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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
John Utley and his wife Crystal are familiar faces on the poker circuit and the two are here trying their luck today. Utley recently took down a decent sized pot with the board showing . His opponent said "I'll give you $10 if you show me that hand" as he folded. Utley turned over for the king high straight and was handed a crisp ten dollar bill for showing. Utley tried to return the money but his opponent would have none of it.
"Nice hand," he said as he pushed the bill back to Utley.
![[user272102]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. 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.
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.
for the king high straight and was handed a crisp ten dollar bill for showing. Utley tried to return the money but his opponent would have none of it.
