In the first major live poker tournament in the US in nearly a year, a relatively unknown Ilyas Muradi took down the main event of the World Poker Tour’s Lucky Hearts Poker Open at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. For Muradi, it was a $620,000, life-changing score. For a poker community starved for major tournament action in the face of the coronavirus, the whole series was like a breath of fresh air.

Plexiglass separators and mask requirements provided safety for competitors in the World Poker Tour Lucky Hearts Poker Open at the Seminole Hard Rock in South Florida. (Image: WPT)

Mask-wearing players took their seats at 8-handed tables, protected by plexiglass dividers. WPT hero Darren Elias ran deep yet again, while a former Survivor contestant came just shy of victory.

In the first major live event since the pandemic struck, the tournament drew a massive field of 1,573 — nearly twice the size of 2020’s event. Entries were split over two Day 1s.