Moneymaker Finishes Way Ahead of the Pack After Day 1a of HPO Charles Town
Former World Series of Poker Main Event Champion and the Hollywood Poker Open ambassador Chris Moneymaker leads the five players from Day 1a who have made it to Day 2. Moneymaker is almost 200,000 ahead of the next closest player, after a series of hands that led to Peter Priest being eliminated and Moneymaker separating himself from the pack.
Three hands spelled doom for Priest, who was sitting with a healthy stack coming back from the final break.
He got in a hand with Mike Melkersen and Phil Vera. Vera was all in for less and Melkersen shoved a seven-high flop after Priest checked. Priest said he folded pocket tens, which would have been good enough to win the hand for a huge pot.
Instead, Priest would hit a set against Moneymaker and called a bet of 40,000 on the river of a four-card flush board. Moneymaker had the 
in his hand for the flush and put another dent in Priest's stack.
On the next hand, Moneymaker finished Priest off when he flopped top pair with the 
against the middle pair of Priest, who held 
. The two players got all in on the flop and the board ran out 
, giving Moneymaker the elimination and sending Priest home.
Moneymaker finished with 371,800 and will take that into Day 2, followed by Dennis Summers (199,700), Mike Melkersen (161,400), Scott Heiser (128,000), and Josh Smith (39,100).
The Day 1a flight drew 45 players, and Saturday's Day 1b field is expected to have somewhere around 80.
Stay tuned for that Day 1b at 11:15 a.m. local time and see who will earn their spot in Day 2 of the HPO Charles Town Regional Main Event.