Brewer & Ruan Claim $50K Super High Roller Titles at Florida’s 2021 SHRPO

The 2021 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, which kicked off its $5,250 buy-in, $3 million GTD Main Event this weekend, recently wrapped up a pair of $50,000 Super High Roller events. The tournaments, which were part of the PokerGO Tour, awarded more than $2.5 million in prize money between them, and while one winner was a familiar face on the high roller scene, the other was a 20-year-old newcomer.

Brewer Claims First $50K SHR Title

Chris Brewer

The first big buy-in tournament was Event #29: $50,000 Super High Roller, which ran August 4-5 and offered a single re-entry option. Two dozen entrants created a $1,164,000 prize pool that was reserved for the final four players.

Among those to compete but fall short of the money were Ali Imsirovic, Alex Foxen, and bubble boy Elio Fox, just to name a few.

According to updates from the event, Sean Perry fell in fourth place after getting his stack in with both an open-ended straight and flush draws against the pocket queens of Chris Brewer, who was recently profiled by PokerNews here. The ladies held and not long after Cary Katz bowed out in third place after his flush draw fell to Sean Winter’s trip fours.

At that point, the final two players agreed to an ICM chop. Winter received $394,130 while Brewer, who had the bigger stack, took a career-high $420,670 and the title.

Event #29: $50,000 Super High Roller Results

PlacePlayerPrizePokerGO Tour Points1stChris Brewer$420,6702522ndSean Winter$394,1302363rdCary Katz$209,5201264thSean Perry$139,68084

20-Year-Old Beats One of the Best

Zhuang Ruan

From August 5-6, Event #33: $50,000 Super High Roller played out as 29 entrants competed for a $1,406,500 prize pool, which was reserved for the top five finishers.

Perry made back-to-back final tables, but once again he was the first to go. According to updates from the event, he lost a race with king-jack against the pocket sevens of Dan Smith to bust in fifth, good for $112,520.

Katz, who was also at back-to-back final tables, then doubled through Giuseppe Iadisernia, who was left short and bowed out in fourth place. Katz followed him out the door in third when his ace-jack was outdrawn by the ace-eight of 20-year-old Zhuang Ruan.

Ruan and Smith then battled back and forth before the former ultimately prevailed, the result of flopping trip jacks and getting Smith to call off on the river with two pair queens and jacks. Smith took $351,625 for his runner-up finish while Ruan claimed the $562,600 top prize.

“I started at $1NL. Half a cent-one cent [blinds] and eventually worked my way up,” Ruan told SHRPO reporters after his victory. “I actually switched to PLO and made it to the $100-$200 games.”

He continued: “I took six months off from poker to try and go to college, but after that I found tournaments, so I started playing that… And then I was playing high-stakes MTT’s. And now I’m here.”

At just 20 years old (remember Seminole Hard Rock requires players to be just 18 years of age to play), Ruan will need to wait until 2022 to play other major events like the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

Event #33: $50,000 Super High Roller Results

PlacePlayerPrizePokerGO Tour Points1stZhuang Ruan$562,6003382ndDan Smith$351,6252113rdCary Katz$225,0401354thGiuseppe Iadisernia$154,715935thSean Perry$112,52068

Here’s a look at how things stand on the PokerGO Tour leaderboard after the pair of $50K Super High Roller events in South Florida.

PlacePlayerCountryEarningsPokerGO Tour Points1Ali ImsirovicBosnia and Herzegovina$3,004,9602,3942Sean PerryUSA$2,572,5781,8193Sean WinterUSA$2,557,9201,5394Cary KatzUSA$2,310,8001,3475Sam SoverelUSA$2,073,2961,3056Andrew MorenoUSA$1,460,1051,2007Clayton MaquireUSA$1,443,7571,2008Toby LewisUK$1,235,2041,2009Chris BrewerUSA$1,615,5201,09510Alex FoxenUSA$1,207,7861,023

*Images courtesy of PokerGO.