On the first hand of hand-for-hand play, Alan Wentz was in the small blind with . The player in the big blind was Brian Norton and he was very short. Wentz shoved and Norton called.
Norton had . The board came , giving Wentz the win and sending Norton out on the bubble. The remaining 27 players are in the money and will receive at least $2,739.
Welcome to Day 2 of the HPO Columbus Main Event. Kenny Smith leads the pack with an amazing 509,500 chips to start the day, that will be around 160 big blinds when play resumes. He was already in the chip lead yesterday when he played the biggest pot of the tournament. He got all in on the turn with against an opponent with for a 420,000 chip pot.
The next closest player is Jeremy Detamore. He finished the Day 1a flight at the top with 282,500. He had been a middling stack for most of the day, when he got aces against a player with ace, king. A king came on the flop and an ace came on the river, so when Detamore shoved his llast 76,500 into the pot he got paid off on his set of aces.
J.J. Ura (266,500), Sai Mudduluru (237,500) and Thila Narayanan (218,000) make up the rest of the top five chip stacks at the start of play today.
Former WSOP World Champion and HPO Ambassador Chris Moneymaker is also in the field today. He booked his ticket to Day 2 when he finished with 54,500 chips in the Day 1a flight. He lost big flip on the very last hand of the day against Josh Lowing (132,500). Moneymaker had against the of Lowing. They got it all in and Moneymaker couldn't catch up. He is still sitting with about 18 big blinds, but it might be hard to shake. In the last HPO Main Event in St. Louis, a similar thing happened to Moneymaker. He got all in, this time with and got cracked for a big pot with only a few hands to go. He finished outside the money at HPO St. Louis, but will try to withstand the blow and move forward here.
The top 27 players will earn a minimum of $2,379. With only 37 left, the players should be in the money pretty early in Day 2. Stay tuned throughout the day for all the updates here on pokernews.com to find out who will win the $59,756 first prize and the Championship Event seat.
and Wilmoth had 
. The board brought no help for Wilmoth who was eliminated in 27th place.
. The player in the big blind was Brian Norton and he was very short. Wentz shoved and Norton called.
. The board came 
, giving Wentz the win and sending Norton out on the bubble. The remaining 27 players are in the money and will receive at least $2,739.
