Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Surfs Off the WSOP and Adds Deep Purple

^{Deep Purple's mastery of the guitar fits perfectly with the Hard Rock's spectacular guitar architecture}

While the world's attention was fixed on Las Vegas for the WSOP, a separate high-stakes poker series has been quietly running at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. And Deep Purple played there too!

A Lower-Stakes Alternative to the Vegas Spotlight

The Championship Main Event's $5,300 buy-in is half of the $10,000 entry fee for the WSOP Main Event. The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open has built its schedule around that gap. The series runs a rotation of smaller-stakes tournaments alongside its marquee event. Event 50, a $600 T.O.R.S.E. mixed-game tournament, drew 63 entries for a $32,634 prize pool and paid $11,739 to its winner. Event 54, a $400 Black Chip Bounty five-card pot-limit Omaha tournament, started players with 20,000 in chips.

That structure has made the Hollywood, Florida series a consistent draw. Players can compete without Las Vegas-level buy-ins, even as the WSOP Main Event pulls the sport's biggest headlines every summer. The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open's website lists a full daily schedule of tournaments running through the series, along with hotel room packages for players staying on-site.

Every Hard Rock Event Is Played Live, Unlike WSOP's Online Bracelets

There's one structural difference between the two series. Every event at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open is played live, in person, on the casino floor. The WSOP, by contrast, now runs a full slate of online bracelet events each year alongside its live schedule in Las Vegas. In 2026, the WSOP Online series offered 30 bracelet events and more than $7 million in prize guarantees.

Those online bracelets aren't available to Florida players, though. WSOP online currently operates only in Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania, the four states that have legalized and regulated real-money online poker. Florida has not passed similar legislation. Its poker and casino games remain confined to in-person play at tribal properties like the Seminole Hard Rock, and at a handful of licensed pari-mutuel cardrooms elsewhere in the state.

That doesn't mean Florida players have no online options. Florida online sweepstakes casinos operate legally under a different legal framework than regulated online gambling. They let players use virtual currency to play slots, table games and poker-style formats similar to what's on the floor at the Seminole Hard Rock, without wagering real money directly. For now, sweepstakes casinos are the closest thing Florida has to the online action that WSOP.com already offers in four other states.

Deep Purple Booms for Boomers

The poker series isn't the only draw pulling crowds to the property this month. Deep Purple performed at the Hard Rock Live on Sunday, August 9. 

The band's current lineup features Ian Gillan on vocals, Roger Glover on bass, Ian Paice on drums, Don Airey on keyboards and Simon McBride on guitar. The current tour marks 50 years since one of the band's most iconic hits. It follows Deep Purple's 2020 album "Whoosh!," which reached number four on the UK album charts.

The overlap gives the Seminole Hard Rock a rare one-two punch of programming. A poker series built to capture the appetite that August's WSOP Main Event generates nationally. And a classic rock arena show follows at the property's own venue. 

For a casino resort competing against a Las Vegas Strip that dominates the poker calendar every summer, pairing a lower buy-in tournament series with entertainment booking is a straightforward way to keep both poker players and concertgoers on property through the middle of August.