The 2014 Hollywood Poker Open Grantville Regional Championship came to an end on Sunday at the Penn National Race Course. On the final day, there was a total of nine players remaining out of the 37 who entered the field. The winner was decided in just five levels of play. Bradley Yazici turned out to be the winner and captured the prize money of 22752 dollars and a chance to participate in the HPO championship that will be held at ‘The M Resort Spa Casino’ in Las Vegas sometime in June.
Exciting start to the day with Jason Thomas getting eliminated by Yazici
When the action began on day two, nobody would have expected the kind of play between Yazici and Thomas. It was in level 13 when Thomas, who was second only to Yazici in terms of chip lead opened with 3200. Yazici challenged him with a three-bet 7500. Seeing Yazici’s response, Thomas upped the ante and four-bet to 16000. Soon, Yazici raised a five-bet to 35000 and Thomas again came up with a stiff response and six-bet to 60000. This game came to an end when Thomas called and Yazici shoved the seven-bet.
When the cards were raised, Thomas came up with a pair of aces, while Yazici only had a pair of kings. The audience gasped in disbelief after seeing what just happened. However, there was more excitement to follow when the flop was raised with a four of hearts, two of spades and nine of clubs. When the king of diamonds turned up, the tide suddenly changed in Yazici’s favor. Thomas was visibly shaken as he was eliminated at ninth place without winning anything and all his chips were captured by Yazici.
Soon Kenneth Hock was eliminated in the eighth place followed by Chi Do in seventh. These two had to go home empty-handed as they were not in the top. Only the top five players would be taking home a cash prize.
Vicki Russel becomes the last woman to get eliminated
Vicki Russel finished just outside the winning bracket as she found herself up against the eventual champion, Yazici. Russel was a colorful character who started playing poker recently after raising her children and getting a divorce. A king of spades, jack of hearts and five of hearts were raised on the flop and Yazici bet 6500 from under-the-gun. Russel fell into the trap as as she moved in all the 27000. When Yazici called, he had an ace of spades and a king of hearts, which were too strong for Russel’s queen and king of clubs. She failed to survive as she didn’t get a queen on the river and left the table with a heavy heart.
After the departure of Vicki Russel, Fritz Neunkirchner left the table and took home 5389 dollars as prize money. Mark Summers followed him at fourth place with a cash prize of 6586 dollars. Summers was the crowd favorite before the start of the game. However, it was Yazici who got the better of Summers in the end.
Peter Kaemmerlen decimated by a river card
Peter Kaemmerlen took a big chip lead against Yazici, but it all went down the drain thanks to the river card and it came back to haunt him again as it led to his elimination at the third position. He, however, took with him a cash prize of 10178 dollars.
John Kostelac and Bradley Yazici took on each other in the final heads-up play
Everyone expected Yazici to finish off the game in quick time as he had a significant chip lead over Kostelac, but the game went on for quite some time before Yazici was able to stamp his authority. The game was over in level 18 when Kostelac opened with 12000 on the button. In the flop, the queen of hearts, eight of clubs and six of spades helped Yazici with the lead, but when Yazici slowed down with a check, Kostelac fell into the snare as he moved in all his chips. The victory for Yazici became a formality once the cards were raised and Kostelac finished with 15000 dollars.