Good afternoon, and welcome to the Gateway to the West for the latest Hollywood Poker Open Regional Championship!
The HPO St. Louis Main Event is set to kick off in a few minutes, and after large field sizes for the preliminary events, the staff on hand anticipants a strong showing. Bradley Yazici took down the HPO Grantville Main Event two weeks ago, earning $22,752, and a few weeks prior to that Toby Mathews won HPO Tunica for $15,040.
Both players earned a seat in the $2,500 HPO Championship in Vegas this June.
There are already a handful of notable players floating around the property, including 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker, 2013 WSOP bracelet winner Jonathan Taylor, and European Poker Tour Copenhagen champ Tim Vance. Taylor and Moneymaker both made the final table of HPO Tunica.
The cards will be in the air shortly, so be sure to stay tuned for all of the live coverage right here on PokerNews!
Chris Moneymaker opened to 525 from middle position, Eric Errante called out of the small blind, and Chris Koenen three-bet to 2,400 out of the big blind. Moneymaker and Errante both called.
The dealer fanned , Errante checked, Koenen knuckled, and Moneymaker tossed out 3,000. Only Koenen called.
Both players rapped the felt after the turned, and the man with the ax () completed the board. Koenen led out for 3,700, Moneymaker immediately announced a call, and Koenen mucked his hand.
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In a previous hand we reported, Shabtai Moria took a nice-sized pot off of John Longowa. It appears as if Moria later eliminated Longowa, as he has vanished and Moria's stack is right at 100,000.
Registration is closed for the Hollywood Poker Open St. Louis Regional Championship, and the final number of entrants is 67. The tournament staff is finalizing the prize pool information, and we will pass it along when it becomes available.
Lance Dorsey opened to 2,400 in early position, and the action folded to Ryan Franklin, who moved all in for an additional 8,500. Dorsey bemoaned the decision for well over a minute, then made the call, showing .
Franklin laughed at the sight of the premium hand, and tabled .
The flop was clean, as was the on the turn, but the spiked on the river to give Dorsey a leading pair of aces. He rapped the table emphatically when the prettiest card in the deck hit the felt, and Franklin wished the players good luck before swiftly exiting the tournament area.
![[user101598]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, Errante checked, Koenen knuckled, and Moneymaker tossed out 3,000. Only Koenen called.
turned, and the man with the ax (
) completed the board. Koenen led out for 3,700, Moneymaker immediately announced a call, and Koenen mucked his hand.
, and is up over 50,000 chips.
.
.
flop was clean, as was the 
on the turn, but the 
spiked on the river to give Dorsey a leading pair of aces. He rapped the table emphatically when the prettiest card in the deck hit the felt, and Franklin wished the players good luck before swiftly exiting the tournament area.