The first regional stop for Season 3 of the Hollywood Poker Open took place Saturday and 207 entrants turned out at the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, for the largest Regional Main Event prize pool in HPO history. It also set a record for the number of entrants for an HPO Regional Main Event, crushing the record of 126 set back in May at the Columbus, Ohio, stop from last season.
At the end of 11 levels of play, 43 players moved on to Day 2, and they will return Sunday at 12 p.m. local time where they will have to work if they want to make the money as only 27 get paid.
The end-of-day chip leader was Tim Chocklett, who ended the day with an impressive 461,100 in chips. Chocklett won a massive pot against Vinh Ho near the end of the night to take a commanding chip lead. He was followed in the chip counts by Jesse McEwen (271,800) and John Moe (211,100).
Other notable chip stacks included Sam Smith (208,200), Libby Wilson (174,700), and Daniel Gilmer (165,500).
HPO Ambassador and 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker turned out for the poker action today, but he would be eliminated shortly after the dinner break. He was joined by two players who came close to making the WSOP's November Nine in 2011 14th-place finisher Scott Schwalich and 2014 12th-place finisher Chris Greaves. Schwalich was eliminated early on and Greaves was gone before the dinner break. Chad Eveslage also had a deep run at this year's WSOP Main Event, but he too busted.
On Sunday, PokerNews will be back on hand to provide live coverage as the field works towards the money and a winner. The last man standing will take home $49,676 and win a seat into the HPO Championship Event at the M Resort in the summer of 2015, and you can follow along with PokerNews to see who that player turns out to be.
We saw one of the chip leaders, Vinh Ho, standing up and wishing the rest of the table luck. Rushing over to the table we saw Tim Chocklett stacking Ho's chips and players at the table recounted the hand. The flop came and there was a bet by Chocklett and a call from Ho. The turn was a and the chips would get all in with Ho holding for trip aces which was crushed by the Chocklett held. Ho could still win with another ace, nine, or six but the river bricked out to send him to the rail and ship the massive pot to Chocklett.
Chocklett stacked 450,000 in chips, which is over 10% of the chips in play with 47 players remaining.
It is now the third season of play for the Hollywood Poker Open and if today's turnout is any indication they are set to smash all the records they set in Season 2. With a player-friendly structure (one hour levels and slow blind escalations) and a great tournament staff, the HPO is emerging as one of the best poker tours out there.
In addition to this weekends stop here in Lawrenceburg, the HPO has scheduled seven additional events including a new one at the Hollywood Casino Toledo in early February. Each stop will include a Regional Main Event as well as side events and qualifiers. Last season, the HPO sent more than 200 promotional winners to the Championship Event at the M Resort in Las Vegas, an event that would more than triple the guaranteed prize pool of $500,000. HPO Tournament Director Bill Bruce says the plan is the same in Season 3.
"We plan to not only give away hundreds of seats to the Championship again, but we will also implement similar seat winner promotions to the Regional tournament series as well," said Bruce, who has served as the HPO director since the tour's inception. "These HPO tournament fields are such a great mix of traveling poker professionals and local promotion winners which makes the tournaments really attractive to all levels of poker players."
For more information on everything concerning the HPO, check out their website.
At the stroke of noon, the first Hollywood Poker Open Regional Championship Event of Season 3 will get underway right here at the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, just outside of Cincinnati. This $1,115 buy-in tournament kicks off a tournament series that will see stops in Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia culminating in the season end $500,000 guaranteed finale in Las Vegas at the beautiful M Resort in June of 2015. The winner of this tournament not only receives the cash, glory, and trophy but they will win a seat into that finale. The Season 2 finale winner was Simon Deadman who would collect more than $350,000 for his win.
Chris Moneymaker is the official ambassador for the Hollywood Poker Open and will be among the players taking part in the action on the felt today. Last season, the HPO sent more than 200 promotional winners to the Championship Event and HPO Tournament Director Bill Bruce says the plan is the same in Season 3.
"We plan to not only give away hundreds of seats to the Championship again, but we will also implement similar seat winner promotions to the Regional tournament series as well," said Bruce, who has served as the HPO director since the tour's inception. "These HPO tournament fields are such a great mix of traveling poker professionals and local promotion winners which makes the tournaments really attractive to all levels of poker players."
For more information on the HPO series in Lawrenceburg, including the blind structures for each event, head over to the HPO website. This Championship Event features one-hour long levels and 20,000 in starting chips and has a great structure including a 250/500 blind level. Registration is open through the end of the dinner break (Level 6), so you have until approximately 7:30 p.m. local time to come down and take part in a great poker tournament!
PokerNews will be here from start to finish of this Championship Event providing you with photos, updates, and chip counts. Follow along all the exciting action!
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and there was a bet by Chocklett and a call from Ho. The turn was a 
and the chips would get all in with Ho holding 
for trip aces which was crushed by the 
