Michael Newman Wins Massive $374k at Seminole Casino

Not too long ago, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino hosted the Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open Championship, an event that featured a massive guaranteed prize pool of $2,000,000. 48-year old Michael Newman, who is a recreational player, closed out the championship, gaining a hefty payday of $374,240 – the biggest of his career by a long way!

Here are some details of the tournament:

Name: Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open 2017
Venue: Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Type: $3,500 – No Limit Hold’em
Entries: 585
Prize Pool: $2,000,000
Dates: November 24-29, 2017

There were days of preliminary tournaments before the Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open could kick off – an event that saw a number of poker pros and those who can be called some of the best in the game. However, it was a local player Michael Newman who walked away with the riches, doubling his career live cashes with this event. Previous to this, his highest was just $30,640, for winning 12th place in the same event back in 2015!

Newman was ecstatic with this victory, saying this to tournament officials – “It’s probably the best thing that I’ve ever done in poker.”

Coming into the final day of the event, Newman was not one to be favoured looking at the stacks, with poker pro Ari Engel being the chip leader. However, that changed with Engel drawing dead to Newman in the first hand itself.

The final six had combined career winnings of almost $30 million, and that goes to show that a recreational player can also make in big in poker. By the time we were ready for heads-up play, Newman had clearly become favourite, as he had a 5-1 chips lead over Matas Cimbolas, one of Lithuania’s bests. However, it would be a steep mountain to climb for Cimbolas.

Cimbolas held 3-3 in his hand, while Newman decided to gamble with a Q-7. The community cards were 10-6-2-2, with Cimbolas clearly in the lead, but 7 on the river card gave Newman a tournament win – his career best one!