Moneymaker & Childs Among Those at the HPO Penn National Race Course
Season 2 of the Hollywood Poker Open continued today at the Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in Grantville, PA. The 10-day poker festival culminates in today’s $1,800 HPO Regional Main Event, which will award the winner a nice payday as well as an entry into the season-ending $500,000 guaranteed HPO Championship Event at the M Resort Las Vegas in June.
If you recall, Ana Marquez topped a field of 631 players — which included over 200 HPO qualifiers — to win the Season 1 $2,500 HPO Championship Event for $320,189. More recently, Toby Mathewsemerged victorious in the Hollywood Poker Open Tunica Regional Championship a couple weeks back to win $15,040 and a seat into the HPO Championship Event.
The preliminary events here at the HPO Penn National Race Course have been quite competitive and have set the stage for an exciting Main Event. Lee Childs, who finished seventh in the 2007 World Series of Poker, took down Event #19 $350 No Limit Hold’em on Friday night, which came just a few days after winning Event #7 No Limit Hold’em. Other prelim winners include Adam Alford (Event #16 - $240 No Limit Hold’em), Chad Madden (Event #17 $125 No Limit Hold’em), and Matthew Popp (Event #1 $125 Nightly No Limit Hold’em), just to name a few.
In addition, 2003 WSOP Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker is in the house. Moneymaker is actually an ambassador for the HPO’s second season, and he’s been busy playing that role at the tables and in front of the cameras.
Both Childs and Moneymaker will play the Main Event today, which will start players with 20,000 in tournament chips. The plan for the day is to play 12 one-hour levels with a 15-minute break for every two levels and a 60-minute dinner break after the sixth level.
Of course you can follow the action from home all weekend long, but we hope you’ll make it out to one of the remaining stops of the Hollywood Poker Open Regional Tournament series, which will run through the end of May.
Remaining Schedule for 2014 Hollywood Poker Open
| Regional Main Event | Date | Buy-in |
|---|---|---|
| Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course | March 1-2 | $1,800 |
| Hollywood Casino St. Louis | March 15-16 | $1,800 |
| Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races | March 29-30 | $1,800 |
| Hollywood Casino Columbus | May 24-25 | $1,800 |
For more information on each stop of Season 2, check out hollywoodpokeropen.com.
In addition to the Regional Tournament series, HPO properties will be running promotions whereby players can win a seat into the Championship Event at M Resort. You can qualify through Sunday Tournaments, and Free Roll Tournaments from now through May.
While you wait for action to kick off at Noon local time, which is a couple hours from now, check out this video from PennLive in which HPO Ambassador Chris Moneymaker shares some of his tips for winning at poker while playing PennLive sportswriter Eric Epler: