Darryll Fish Wins 2018 World Poker Tour Lucky Hearts Poker Open

Darryll Fish defeated a field of 911 entries to win the 2018 World Poker Tour Lucky Hearts Poker Open $3,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event, taking home the $511,604 top prize and his first WPT title. Fish is a native of Cape Coral, in Southern Florida, which made winning his first major main event title at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood particular meaningful.

“I’ve played poker here since I was 18 years old,” Fish told WPT reporters after the win. “[Seminole Hard Rock Tournament Director] Tony Burns is a longtime friend of mine. We went to dealer school together. We used to work together. For him to get the job here and for me to end up winning a tournament here, it feels like everything came full circle. To be supported in this place feels great. For it to happen here more than anywhere is extra special.”

Fish came into the six-handed live streamed final table in third chip position, with 2010 WPT Legends of Poker champion Andy Frankenberger as the short stack. Frankenberger was able to survive to three-handed play, but ultimately hit the rail in third place when his 77 failed to win the race against Fish’s AJ. The chips got in preflop, and the 844J3 runout paired Fish’s jack to send Frankenberger to the rail in third place with $244,342.

Fish entered heads-up play against Aleksandr Shevelev at roughly a 3-to-4 chip disadvantage, with both players being quite deeps stacked with an average stack of over 110 big blinds. The two battled it out for around 3 hours, playing 121 hands before a winner was decided. Fish took a decisive lead winning a huge all-in with pocket nines against Shevelev’s pocket threes late in the heads-up showdown, and not long after was able to close the deal when his KJ outran Shevelev’s A10. Shevelev moved all-in from the button and Fish called. The board ran out Q98K10 and Fish made a straight to win the pot and the title. Shevelev earned $331,116 as the second-place finisher.

For the win Fish was also awarded 1,368 Card Player Player of the Year points. As a result he shot up the POY leaderboard, landing in sixth place for the time being.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded in this event:

Winner photo credit: Joe Giron / World Poker Tour.

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