Andrew Rudnick Finished On Top After Day 1b of HPO Charles Town Regional Main Event
Day 1b was put in the books for the 2016 Hollywood Poker Open Charles Town Regional Main Event, and there will be a new champion since last year��s winner, Loukas Michael, failed to make it through to Day 2.
Andrew Rudnick (188,700) finished as the Day 1b chip leader by a tiny bit over Mike Sites (184,600).
Rudnick stormed to the lead after doubling through Jim Keating with JxJx over 7x7x when the two got all in on the 9?3?5? flop. The board brought no help for Keating and Rudnick soared.
Keating (111,900) had an interesting day himself. It seemed for a while that all he could do was double people up. However, he managed to work his stack back up, never dipping too low and being very active.
Lee Childs (14,600) finished the day as the short stack. He will start Day 2 with only seven big blinds, but any chips mean there's a chance, and that's what Childs has. He shoved once during the final minutes of play in an attempt to double up, but got no callers and added only the blinds and antes to his stack.
Mel Lyon stuck around the middle of the pack for most of the day after dipping early. Not many very exciting pots happened for him, but he did manage to pick up chips here and there, and will enter Day 2 81,700.
The 14 players that made it through Day 1b will join five players from Friday's Day 1a for action on Day 2. Play resumes at 12:15 p.m. local time on Sunday, and it will continue until a new HPO champion is crowned.
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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