Greear Finishes Day 1b With Monster Lead
When Day 2 of Hollywood Poker Open Toledo Regional Main Event begins on Monday, it will be Jeff Greear leading the way with 327,000, which is quite a bit a more than Day 1a chip leader James Wright (255,500). Greear seeks his second win at HPO Toledo, as he banked $34,727 for topping a 599-player field in a $300 deepstack event just a couple of weeks ago.
Day 1b attracted 80 runners, which combined with Day 1a's 104 entries brought the total field up to 180. The top 27 players will earn a payday, with the eventual winner taking home $69,120. After 14 levels of play, Greear bagged a wide lead over Nick Pupillo (240,500), who finished with the second-biggest stack of the 37 survivors. Others joining Pupillo and Greear for Day 2 included Randy Bryer (210,500), Freddy Hamad (209,000), Bobby Dickerson (205,000), Tom Midena (156,000), and Emad Alabsi (153,500).
Greear was hovering with an above average stack of 130,000 during Level 13 (1,000/2,000/300), the penultimate level of the night, when a huge rush vaulted him to the top of the counts. Most of the chips apparently came courtesy of Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler, who called off a chunk of his formerly first-place stack in a hand that didn't go to showdown, according to an observer. Then, Greear collected the remainder of Kessler's chips with 
when Kessler was unable to hold with 
.
"Chainsaw" wasn't the only prominent player finding his way to the rail during the course of play. Rex Clinkscales, "East Coast" Mike Ross, Aaron Steury, Shawn Cunix, Adam Lamphere, David Eldridge, Ben Grise, and Mid-States Poker Tour Season 4 Player of the Year Patrick Steele all fired one or two bullets without success on Day 1b.
The charismatic Cunix, a former World Poker Tour champion, dusted off his first entry before many players had even taken their seats when he flopped queens up twice only to be counterfeited both times. His second attempt went only slightly better. Meanwhile, Rosee sent his stack to Pupillo, a fellow Chicago resident, when he three-bet 
and called the rest off against Pupillo's early on, with neither player improving.
Day 2 fires up at 12:15 on Monday, with play continuing until a new HPO champion is crowned. PokerNews will be back on the scene for live updates once more, and you can be ready for some more exciting poker action.