Former WSOP Main Event Final Tablist Lee Childs Talks HPO
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Lee Childs, who finished seventh in the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event, spoke with PokerNews about why he frequents Hollywood Poker Open Regional events. This is a snipped of the interview, for the full version head here.
What's should people know that's different about the HPO that would make them stand apart from other tournament series?
Structures, value and personnel. Give me a good-structured tournament and some nice people to be around all day long and I am there. And its not only the staff. The players down here in Tunica have been awesome. Turnouts are way lower than I had hoped for and that’s too bad because there are too many poker players missing out on a great experience. So many players want to chase the biggest prize pools and they end up missing out on a lot of fun and more time playing in an environment that most of us started in and got us loving the game in the first place. On top of that, you have some of the most experienced tournament professionals running the events and I’ve been able to spend some time with them and hear some great poker stories from over the years.
What sort of expectations do you have for this weekend's HPO event in Tunica?
Well, first of all and most importantly, I know that I am going to enjoy it because of all the reasons I have already mentioned. I have no idea how many players we will get since the other fields have been small, but hopefully there are a lot of folks that are still planning on coming in for this main event. I have not been playing as many WSOP Circuit events because I think the structures should be a little better. I think a championship event with a buy-in over $1,500 should always give us at least one-hour levels and should have small increments for the blinds and antes. The HPO structures do that, and it's another major factor why I am excited about these events. This main event starts with 20,000-chip stacks, gives us the 100/200 and 100/200/25 levels, the 250/500 level and even a 700/1,400 level. We just get so much more play for the money and I think poker players deserve that. So many venues are too focused on how much money they can make and how quickly they can get the tournament done these days. $1,800 is a lot of money to put up for a poker tournament for most players, especially those that are purely recreational players and giving us a good structure like this is something that we should all appreciate and support.