Chocklett Holds Chip Lead at End of Day 1
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The first regional stop for Season 3 of the Hollywood Poker Open took place Saturday and 207 entrants turned out at the Hollywood Casino in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, for the largest Regional Main Event prize pool in HPO history. It also set a record for the number of entrants for an HPO Regional Main Event, crushing the record of 126 set back in May at the Columbus, Ohio, stop from last season.
At the end of 11 levels of play, 43 players moved on to Day 2, and they will return Sunday at 12 p.m. local time where they will have to work if they want to make the money as only 27 get paid.
The end-of-day chip leader was Tim Chocklett, who ended the day with an impressive 461,100 in chips. Chocklett won a massive pot against Vinh Ho near the end of the night to take a commanding chip lead. He was followed in the chip counts by Jesse McEwen (271,800) and John Moe (211,100).
Other notable chip stacks included Sam Smith (208,200), Libby Wilson (174,700), and Daniel Gilmer (165,500).
HPO Ambassador and 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker turned out for the poker action today, but he would be eliminated shortly after the dinner break. He was joined by two players who came close to making the WSOP's November Nine in 2011 14th-place finisher Scott Schwalich and 2014 12th-place finisher Chris Greaves. Schwalich was eliminated early on and Greaves was gone before the dinner break. Chad Eveslage also had a deep run at this year's WSOP Main Event, but he too busted.
On Sunday, PokerNews will be back on hand to provide live coverage as the field works towards the money and a winner. The last man standing will take home $49,676 and win a seat into the HPO Championship Event at the M Resort in the summer of 2015, and you can follow along with PokerNews to see who that player turns out to be.