After three long days of play it's down to just 21 hopefuls in the Hollywood Poker Open Championship event with Aaron Mermelstein leading the way. There were 655 entries in this event, and the field is littered with top pros chasing down the trophy and the $332,338 first-place prize.
Defending champion Keven Stammen's among the contenders on Day 3, but he'll be facing an uphill battle with just 225,000 chips in the 10,000/20,000 a2,000 level.
Top pros that are in the hunt include Austrian Thomas Muehloecker (1,402,000), Dane Michael Tureniec (1,136,000), Belgian Pierre Neuville (464,000) and American pros Calvin Anderson (1,112,000) and Dan O'Brien (389,000).
All remaining players are guaranteed $9,748, and a spot at the final table is worth $29,541. The action resumes at 12:00 p.m. local time and play will continue until there's a winner.
Calvin Anderson raised before the flop from the hijack seat, and Duke Lee moved all in from the small blind for about 330,000. Anderson called right away, having his opponent covered by just 20,000.
Anderson had the , but he was behind Lee's .
The board ran out to give Anderson a full house to best Lee's kings.
With that, Lee was out, but he bagged up a big stack in the $1,500 Monster Stack at the World Series of Poker across town, so he's now off to continue his summer of poker just a few miles down the road.
The title defence of Keven Stammen has ended in 17th place, as he got just sent to the rail by Thomas Muehloecker.
Stammen moved all in for 335,000 and Muehloecker went in the tank for quite some time before making the call. The other players behind him folded and the showdown went as follows.
Muehloecker:
Stammen:
The board ran out and Muehloecker made a flush to send the defending champ to the rail.
Dan O'Brien had nursed a below average stack for the better part of 23 hours of play here in the Hollywood Poker Open Season 4 Championship with a smile on his face and a dream in his heart. Unfortunately, he couldn't get through a 24th.
He finally got it in dominated, with versus Aaron Mermelstein's , and found no way out on an board.
A solid run for O'Brien ends in 16th, as Mermelstein continues to own.
. 
hit and Bjerno checked again. This time Mermelstein fired out 140,000, and after a while Bjerno check-raised all in for 544,000. 
and Bjerno was knocked out in 20th place, while Mermelstein's now holding an even bigger chip lead over the rest of the field.
, but he was behind Lee's 
to give Anderson a full house to best Lee's kings.
and Muehloecker made a flush to send the defending champ to the rail.
![[user127999]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
versus Aaron Mermelstein's 
, and found no way out on an 
board to bow out 15th.
and Bullard made a flush to send Ziegler to the rail. There are now just 13 players remaining in this tournament.
and he was in deep trouble, as Aron turned over 
.
