Chris Moneymaker Builds Big Lead After Day 1a of HPO Charles Town Regional Main Event
Former World Series of Poker Main Event champion and the Hollywood Poker Open ambassador Chris Moneymaker leads the five players from Day 1a who have made it to Day 2. Moneymaker is almost 200,000 ahead of the next closest player, after a series of hands that led to Peter Priest being eliminated and Moneymaker separating himself from the pack.
Three hands spelled doom for Priest, who was sitting with a healthy stack coming back from the final break.
He got in a hand with Mike Melkersen and Phil Vera. Vera was all in for less and Melkersen shoved a seven-high flop after Priest checked. Priest said he folded pocket tens, which would have been good enough to win the hand for a huge pot.
Instead, Priest would hit a set against Moneymaker and called a bet of 40,000 on the river of a four-card flush board. Moneymaker had the 8♥ in his hand for the flush and put another dent in Priest's stack.
On the next hand, Moneymaker finished Priest off when he flopped top pair with the 9♣7♣ against the middle pair of Priest, who held 8x7x. The two players got all in on the flop and the board ran out 8♠9♦4♥K♦3♦, giving Moneymaker the elimination and sending Priest home.
Moneymaker finished with 371,800 and will take that into Day 2, followed by Dennis Summers (199,700), Mike Melkersen (161,400), Scott Heiser (128,000), and Josh Smith (39,100).
The Day 1a flight drew 45 players, and Saturday's Day 1b field is expected to have somewhere around 80.
Don't forget, you can follow along with the event by clicking here.
Don't Miss the HPO Championship in June
Although the HPO Charles Town Regional is the final regional stop of Season 4, the tour's biggest and baddest event will be coming to you in June at the M Resort in Las Vegas.
The HPO $2,500 Championship Event will take place June 23-26. The event will feature two starting flights and a big field that has averaged nearly 700 players over the first three editions and an average first-place prize of $340,000. If that's not a juicy tournament to get excited about, then we're not sure what is.
With satellite qualifiers coming from Hollywood Casino venues all over the US, this will once again be a can't-miss tournament during the summer.
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