After a big win for Alex Foxen in the High Roller, the Lucky Hearts Poker Open in Hollywood, Florida concluded with a Main Event for the history books. At a final table including players of the calibre of WSOP legends Benny Glaser, Brian Hastings and Jesse Lonis, it was Raminder Singh who became champion, coming from the middle of the pack when the final table began to winning the title.

The Leader of the Pack

Heading into the final nine, there was still Over $1.8 million still to be won. Starting with the biggest stack was Justin Datloff, who began with 95 big blinds, a small amount ahead of Jesse Lonis with 83 big blinds. Jonathan Jaffe (80BB) and Benny Glaser (63BB) were close enough to the top of the leaderboard to hold sway, while Singh started on 50 bigs as he started his assault on the summit.

It was one of the short stacks who busted first with multiple WSOP bracelet winner Brian Hastings sliding out of contention for $62,500 in ninth place. All-in with , he was only flipping against Jesse Lonis’ and while the flop and kept Hastings ahead, the river sunk his hopes and he made his way to the rail.

Out next was Toby Joyce. The Irishman won $79,400 in eighth when he three-bet all-in with and was similarly tossing a coin against the initial aggressor in the hand, Raminder Singh with . Once again, jacks were good, and a board of even made Singh trips to boot as he kicked out another competitor with the ‘fishhooks’.

Jaffe Jumps Ship

Out in seventh was a player who everyone had their eyes on at the final table, Benny Glaser. The mixed game specialist and five-time WSOP bracelet winner from the United Kingdom needs no introduction but his bust-out certainly helped the remaining players get to the business end of the event. Glaser doesn’t make many errors at all in poker and despite No Limit Hold’em not being his specialty, was reliable as ever throughout the 1,188-entry strong event which achieved a prizepool of $3.8 million on the back of $2m being guaranteed.

Glaser was all-in pre-flop with and up against the superior belonging to Jonathan Jaffe. The flop of was a nightmare Glaser as Jaffe flopped the nut flush and after the turn and river, Glaser hit the rail for the first six-figure score of the event, $102,000.

Despite winning that hand, over the course of the next hour, Jaffe would slip down the leaderboard to the extent that he was forced to act more attacking, eventually raising all-in with . He was in great shape when Justin Datloff called with but not so much when the board of played out, leving Jaffe out in fifth place for $173,500.

The ‘Raminator’ Rules Supreme

“My friends convinced me to play. I’ve been playing well.” – Raminder Singh

With four players remaining, the overnight leader Justin Datloff lost his tournament life. All-in with he lost a flip to Jesse Lonis with as a board of sent Datloff home with $229,000. That exit led to a period of play without an elimination and the blinds grew shallow. Talk of a deal rose up with the chipcounts as follows:

Raminder Singh – 27.1 million

Dan Martin – 21.7 million

Jesse Lonis – 10.6 million

With Raminder Singh the chip leader, he was awarded the trophy and top prize of $486,353, while Dan Martin was runner-up for $460,000 and short stack Lonis won $404,247 after coming third. That was perhaps the best deal with him holding a lot less than half the chips of Singh when the deal was done.

“It feels really great,” said Singh after the event. “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. But this time, my friends convinced me to play. I’ve been playing well; I couldn’t miss this tournament.”

After taking the title – and the biggest cash prize of his live poker career – Raminder Singh is unlikely to need convincing to play a tournament of this nature ever again.