Moore Emerges as Winner of $370 Opening Event in Three-Way Chop After 16 Hours of Play
Day 2 of the $370 Opening Flight began with 154 players and it culminated after nearly 16 hours of play with Laura Moore emerging as the winner after three players decided to chop.
Moore, James Canoles and Lalith Mannur were the three players left standing at the end of play after several hours of three handed play without many significant chip changes and little indication that big action was coming soon. Moore and Canoles were the larger stacks and agreed to chop to $65,000 for each and Mannur received close to $57,929 as he was the short stack for all of three-handed play.
For Moore it is the biggest score of her live poker career by quite a bit. The Virginia native had a supportive rail cheering her on throughout the entire final table as several local area players came out to support their fellow local.
Final Table Results
| Position | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Laura Moore | $65,000* |
| 2 | James Canoles | $65,000* |
| 3 | Lalith Mannur | $57,929* |
| 4 | Justin Stonehill | $32,482 |
| 5 | Steven Cho | $25,349 |
| 6 | Charles Gang | $19,712 |
| 7 | Richie Smith | $15,455 |
| 8 | Kenneth Schafer | $12,022 |
| 9 | Christopher Pham Le | $9,606 |
*Denotes three-handed deal.
Final Three Players Path to Chop
Moore was involved in multiple huge hands that propelled her ascension. The first of which included turning jacks full to crack the pocket aces and eliminate Paul Min after he called it off on the river to finish in 10th place. She then won a big hand against Richie Smith to effectively end his run as he was left with crumbs following her big call after a long tank. Shortly after that she got pocket aces at the right time against the pocket kings of Charles Gang to bust him in 6th place.
Canoles surged to a massive chip lead early in the day as he took multiple large pots away from start of day top five stack Columbus Randolph Jr. He did not look back from there as he held one third of all the chips in play at the final table at one point, helped in large part by the elimination of Nicholas Pham with two tables remaining when Pham shoved into Canoles with top pair only to get snapped off by the two pair of Canoles.
Mannur flew more under the radar as he hung on all day to a medium stack and was never truly at risk but also was never one of the big stacks. His most substantial hand was when he eliminated decent sized stack Christopher Pham Le in 9th place with pocket aces in a preflop all in.
Action of the Day
The start of day chip leaders were all dispatched earlier than expected as many players went up and down in the chip counts as eliminations were rapid on a wild day of action, as nearly half of the field of 154 was trimmed in just two hours.
As play got down to the final table, a chop was discussed with seven players left but it was not unanimous and play continued. Play slowed to a crawl when the final table became four handed as it took over hours for Justin Stonehill to be eliminated in 4th place. Three-handed play would also take a while as it took an hour and a half before a chop was decided.
Pokernews will resume coverage of the Potomac Poker Open on Wednesday, July 31 at 11 a.m. local time with the $370 Large Stack Big Bling Ante Event and then the $3300 Main Event on Friday. Speaking of the Main Event, there is good value to be had in the three-seat guaranteed Super Satellites that run nightly at 7 p.m. through Thursday.
The number of players that have already earned their entry into the Main Event is over 100, and with megas starting this week that number will be increasing daily.