The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown saw 1,207 players stump up the $3,500 buy in for this four-day tournament, but in the end, not even the talents of Daniel Colman could keep Tony Sinishtaj from taking victory here. With a strong turnout, the prize pool grew to $3,862,400, with $661,283 being won by the eventual winner, Sinishtaj.
Early exchanges
By the end of Day 1, Alejandro Duque had taken the chip-lead, with Dantonio Brown and Kelly Minkin following up in 2nd and 3rd. By the end of day 1, only 476 players remained in contention.
The second day saw Matt Affleck seize the chip-lead as a host of other big names and hopefuls fell by the wayside. Just 66 players would be left to pull up their chairs for the third day, with all players in the top 151 places having already made the money. It took until 4:18am on the third day for the field to finally be reduced to a final table of 6 players, with Matt Affleck being the unfortunate 7th place finisher. Daniel Colman had decided to grab the headlines once again at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, carrying the chip-lead into the final day.
Colman carries the chip-lead into final table play
When the cards finally found some air beneath them, few people would have been betting against the wizardry of Daniel Colman, but the illustrious company he was keeping at this final table were yet to have their say on matters. Robert Mizrachi, Simeon Naydenov and Darryll Fish all had the quality to cause an upset, but everything appeared to be going smoothly for Colman during the early levels.
Short stack Naydenov was the first to fall, picking up $132,889 for his 6th place finish. Eric Beller followed him out of the door a short while later after walking into the pocket kings of Robert Mizrachi, and we were down to four survivors after just 26 hands. The very next hand brought more fireworks as Fish and Colman clashed in a blind vs blind confrontation with 
and 
respectively. Colman flatted the 4-bet of Fish, before managing to escape on the harmless looking 10-high flop. Things went a little quiet after that, apart from Darryll Fish treating everyone to a rare runner-runner royal flush on hand 55.
Tony Sinishtaj was probably the least familiar player remaining at this point, but having spent the last six years picking up four and five-figure cashes on the live circuit, he certainly wasn’t severely outclassed at this final table. As the hands rolled by, he underlined that fact by taking over the chip-lead shortly after forcing a fold from Colman on the river of a 
board, and showing the 
.
Colman falls as four become two
Mizrachi chopped Colman‘s stack in half soon after, before taking a second 3 million chip bite out of the former chip-leader, dropping him to 1.8 million. But, Colman is nothing if not resilient, and he calmly fought his way back to a briefly held chip-lead of 12.8 million before the hundredth hand had been played. Soon after that though, it all came crashing down for Colman in the cruellest of ways. Having opened from the button and been called by Sinishtaj in the big blind, Colman was suddenly facing a 550,000 lead out from his opponent on an 
rainbow flop. Colman re-popped it to 1.5 million and Sinishtaj shoved for 8,275,000. After a few minutes of tanking, Colman eventually made the call with and was in great shape against the 
of Sinishtaj. The single diamond on the flop may have looked relatively harmless at first, but it soon became the architect of Colman‘s doom as two further diamonds were splashed across the table on the turn and river. Crippled to 525,000, Colman bowed out in 4th place for $217,686 soon after.
For Fish and Mizrachi, the momentum of Sinishtaj proved hard to combat in the following hands as he pressed ahead to a chip-lead that was more than twice that of Fish in 2nd. Mizrachi‘s stack, which had been hovering at around 5 million, melted away soon after in a flip gone awry against Fish, and we were finally heads-up.
Heads Up Play
The chip-lead swung back and forth between the two finalists over the 38 hands that followed, but on hand 173, after Sinishtaj had doubled into the chip-lead with 
vs
a few hands earlier, the final blow was struck. After Fish had check-shoved against his opponent on a 
board, Sinishtaj called quickly with 
. Just as they had been earlier in the tournament, diamonds were kind to Sinishtaj, as he spiked the 
on the turn to end the contest. He banked the $661,283 1st prize, while Fish had to console himself with runner-up spot and $453,185.
Final table payouts are as follows:
1st – Tony Sinishtaj – $661,283
2nd – Darryll Fish – $453,185
3rd – Robert Mizrachi – $293,864
4th – Daniel Colman – $217,686
5th – Eric Beller – $164,438
6th – Simeon Naydenov – $132,889
Article by Craig Bradshaw
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