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Maria Ho Makes SHRPO Championship Final – Mermelstein Wins High Roller

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The 2019 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open is officially in the books, well for the most part. The last of the events have wrapped up, but the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship final table remains. This is one of the WPT’s delayed final table events that will play to a winner on May 30th.

At that final table, Maria Ho and James Carroll are both looking for their first WPT title. Ho is looking to become just the second female champion in World Poker Tour history. Meanwhile, Aaron Mermelstein took down the $25k High Roller title and outlasted a stacked final table that included Alex Foxen.

Carroll, Ho, and Afriat Headline WPT Final Table

The main event of the SHRPO was the $3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship that played to a final table on Tuesday. This event drew 1,360 entries to create a prize pool of $4.35 million.

After four days of action, the final table of this event was reached, and this will make for a fantastic delayed final table. Former WPT champion James Carroll comes into the final table with the overall chip lead of 18.52 million. He won the 2014 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star event and is looking to grab his second WPT title.

Maria Ho comes into the final table with 16.65 million in chips and is second overall. This is her second WPT final table, last finishing sixth at the 2016 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star. She’s looking to become just the second female WPT champion in history.

Another WPT champion is also at the final table. Two-time champion Eric Afriat comes into the final table fourth in chips, holding 4.42 million. His last title win was last year when he won the Borgata Winter Poker Open. He has about $2.7 million in career earnings.

The other notable at this final table is short stack Jerry Wong. He’s best known for his eighth-place finish at the 2016 WSOP Main Event. He’s only got about 21 big blinds, so he will have to get active early to have a realistic shot at the title.

Players will have to wait a bit before play resumes. The final table for this event is not scheduled until May 30. Below are the final table chip counts:

  • James Carroll – 18,525,000
  • Maria Ho – 16,650,000
  • Ami Alibay – 8,175,000
  • Eric Afriat – 4,425,000
  • Chad Eveslage – 3,350,000
  • Jerry Wong – 3,225,000

Aaron Mermelstein Wins $25k High Roller

The $25,000 High Roller at the 2019 SHRPO also played out on Tuesday, and Aaron Mermelstein came out on top of a solid field of 99 entries. Mermelstein is a two-time WPT champion, and this is his first high roller win.

To win this title, Mermelstein had to go through a stacked final that included Ben Yu, Brandon Adams, Niall Farrell, James Calderaro, Alex Foxen, and 2015 WSOP Main Event Champion Joe McKeehen.

In the end, it was Mermelstein facing Foxen heads-up for the title. After starting with a slight chip lead, he jumped out to a 3:1 lead before the final hand. On a flop of 10c-9h-4c, all the chip went into the middle and Foxen discovered he had run into a cooler.

Foxen had Js-10h for top pair while Mermelstein showed pocket tens for a set. The turn fell an ace, and Foxen was drawing dead. While he fell short of the title, Foxen still added $545,000 to his bankroll and now has over $1.85 million in earnings for 2019.

Mermelstein took down $618,955 for his first high roller victory. Despite this being a high roller event, this was just the second largest score of Mermelstein’s career. He now has $3.12 million in career tournament earnings.

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