With four players remaining in the 2021 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $50,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em super high roller, France’s Arthur Conan ran a multi-street bluff with a straight draw that never improved. On the river he fired a final barrel, betting 265,000 of his 290,000 with nine high. His opponent, Seth Davies, called with two pair to leave Conan with a single 25,000 tournament chip in his stack. With blinds of 15,000-25,000, he found himself all-in right away. He won that pot to quadruple up and then doubled up several more times before eventually winning the tournament for $733,320.
This was by far the largest live tournament score of Conan’s career, blowing away the $83,918 he earned as the champion of the 20,000 Moroccan Dirham ($2,075 USD) buy-in event at the 2019 WPTDeepStacks Marrakech festival. He now has more than $1.4 million in career earnings to his name.
In addition to the title and the money, Conan was also awarded 510 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this high-stakes event. This was his first POY-qualified score of 2021.
This tournament drew a total of 42 entries, creating a $2,100,000 prize pool which was ultimately paid out among the top seven finishers. Ilyas Muradi, who won the World Poker Tour Lucky Hearts Poker Open main event that was also held at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood, finished seventh for $81,480 and 128 POY points. With the $620,000 and 1,620 points he earned for taking down that $3,500 buy-in large-field main event, Muradi now sits in fifth place in the 2021 POY race standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker.
The final day of this event began with just six players remaining. World Series of Poker bracelet winner Jeremy Ausmus was the first to fall. Ausmus got his short stack all-in preflop with Q
10 and found himself dominated by the AQ
of Chris Brewer. Ausmus failed to come from behind and was eliminated in sixth place ($112,035).
Sean Winter was left on just a few big blinds after losing a big clash with Sam Soverel. He got the last of his chips in with 54
and was called by the pocket sevens of Seth Davies. The board brought no help and Winter was sent to the rail with $142,590 as the fifth-place finisher.
Conan lost a pair of big pots early in four-handed action. First he ran into a backdoor flush held by Seth Davies. The two clashed again in the pot that left Conan on crumbs before his eventual phoenix-like rise from the ashes. With blinds of 15,000-25,000 and a 25,000 big-blind ante, Davies raised to 60,000 in the small blind holding Q
10. Conan called in the big blind with 97. The flop came down Q106 and Davie bet 90,000 with his top two pair. Conan called and the J rolled off the deck on the turn. Davies fired another 90,000 bet. Conan raised to 250,000 with his draw and Davies called. The 4 on the end prompted Davies to check. Conan had missed, but bet 265,000 off of his stack of 290,000 with just nine high. Davies thought it over before announcing a call, and Conan was left with a solitary 25,000 chip.
Conan quadrupled up shortly after, then found two double-ups to surpass the 500,000 mark. He continued to rebuild during four-handed play, eventually winning a sizable pot with a turned straight against the flopped top set of Davies to take the lead.
Davies had fallen to the bottom of the leaderboard. In his final hand, he called all-in on a AK24A board with A8, only to run into the AK of Brewer. Davies, a World Poker Tour main event champion, earned $203,700 for his latest deep run.
Despite earning that knockout, Brewer was the next to be eliminated. He got all-in with A10 against the pocket sevens of Conan in a blind-vs-blind situation. Brewer rivered a pair of aces, but the final card had also put four clubs on the board to go with the one in Conan’s hand to make a flush. The former collegiate long-distance runner turned high-stakes poker pro cashed for $295,365 as the third-place finisher.
With that Conan took roughly an 8:1 chip lead into heads-up play with bracelet winner Sam Soverel. It didn;t take long for him to convert that advantage into the title. He picked up 55 on the button and moved all-in. Soverel called for just shy of 14 big blinds with K9. The board ran out 853J8 to give Conan a winning full house to complete his comeback victory. Soverel took home $468,510 as the runner-up.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Arthur Conan | $733,320 | 510 |
| 2 | Sam Soverel | $468,510 | 425 |
| 3 | Christopher Brewer | $295,365 | 340 |
| 4 | Seth Davies | $203,700 | 255 |
| 5 | Sean Winter | $142,590 | 213 |
| 6 | Jeremy Ausmus | $112,035 | 170 |
| 7 | Ilyas Muradi | $81,480 | 128 |
Photo credits: Seminole Hard Rock Poker blog.
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