2014 Hollywood Poker Open Grantville Day 1: Yazici Leads Final Table

Hollywood Poker Open

On Saturday, the 2014 Hollywood Poker Open Grantville Regional Championship kicked off at the Penn National Race Course in Pennsylvania. The $1,800 buy-in Main Event attracted 37 players, but after 12 one-hour levels of play, just nine remained with Bradley Yazici and his stack of 170,400 leading the way.

The Final Table

SeatPlayerCount
1Chi Do68,200
2Kenneth "Hockey" Hock18,800
3John Kostelac118,200
4Jason Thomas156,100
5Bradley Yazici170,400
6Mike Summers88,600
7Fritz Neunkirchner17,700
8Vicki Russel55,400
9Peter Kaemmerlen46,600

The first elimination of the day came in Level 2 (50/100) when Jerry Wagner made it 650 to go preflop and Ernie Lewis made the call. Both players then checked the JQ10 flop, the 3 turned, and Wagner bet 2,000. Lewis popped it to 7,000, Wagner called, and the Q completed the board on the river. Wagner then shoved all in and Lewis snap-called off his last 7,000.

2014 Hollywood Poker Open Grantville Day 1: Yazici Leads Final Table 101
Chris Moneymaker

Wagner tabled the QQ for quads, and a stunned Lewis showed the AK for a flopped Broadway straight. Lewis related his beat to some friends across the room, gathered his things, and then exited the tournament floor. Unfortunately for Wagner, those chips wouldn’t last the night and he busted in Level 8.

As the night progressed plenty of other players found themselves on the rail including Tam Van Tam, Josh Bell, Kathy Clark, Denny Firestone, Joe Paese, Thomas Daubert, Nick Liddell, Maria Krebs, Steven Gurney-Goldman, the father-and-son combo of Bob Marquette Sr. and Robert Marquette Jr, and HPO ambassador and 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker.

Moneymaker was crippled in Level 9 (300/600/50) after running into the quads of Vicki Russel. Not long after, Mike Summers opened for 1,300 and Larry Kostelac flatted from the cutoff. After the button folded, Moneymaker moved all in for roughly 10,000, Summers moved all in over the top, and Kostelac folded.

The fan favorite got it in good with 9x9x, but he was racing against the AxKx of Summers. The flop put a dagger through Moneymaker's heart by delivering Summers an ace, and that was followed by blanks on both the turn and river.

"Good luck guys," the ambassador said before taking his leave from the tournament.

In the last hand of Level 10 (400/800/75), Lee Childs moved all in on the turn with a board reading 66Q5, and Yazici called him.

2014 Hollywood Poker Open Grantville Day 1: Yazici Leads Final Table 102
Bradley Yazici

Childs: J10
Yazici: AQ

Childs had picked the wrong time to run a bluff and was drawing dead headed to the river, which came the A. It wasn’t the result he hoped for, but Childs didn’t leave Grantville too disappointed considering he won two preliminary events at the HPO stop. Yazici also eliminated Ken Moore in the closing minutes of Day 1 to solidify his chip lead.

The remaining nine players will return at 1 p.m. local time on Sunday to play down to a winner. Only five will get paid, with the winner receiving $22,752 and a seat into the $2,500 HPO Championship in Vegas this June. Who will it be? Join us then as we bring you all the action and eliminations right here on PokerNews.

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us both Facebook and Google+!

Name Surname
PR & Media Manager

PR & Media Manager for PokerNews, Podcast host & 2013 WSOP Bracelet Winner.

More Stories

Other Stories