Phil Hoff Dominates Day 2 to Win Bar Poker Open Florida World Championship ($40,000)

The Bar Poker Open Main Event at the Florida World Championship has come to an end and Phil Hoff is the winner after he defeated Stephanie Devito in heads-up play to win the $40,000 top prize.

Hoff beat out 39 players that survived two opening flights to take down the tournament—including a dominant performance at the final table. Devito took home $22,537 for second place after a great run at the final table that was buoyed by a very large and vocal rail of supporters clad in freshly-printed shirts with their hero’s photo emblazoned on the front.

The tournament drew 446 players to generate a prize pool of $126,648.

2022 Bar Poker Open Florida World Championship Final Table Results

This was Hoff’s third Bar Poker Open cash, and it improves on his previous best finish of second place for $28,775 at the 2019 BPO National Championship at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas.

“I started playing shortly after retirement with a local senior’s group and at Bar Poker Open events,” Hoff said in his post-win interview with PokerNews. “Since then, I have done a lot of studying.”

Hoff has put his studying to good work and he has now earned the largest first prize in Bar Poker Open history.

“I study a lot of Jonathan Little’s training programs and I’ve been working hard on learning. I am a member of his website.”

Hoff is a member of the New York Free Poker league, which operates out of eight locations throughout New York. He qualified for the Florida event back in July and came to the Palm Beach Kennel Club in the ninth spot on the league’s rankings leaderboard.

Day 2 Action

The eliminations kicked off with a face pace as soon as cards in the air, and Hoff held the lead when the final two tables were reached in just under two hours. Gregg Bloom, David Edwards, Tuan Pham, Andrew Upton, David Silva, Tom Heinlein, and opening flight chip leaders Chris Weaver and Joseph Fleming fell before an unofficial final table of 10 was formed.

Other Day 2 standouts include Jan Scotto, who bagged in both flights to earn a $1,000 bonus. She was joined on Day 2 by her husband, Dan Scotto. Weaver also survived both flights for a $1,000 bonus.

John Sarappa was out in tenth when his ace-queen couldn’t improve against Johnny Kelly’s pocket tens and the tournament took a break for interviews and final table preparation before the final nine convened to play down to a winner.

Shortly have play started again, Jhonny Ortiz was out in ninth when his king-ten shove ran into Kelly’s pocket aces, while James Boynton wasn’t far behind in eighth when Ellen Schirmer spiked a pair of nines on the river to beat his Big Slick.

Meanwhile, Susanne Spritzer was next to go in seventh when Hoff made a pair of jacks on the river to beat her suited ace-four for the first of his many final table eliminations. Action slowed down for the final six and they battled for an entire level before Schirmer’s ace-nine fell to Devito’s ace-jack in sixth place. Durwood “Doc” Flournoy was right behind in fifth when his suited ten-seven couldn’t improve in a short stack shove against Hoff.

Hoff kept going with yet another knockout when his pocket jacks held against Kelly’s shove with ace-king. It was just minutes later when he picked up another one when Nick Sims shoved with a suited king-jack but Hoff once again held on with ace-seven to win a hand where no one paired the board.

The rail reached a fever pitch as Devito’s supporters drowned out the entire room with their support. The New York No Limit Pub Poker League was out in force with several members playing well throughout the weekend, but Devito was their standard bearer and they threw all of their support behind her down the stretch.

Heads-up play commenced and Devito quickly closed the gap with well-timed several aggressive bets against Hoff’s large chip lead, but her aggression got the best of her when she couldn’t get Hoff to give up his pair of tens for a large pot. The big moment came just a few moments later when Devito shoved with two pair and he received a call from Hoff’s single pair, but he picked up the better hand when his second pair fell on the river for the big win.

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Live Reporting Executive

Las Vegas-based PokerNews Live Reporting Executive, originally from Chicago, IL