Hollywood Poker Open $500,000 Championship Event June 28-30; Satellites Run May 24-26

May 16, 2013

Donnie Peters

The Hollywood Poker Open Championship Event with a $500,000 guarantee is coming up June 28 to 30 at The M Resort Spa Casino in Las Vegas. Beginning Friday, June 28, at 11:15 a.m., the $2,500 buy-in event plans to attract a field of a few hundred players and is the premier event of Penn National Gaming.

"This is our premier event we are doing as a company, Penn National Gaming, and we're hosting it here in Las Vegas because this is the gaming capital to do such an event," said Scotty Rutledge, Vice President of Casino Marketing, when asked about why players should come out and play the HPO Championship Event. "Our property is one that attracts this kind of top play and this type of event. All of the players that are coming from all over the country have qualified to be here. These are the top players from each market. We have 20 different properties, so the top players from each market are coming to play."

Rutledge mentioned that the event has 130 players signed up and expects that the $500,000 guarantee will be easily met. As with most poker tournaments, the two-week window before the start of the event is when the venue expects to see the greatest pick-up in registration.

Leading up to the event, The M Resort provides several options for satellite qualifiers, the bulk of which take place May 24-26.

"Beginning Friday, May 24, we have the $125 buy-in satellite that starts at 11 a.m.," mentioned David Cox, Director of Table Games who currently oversees the poker room. "On Saturday, we have the $225 buy-in, and on Sunday at 11 a.m., there is the $335 buy-in satellite. Each of those are great ways to win seats into the Championship Event."

These three satellites mentioned are excellent ways to win into the $2,500 Championship Event. The $125 event on Friday will see players begin with 10,000 starting chips and play with 30-minute blind levels. On Saturday, the $225 event has the same blind levels with a increased starting stack of 12,000, and then the Sunday $335 event has 45-minute blind levels and 20,000 in starting chips.

For the Championship Event, players will have the option to reenter as many times as they would like if they bust out prior to the end of Level 6, further juicing up the prize pool. Furthermore, late registrants and alternates will be allowed to enter up until the beginning of Level 7.

"The M is a great facility, and the players that you're going to compete against who get knocked out are going to be looking to get back into that same type of action," added Rutledge about this being an event with unlimited reentries allowed. "As you know, in any tournament people that fall initially are still looking to play, and we're here for three days, so if you get knocked out in the first round, there's a beautiful building, great competition, and you can have a really good time."

You'll notice that the HPO Championship Event takes places June 28-30, which is right in the heart of the summer when the 2013 World Series of Poker takes place. During these dates, however, there is somewhat of a break in the WSOP action that will allow players to hop over to The M and jump in this event with a hefty guaranteed prize pool. The only WSOP events beginning on June 28 are the $10,000 Ladies' Championship and the $25,000 6-Handed No-Limit Hold'em, so if you're looking for a much more wallet-friendly buy-in, or are a male, head over and play the $500,000 guaranteed HPO Championship Event.

Outside of the HPO, The M offers plenty of other ways to get your poker fix. During the summer, the normal daily tournaments at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. will run regularly and each of those have $1,000 guarantees. On the last Saturday of every month, a much larger $10,000 guarantee tournament will run with a buy-in of $125. What's even more, The M would happily like to accommodate as many players as possible and will spread most any game requested at one of the 14 tables in the poker room. The room is under new management, and a standard rate of $1 per hour can be earned in comps by playing live games, but a special promotion will be running for the month of May that sees this rate increased to $3 per hour.

When asked about the risk of selling out, PokerNews was informed that along with The M's regular 14-table poker room, there is a ballroom allotted for play that allows up to 50 tables, so the venue is well served to host several hundred players for this event. And moving forward, the company is already in the process of ironing out the dates and plans for the second annual event.

"We're already discussing the second annual event, setting the dates and room blocks," said Rutledge. "This one was put together by some of the folks on our team that are new to our property in the last few months, so we can now have a nice head start on next year's event, making it that much more effective and more successful."

2013 Hollywood Poker Open Championship Weekend Schedule

Date	Time	Event	Buy-in
Fri, June 28	11:15 a.m.	$500,000 guaranteed HPO Championship Event (3-day event)	$2,500
Fri, June 28	6 p.m.	No-Limit Hold'em Double Stack Super Satellite	$100
Sat, June 29	2 p.m.	No-Limit Hold'em Double Stack	$225
Sat, June 29	6 p.m.	No-Limit Hold'em Black Chip Bounty Super Satellite	$100
Sun, June 30	2 p.m.	No-Limit Hold'em Black Chip Bounty	$225