Day 1 Attracts 37 Runners; Yazici Leads Final Table of Nine
The 2014 Hollywood Poker Open Grantville Regional Championship kicked off their $1,800 buy-in Main Event at the Penn National Race Course in Pennsylvania today. The tournament attracted 37 players, but after 12 one-hour levels of play, just nine remained with Bradley Yazici and his stack of 170,400 leading the way.
The first elimination of the day came in Level 2 (50/100) when Jerry Wagner made it 650 to go preflop and Ernie Lewis made the call. Both players then checked the 
flop, the 
turned, and Wagner bet 2,000. Lewis popped it to 7,000, Wagner called, and the 
completed the board on the river. Wagner then shoved all in and Lewis snap-called off his last 7,000.
Wagner tabled the 
for quads, and a stunned Lewis showed the 
for a flopped Broadway straight. Lewis related his beat to some friends across the room, gathered his things, and then exited the tournament floor. Unfortunately for Wagner, those chips wouldn’t last the night and he busted in Level 8.
As the night progressed plenty of other players found themselves on the rail including Tam Van Tam, Josh Bell, Kathy Clark, Denny Firestone, Joe Paese, Thomas Daubert, Nick Liddell, Maria Krebs, Steven Gurney-Goldman, the father-and-son combo of Bob Marquette Sr. and Robert Marquette Jr, and HPO ambassador and 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker.
Moneymaker was crippled in Level 9 (300/600/50) after running into the quads of Vicki Russel. Not long after, Mike Summers opened for 1,300 and Larry Kostelac flatted from the cutoff. After the button folded, Moneymaker moved all in for roughly 10,000, Summers moved all in over the top, and Kostelac folded.
The fan favorite got it in good with 
, but he was racing against the 
of Summers. The flop put a dagger through Moneymaker's heart by delivering Summers an ace, and that was followed by blanks on both the turn and river.
"Good luck guys," the ambassador said before taking his leave from the tournament.
The remaining nine players will return at 1 p.m. local time on Sunday to play down to a winner. Only five will get paid, with the winner receiving $22,752 and a seat into the $2,500 HPO Championship in Vegas this June. Who will it be? Join us then as we bring you all the action and eliminations right here on PokerNews.