Floridian Dustin Murphy flopped top two against the nut flush draw, got it in and held, helping him collect a 40,000-chip pot. But that was just the biggest of a number of hands he's won through the early levels here at the Hollywood Poker Open Season 4 Championship Event.
Murphy has been able to spin it up above 80,000 and into a spot among the leaders closing in on the end of Level 4.
Brian Mancilla has it up close to 100,000 and is considering bagging up early after being on the right side of a kings over big slick cooler moments ago.
Meanwhile, Chicago's Romy Reyes has turned a seat he won at a Hollywood property in Illinois into a spot among the early leaders as well. Reyes has fought his way up over 80,000 already, finding an ace on the river with versus kings, before getting it in with pocket aces over kings.
A few tables over, Brooklyn, NY's James Gettinger called three pot-sized barrels before shoving the river and winning a big hand without showdown. He took the rest of that player's chips getting it in with the over the and holding a and later to climb the counts.
Poker pro Brian Mancilla moved to Las Vegas from Southern California just in time to take the early chip lead here in the Hollywood Poker Open Season 4 Championship Event.
He's busted three players so far, getting it up to over 80,000 after getting it in with aces, jacks and combo-draw that got there.
World beater Calvin Anderson is also in the top five, joined by Ryan Van Sanford, who has coolered at least two other players, cracking aces with a flush and a set with a straight.
Rounding out the group leading in Level 3 are the venerable Ari Engel, and Justin Young, on his second bullet.
Dan O'Brien is looking to crawl his way out of a little bit of a hole here at the Hollywood Poker Open Season 4 Championship Event today.
O'Brien was all over Twitter before the NBA Championship offering 2-1 on anyone willing to bet the Golden State Warriors wouldn't beat the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Of course, the Cavs made the biggest comeback in NBA finals history to take the title, winning Game 7 at Golden State after being down 3-1 earlier in the series, and O'Brien took a bit of a bath.
He told PokerNews it was the most he'd lost in a single day betting sports, but since he's really not that heavy a sports better, it didn't hurt too bad.
O'Brien also said he talked about it for a segment on his new Podcast dubbed Fighting Chance. It's an NPR-style pod following he and Cate Hall on their respective journeys through the summer in Vegas as professional poker players, and it was just picked up by iTunes today.
You'll have to listen to find out if talk of O'Brien's Warrior-bet losses are featured on the show, but its a good bet a deep run here in the Hollywood would make the cut.
Steven van Zadelhoff just called us over and gave us a very brief summarization of his double up. Van Zadelhoff got his money in pre flop for 18,000 chips and his pocket aces were up against the jacks of his opponent.
Van Zadelhoff faded the outs of his opponent and he's sitting comfortably on around 42,000 chips.
Darryll Fish plays the Hollywood Poker Open Championship every year. Like a lot of players, he says he loves the property at M Luxury Resort Hotel Casino, and finds this tournament the perfect way to get a break from the Rio during the World Series of Poker and still get his grind on.
That notion, and the huge number of qualifiers who come in from across the country year in year out, is clearly the reason this event has become one of the most popular Hold'em events of the summer outside the series.
With two cashes and a final table appearance in two Pot-Limit Omaha events at the WSOP so far this year, Fish will have to adjust back to two-card poker again, but that shouldn't be a problem.
Fish says the beauty of Pot-Limit Omaha tournaments these days is that most of the field doesn't pay attention to basic tournament strategy, and despite the number of qualifiers, that likely won't be the case at here in the Hollywood.
But with $2,265,385 in career tournament earnings mostly built playing Hold'em, Fish should fare just fine and be worth watching as the day moves on.
We just spotted 2016 Aussie Millions winner Ari Engel, 2010 WSOP November Niner Joseph Cheong, 2015 Colossus winner Cord Garcia, and renowned pros Dan O'Brien and Ray Henson.
The field is up to 122 players with late registrants taking their seats constantly. Late registration will remain open throughout the first two starting days and until the start of Day 2.
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versus kings, before getting it in with pocket aces over kings.
and holding a and later to climb the counts.
