Live tournament win produces $63,182 payday for Diebold
Benjamin Diebold achieved his second career major live tournament win Sunday, coming away with the victory in the bestbet Jacksonville Fall Frenzy II Main Event. Diebold emerged victorious in the $1,500 buy-in tournament, pocketing $63,182 in the win.
The Fall Frenzy II Main Event ran Nov. 21-22 at the bestbet poker room in Jacksonville, FL, as the second of two Fall Frenzy Main Events conducted at the venue in the last month.
Diebold added to a live tournament resume that now includes more than $378,000 in career earnings according to the Hendon Mob database. The win marked the second major tournament victory of Diebold's career, with the other coming at the 2018 Card Player Poker Tour $1,100 Main Event.
That tournament, also held at bestbet Jacksonville, netted a career-high $75,655 payout for Diebold. Sunday's Fall Frenzy II Main Event win marks the third-largest cash in the career of Diebold, a Charleston, South Carolina resident.
A total of 182 entries came out for the Fall Frenzy II Main Event, pushing the prize pool to $243,880.
Other notable results
The final table drew six players from Florida and two from South Carolina, making it a heavily-local lineup as the tournament played down to a winner. The lone final table player not from the southeast U.S., Dhimitri Lleshi, came up just short of a tournament win.
Diebold outdueled Lleshi (2nd - $42,374) in heads-up play to clinch the championship. Other final table combatants included Patrick Pigford ($24,998), Guy Caudill (4th - $15,206), Steven Strout (5th - $11,743), and Roderick Moore (6th - $9,731).
Rounding out the final nine were Edward Mroczkowski (7th - $8,292), Michael Cox (8th - $7,292), and Brooks Jampole (9th - $6,319).
The Main Event played out as one of three tournaments on the schedule for Fall Frenzy II. Other tournament wins from the series included Lleshi winning the $240 Warm-Up event on Nov. 20 for an $11,674 payday. That win and his runner-up finish in the Main Event mark the two biggest cashes of Lleshi's career according to Hendon Mob.
Sunday's $360 Monster Stack event capped off the series, with Raminder Singh topping 192 entries and coming away with the $10,457 winner's prize. Singh was one of three five-figure winners from the Monster Stack tournament, per the terms of a deal among the final three players.
Live tournament action rolls on in Florida
The original Fall Frenzy took place at bestbet Jacksonville Oct. 24-26, and was enough of a success that the poker room decided to run the sequel four weeks later. The Main Event in both cases produced at least $63,000 for the winner, as Brian Cox won the Fall Frenzy Main Event for $69,349.
Florida continues to host one of the most significant live tournament poker hubs in the U.S. during the COVID-19 era. The Seminole Hard Rock Tampa hosted the Pinktober Poker Open series in October.
Major events on the slate for the next few weeks in Florida include the Winter Poker Open at Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Dec. 2-14. Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood presents it's annual Lucky Hearts Poker Open Jan. 14-26, which culminates in the WPT $3,500 World Poker Tour LHPO Main Event.
That WPT Main Tour event plays as a $3,500 buy-in, $1 million guaranteed tournament, running Jan 22-26.
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