In middle position, Jim "Mr_BigQueso" Collopy opened to 450, and both the small and big blinds came along with him to the flop.
It checked around on the , and the small blind led out with 700 chips on the turn. The big blind proceeded to raise to 2,050, and Collopy made it three bets for a total of 6,375. That folded the small blind, but the big called, and it was heads up to the river.
It was the , and when the big blind checked, Collopy moved all in for the ~27,000 effective chips his opponent had left. The big blind called, but we'd never get to see his hand. Collopy tabled , and his set of ducks was good enough to drag the pot and earn the knockout. It's moved him up to about 70,000 in the process, and that's the big stack in the room at the moment.
Olivier Busquet's tournament has ended during Level 4, losing the last of his chips to Lee Childs. The final board read and Childs' bested Busquet's to up his stack to about 27,000.
This is the second of the newly installed Regional Championships for the World Series of Poker Circuit, and the numbers for this one are understandably down a bit as the holiday season is in full swing. Still, nine more players will punch their tickets for the National Championship by virtue of this event. That season-ender will be held at Casesars in May, and it is a 100 player, invitation-only freeroll with a $1 million prize pool.
Five of the players in our field already have their golden tickets for that National Championship. Bernard Lee, Shannon Shorr, Dave Sands, and Curt Kohlberg all made the final table at the Midwest Regional Championship in Hammond, Indiana, and they're all back to try and duplicate that feat. We also have Matthew Waxman, the newest entrant into that freeroll courtesy of his victory in the Main Event here just a few days ago. Here's the running list of those who'll we'll be seeing again in May:
Player
Qualification
Blair Hinkle
Council Bluffs Main Event Champion
Robert Georato
Council Bluffs Casino Champion
Charles Moore
Southern Indiana Main Event Champion
Kevin Manley
Southern Indiana Casino Champion
Kurt Jewell
Hammond Main Event Champion
Ian Wiley
Hammond Casino Champion
James Anderson
Midwest Regional Champion
Gabe Patgorski
Midwest Regional Final Table
Bernard Lee
Midwest Regional Final Table
Curt Kohlberg
Midwest Regional Final Table
Dave Sands
Midwest Regional Final Table
Shannon Shorr
Midwest Regional Final Table
Brandon Adams
Midwest Regional Final Table
Anthony Hartmann
Midwest Regional Final Table
Mark Owens
Midwest Regional Final Table
Travis Lutes
Biloxi Main Event Champion
Bobbie Talbot
Biloxi Casino Champion
Stan Quinn
Lake Tahoe Main Event Champion
Andrew Barber
Lake Tahoe Casino Champion
Matthew Waxman
Harrah's Atlantic City Main Event Champion
Right now, Ismael Cabrera is leading the points for Casino Champion for this stop, but he'll have to fade two more events worth of players before he knows his fate for the Spring.
With about 7,500 in the pot and the board reading , action was on Isaac Baron and he was facing a bet of about 3,700 from Shannon Shorr. After about two minutes Baron called, but mucked when Shorr tabled for top two pair.
Shorr: Up to about 43,000
Baron: Down to roughly 20,000
A healthy pot was brewing at Jonathan Aguiar's table. The board read , with Aguiar betting 4,400. One opponent called, another folded, and the hit the river. Both checked and Aguiar showed , better than his opponent's missed flush draw.
On the way into the tournament room this morning, we heard players setting lines ranging from 150 all the way up to 228 players for this event. If you had the under, take your ticket to the window. The number on the board has been stuck at 121 for quite some time now, and we don't expect it to tick much farther. We do know that Andy Bloch is on his way here from Boston, and there've been rumors floating around about Phil Hellmuth possibly being on the way over from Wisconson as well.
Registration is still open for another two hours or so.
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, and the small blind led out with 700 chips on the 
turn. The big blind proceeded to raise to 2,050, and Collopy made it three bets for a total of 6,375. That folded the small blind, but the big called, and it was heads up to the river.
, and when the big blind checked, Collopy moved all in for the ~27,000 effective chips his opponent had left. The big blind called, but we'd never get to see his hand. Collopy tabled 
, and his set of ducks was good enough to drag the pot and earn the knockout. It's moved him up to about 70,000 in the process, and that's the big stack in the room at the moment.
bested Busquet's 
to up his stack to about 27,000.
, action was on Isaac Baron and he was facing a bet of about 3,700 from Shannon Shorr. After about two minutes Baron called, but mucked when Shorr tabled 
for top two pair.
, with Aguiar betting 4,400. One opponent called, another folded, and the 
hit the river. Both checked and Aguiar showed 
, better than his opponent's missed flush draw.
