Hattori Lopez Emerges as Chip Leader After Day 1c in the $1,200 Main Event at The Commerce Casino Hold'em Championship

Tyler Boyer

Level 18 : Blinds 6,000/12,000, 12,000 ante

Day 1c at The Commerce Casino Hold’em Series in the $1,200 Main Event has concluded. It was third of five Day 1 flights in the $300,000 guarantee event saw 80 entrants, bringing the total number of entrants to 149. Today saw eight players advancing to Day 2, joining the seven players who already made Day 2. The chip leader at the end of Day 1c is Hattori Lopez who bagged 654,000.

Lopez has over $250,000 in career poker earnings, and was able to bag the chip lead in large part to a massive pot he played against Elvyn Bello, when he doubled up with pocket aces, against Bello’s pocket queens. Bello was down to just 65,000 chips after the hand, but was able to double up numerous time to find a bag and make Day 2. Behind Lopez on the leaderboard is Derek Greally in second, and Behzad-Teranie.

End of Day 1c Chip Counts

Place	Name	Country	Chip Count
1	Hattori Lopez	United States	654,000
2	Derek Greally	United States	547,000
3	Behzad-Teranie	United States	500,000
4	Colleen Long	United States	442,000
5	Peter Cross	United States	397,000
6	Elvyn Bello	United States	364,000
7	Jay Yates	United States	225,000
8	Sarah Cruce	United States	70,000

The Bubble

The eight players all made the money after Fausto Valdez was eliminated on the bubble. His pocket jacks ran into the pocket kings of Behzad-Teranie, who flopped a set and sent Valdez home empty handed.

Flopping Quads

A theme on Day 1c was players flopping quads, as early in the day Sarah Cruce flopped quad sevens and managed to double up against Kenneth Hirose’s ace-king. Then later in the night Jay Yates won a much smaller pot after he flopped quad fives.

For the Day 1 flights, players will start with 40,000 chips at the 100/200 blind levels. There will be 40-minute blind levels, until the final table where they will play 60-minute levels. Players will have a 15-minute break after every three levels of play.

This event has unlimited rebuys, with registration for this event concluding after the start of Level 10, and Day 1 flights ending after the players make the money. 1 out of 10 players will make the money. Players may play multiple Day 1 flights after bagging to improve their Day 2 stack. Any player who bags multiple times will have their smaller stack taken out of play, and receive a min cash for their stack.