Bradley Yazici Wins 2014 Hollywood Poker Open Grantville Regional Championship for $22,752
The 2014 Hollywood Poker Open Grantville Regional Championship $1,800 buy-in Main Event at Penn National Race Course concluded on Sunday after the final nine players of a 37-player field returned to play down to a winner. It took a little more than five levels of play, but eventually Bradley Yazici emerged victorious to capture the $22,752 first-place prize and a seat into the $2,500 HPO Championship in Vegas this June.
Action resumed in Level 13 (700/1,400/100), and it didn’t take long for fireworks. In one of the first hands of the day, Jason Thomas, who began the day second in chips, opened for 3,200 only to have Yazici, the chip leader, three-bet to 7,500. Action folded back to Thomas, and he pushed back with a four-bet to 16,000. Not to be outdone, Yazici five-bet to 35,000, Thomas six-bet to 60,000, and Yazici seven-bet shoved, which Thomas called.
Yazici: 
Thomas: 
The table and railbirds erupted in disbelief at the cooler hand. Little did they know it'd get worse. The 
flop wasn't anything special, but the 
turn was for Yazici. He spiked his two outer and Thomas was visibly shaken by the sudden turn of events. The 
river failed to change a thing, and Thomas just stared as the dealer verified the stacks. Yazici held 168,800, which was barely more than Thomas' 163,400. The cooler sent Thomas to the rail empty handed in ninth place, while Yazici stacked nearly half the chips in play.
Not long after, Kenneth "Hockey" Hock was ousted in eighth place in another big-pocket pair battle, and then Chi Do fell in seventh after being crippled in a similar hand.
The money bubble lasted for nearly two hours, but it eventually burst when the last woman in the tournament fell. Vicki Russel had been quite the character here in the HPO Regional Championship Grantville. As she explained, she was married for 25 years before recently becoming a divorcé. After raising five children, Russel now devotes her time to her businesses and to playing here at the casino, which is just 15 minutes from her house.
Russel’s last hand happened on a flop of 
when Yazici bet 6,500 from the under-the-gun position and Russel moved all in for roughly 27,000. Yazici snap-called with the 
, which was well out in front of Russel's 
.
"I guess I need another queen," Russel said in reference to a hand earlier on the bubble where she caught a queen on the river to stay alive. Unfortunately for her, she couldn't do it a second time as the 
blanked on the turn followed by the on the river. "Gave it all I had," she said before taking her leave.
From there, Fritz Neunkirchner, who began the day as the short stack, snuck into the money by finishing in fifth place for $5,389, and then Mark Summers followed him out the door in fourth.
Peter Kaemmerlen managed to double through Yazici to take a big chip lead, but a few hours later the double was reversed thanks to a lucky river card. After a break, Kaemmerlen returned to be decimated by yet another river card, and then fell a couple hands later in third place for $10,178.
That left Yazici and John Kostelac to battle heads up with the former holding a considerable chip lead; however, it turned out to be a lengthy affair. Yazici’s aggression and chip advantage ultimately proved too much to overcome, and Kostelac fell in second place. Click here to view the final hand.
Congratulations to Bradley Yazici, the 2014 Hollywood Poker Open Grantville Regional Champion!
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bradley Yazici | $22,752 |
| 2 | John Kostelac | $14,968 |
| 3 | Peter Kaemmerlen | $10,178 |
| 4 | Mike Summers | $6,586 |
| 5 | Fritz Neunkirchner | $5,389 |
In addition, 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event seventh-place finisher Lee Childs topped the leaderboard at Grantville Regional Championship, which earned him a seat in the season-ending HPO Championship.
Congrats to @leechilds for winning a seat to our Championship Event via the #PNRCHPO Leaderboard. He's headed to Vegas. Nice work all week.Follow @hwpokeropen
The next Hollywood Poker Open Regional Tournament will take place in St. Louis, MO from March 7-16. Don't miss your chance to go head-to-head with some of the region's best players to win a seat into the $500,000 guaranteed HPO Championship Event. We’ll see you then!