,793. His best cash coming into the event was just over $8,000.
��It was awesome,�� Zayas told tournament reporters. ��I ran good since Day 1 and today I ran like a god.��
Six of his competitors banked between $52,661 and $85,481.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Francois Zayas | Miami Springs, FL | $107,973* |
| 2 | Daniel Taylor | Hensall, Canada | $85,481* |
| 3 | Song O | Tampa, FL | $85,146* |
| 4 | Benjamin Miner | Atlanta, GA | $75,070* |
| 5 | Brandon Ageloff | Coconut Creek, FL | $70,133* |
| 6 | Richard Trippensee Jr. | Sunrise, FL | $57,735* |
| 7 | Pasquale Caiazza | Davie, FL | $52,661* |
| 8 | Sam Wynder | Palm Springs, FL | $15,818 |
| 9 | Ruslan Dykshteyn | Hallandale Beach, FL | $11,205 |
*reflects seven-way deal
Originally, the tournament was set to award more than $200,000 to the first-place finisher, with 13 players surviving to make an unscheduled final day. Some players who narrowly missed the cut after late Day 2 bustouts included Hard Rock Ambassador Loni Harwood, Jonathan Hilton and Josh Beckley.
The final day began without a single player over 50 big blinds according to the live updates, but things moved quickly to a final table with start-of-day leader Daniel Taylor scoring some early knockouts en route to 10-handed play. Zayas, though, kept pace, and both players raced past 11 million at 60,000/120,000/20,000 when nobody else was above 6 million.
Final Table Action
After Tracy Potter busted his last few blinds to fall in 10th, Zayas and Taylor played a key pot that would propel Zayas to the top spot and secure him the eventual big payout. Zayas raised to 410,000 and got three callers to a 9?3?2? flop. Taylor bet out 505,000 from the big blind and Zayas made it 1.1 million. Taylor called and they went heads up to a 3? and then an 8?, both of which checked through.
Zayas tabled Q?Q? and took it with queens up, distancing himself from the pack.
Song O tried to put the pressure on by shoving for 2.5 million effective when Ruslan Dykshteyn raised on the button to 375,000 at 75,000/150,000/25,000, but Dykshteyn found the call button with A?9? and had the lead against J?10?. Four bricks fell but a ten on the river doomed Dykshteyn.
Benjamin Miner then won a race to bust Sam Wynder, holding with 10?10? against A?J? during that same level.
That left seven players who all had very playable chip counts ranging from 3.7 million to Zayas' 13.9 million. They decided to make a deal based on those counts and Zayas, who said he only fired a single entry into the prize pool, claimed the lion's share of the money.
Photo courtesy of Seminole Hard Rock
