Josh Turner Claims Overall Lead After Day 1b of HPO St. Louis Regional Main Event
Josh Turner finished atop the 33 remaining players from the Day 1b flight of the Hollywood Poker Open St. Louis Regional Main Event. Not only that, but his stack of 277,000 in chips surpassed that of Day 1a chip leader Bill Haner (243,500) to give Turner the overall lead heading into Day 2.
Turner has had his fair share of success in St. Louis, his hometown. Of his 12 live tournament victories, five of them have come in the Gateway to the West, including three in HPO events. Most recently, Turner took down a $300 side event during this HPO stop, topping a field of 62 players to win $5,312.
His biggest win also came from The Lou. In February 2015, he won the World Series of Poker Circuit $1,675 Main Event for $136,945.
All in all, Turner has just under $700,000 in lifetime earnings from live events.
Lori Lindley had a solid day and finished with 192,500. Her poker résumé is almost the complete opposite of Turner's. She has just $8,367 dollars in live tournament earnings, only five cashes, and one win. A deep run here could certainly mean a new career best. Nine days ago, she finished third in an HPO side event for $3,372.
Don Baumer (179,500), Paul Fehlig (159,000), and Mark Andrada (157,000) round out the top five finishers from Day 1b.
Kyle Cartwright is one of the most successful players remaining in the field, with $1.24 million in live tournament winnings, a WSOP bracelet and six — yes, six — WSOP Circuit gold rings. He finished second place in this same event last year, but will need to put in some some work tomorrow as he will start with only 33,000 in chips. He will have the shortest stack to enter the day, but will still have 10 big blinds to work with. It's not much, but it's something.
With a field of 257 entries, this year's HPO St. Louis $1,115 Regional Main Event saw an impressive uptick in size with 84 more entries than last year for a growth of 49%. The prize pool generated was $257,000, with first place tipping the scales at $61,676. The top 27 finishers will reach the money and earn a min-cash of $2,827.
Day 2 will start on Sunday at 12:15 p.m. local time. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews to see who will take home the title here in St. Louis.