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Raminder Singh Wins 2024 Lucky Hearts Poker Open Main Event

Florida Businessman Bests Field Of 1,188 Entries To Earn $486,353

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The name ‘Singh’ comes from a Sanskrit word for a lion. This seems fitting for Raminder Singh, who has become an apex predator in the Florida tournament poker scene. Despite being a businessman first and amateur poker player second, the Delray Beach resident has managed to accumulate nearly 90 tournament titles in the past 11 years, with most of those coming in his home state. His most recent victory was also his largest.

In the early morning hours of Wednesday, Jan. 24 he took down the 2024 Lucky Hearts Poker Open $3,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood for a career-best payday of $486,353. Singh now has nearly $2.8 million in recorded tournament earnings after this latest win.

“It feels really great, I don’t really ever play any big tournaments that go into the week. I need to have a pretty fine schedule to skip all my work and play, so normally I don’t play these. But this time my friends, they convinced me to play in this. This was the time to play. I’ve been in good form, I’ve been playing well, I couldn’t miss this tournament,” Singh told SHR reporters after coming out on top.

In addition to the title and the money, Singh also earned 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion of this event. This was already his second POY-qualified final table of the year, having placed fourth in a $400 turbo event earlier in this same festival. With 1,493 total points, Singh now sits in second place in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker.

This tournament drew a massive field of 1,188 entries, nearly doubling the $2 million guarantee to build a final prize pool of $3,801,600. The top 148 finishers made the money, with six-figure paydays for the final seven.

This event ran from Jan. 19-23. After the two starting flights and two more days of action, the field had been narrowed down to 16 contenders with Justin Datloff in the lead and Singh in a virtual tie for third place in the chip counts. 2021 Wynn Millions champion Andrew Moreno (15th) and two-time bracelet winner Sean Troha (14th) were among the notables that fell on the way to the official final table.

Plenty of highly accomplished players joined Singh among the final nine, including six-time bracelet winner Brian Hastings (9th), bracelet winner Toby Joyce (8th), five-time bracelet winner Benny Glaser (7th), 2023 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown third-place finisher Mitch Garshofsky (6th), and WPT champion Jonathan Jaffe (5th).

Jesse Lonis, Raminder Singh, and Dan MartinThe elimination of Datloff in fourth place ($229,000) left Singh playing three-handed with Dan Martin and two-time bracelet winner Jesse Lonis. That trio battled it out for a bit before deciding to take a look at some chop numbers. They ultimately agreed to a deal that brought the tournament to an end. The chip counts at the time of the deal were as follows:

Raminder Singh – 27,100,000
Dan Martin – 21,700,000
Jesse Lonis – 10,600,000

As the chip leader at the time, Singh was awarded $486,353 and the title. Martin took home $460,000, while Lonis secured $404,247 as the third-place finisher. Martin climbed to third place in the POY standings with 1,200 points, while Lonis moved to fourth with 1,104. Lonis had finished sixth in a $5,300 event at the PGT Kickoff festival earlier this month for $22,500 and 144 points.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Place Player Earnings POY Points
1 Raminder Singh $486,353 1,440
2 Daniel Martin $460,000 1,200
3 Jesse Lonis $404,247 960
4 Justin Datloff $229,900 720
5 Jonathan Jaffe $173,500 600
6 Mitch Garshofsky $132,300 480
7 Benny Glaser $102,000 360
8 Toby Joyce $79,400 240
9 Brian Hastings $62,500 120

Photo credits: Seminole Hard Rock Poker Blog.