We got to the table with the board showing and Chris Moneymaker calling a bet of 950 with approximately 2,500 already in the pot. Three players would see the river which was the and the older gentleman in the big blind led out for 2,200 leading to folds from the early position player and Moneymaker.
We're up to 142 entrants thus far which has surpassed the 139 they had at this same event last year. Making it even more impressive is that the buy-in last year was $675 while this year's is $1,115. The prize pool is approaching $150,000 and there's still plenty of time to register and/or re-enter.
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.
Indiana native Chad Eveslage has just taken his seat. Eveslage, with over half a million in lifetime tournament earnings, is fresh off a 66th place finish in the World Series of Poker Main Event. That score was good for six figures — $103,025,
Joining him is Andrew Jeffrey who took second at a Borgata event in 2013 for $66,914.
We got to the table with 6,000 in the pot and the board showing . It was checked to Robert Pound who put out a bet of 3,000 which was called by two of the three remaining players. The river was the and it was checked to Pound who casually put out a bet of 6,000. Only one of his opponents would look him up and they would muck after Pound turned over for a flopped set of fours.
That pot moved Pound over the 100,000 chip mark as he stacked 112,000 total in chips, nearly six times the starting stack.
Scott Schwalich came oh so close in 2011 to fulfilling every poker players dream when he finished 14th in the World Series of Poker Main Event. He did receive a consolation prize of $478,104 and has continued to grind the tournament circuit since then including a final table appearance at the 2013 Hollywood Poker Open Championship Event. He would end up finishing seventh there for $42,692.
He recently took his seat and is looking to add to his impressive poker resume with a deep run this weekend. There are currently 162 entrants.
Two all in and calls at adjacent tables just took place. At the first table, Andrew Jeffrey moved all in for his last 7,625 after a middle position player opened for 1,100 and was called by the player on the hijack. The original raiser called and the other player folded. Jeffrey held and would double up against the of his opponent.
Barbra Walston took a chunk of chips off of Gary Chan when she would get it all in on a flop of with an open-ended straight flush draw with her . Chan was ahead with for a set of eights. The turn gave Walston the flush as it was the and the board did not pair on the river to give her the pot.