Salomon Ponte Triumphs At 2016 Seminole Lucky Hearts WPT DeepStacks

The Seminole Lucky Hearts WPT DeepStacks main event was held in Florida, and attracted a huge field of 1,684 players to create a prize pool worth $1,633,480. Three days of action later, and it was Canadian player Salomon Ponte who triumphed over his competitors to lift the title, and collect $341,420 in prize money.
The $1,100 Main Event saw a number of notable pros enter the fray, with those seeing a return on their investments including John Dolan in 155th ($2,120), Aaron Massey in 111th ($2,770), Kelly Minkin in 86th ($3,260), Jacob Bazeley in 79th ($3,425), Loni Harwood in 41st ($4,240), and Matt Affleck in 22nd ($6,685).
Salomon Ponte then entered the final table as chip leader, before proceeding to eliminate Paul Balzano (9th), Zack Goodman (8th), and Harrison Gimbel (4th). After Thong Ho exited the tournament in 3rd, Ponte took a 2-1 chip lead against Ed Mallon into heads-up play, with the final hand of the competition seeing Mallon limp with 9-8, only to call Ponte’s shove holding A-K. The dealer subsequently dealt a K-9-3-A-4 board to consign Mallon to a runner-up finish worth $192,885, while Salomon Ponte was crowned the champion.
Commenting on the impressive turnout for the main event, Jason Newman, Seminole Gaming director of poker marketing, said: “We are thrilled with the success of this year’s Lucky Hearts Poker Open.. Partnering with the WPTDeepStacks and bringing a mid-major to Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino as our Main Event also gave us the opportunity to offer players something different than they are typically used to seeing in January. With 1,684 entries and final prize pool that exceeded $1.5 million, we couldn’t be happier.”
Final Table Results:
1 Salomon Ponte $341,420
2 Ed Mallon $192,885
3 Thong Ho $139,730
4 Harrison Gimbel $93,915
5 Kenneth Watson $66,525
6 Michael Larocca $56,740
7 Ryan D’Angelo $48,260
8 Zack Goodman $31,630
9 Paul Balzano $27,390