American poker pro Jesse McEuen became the big winner of the Hollywood Poker Open Season 3 Lawrenceburg Regional Main Event. Apart from his title, he also came into possession of $49,676 of the entire prize pool.
A record number of players took part in the event. All 207 entries created an unprecedented prize pool of $207,000.
Initially, McEuen started playing with a short stack. He was gradually turning it into a big one during the two final tables and once he had enough chips, he called all in several times to keep his opponents alert.
A total of 43 players took part in the final day of the event. Of those, only 27 were to be paid. Shane Delaney was the one to be knocked out on the bubble.
An interesting highlight from the event was John Moe’s impressive “sick” call in the early stages of the play. The Cincinnati-based player eventually finished third, taking home the amount of $20,700. Moe scored three victories at preliminary events in the past couple of weeks. These and his third position at the Lawrenceburg event secured him a seat at the 2015 HPO Championship Event, which is to be held in Las Vegas.
After Moe’s elimination, it became clear that Jesse McEuen and Michael Hahn were to face each other in one final heads-up play.
When the game entered its final stages, Hahn called all in. McEuen just did not give a chance to his opponent with his two pair of jacks and deuces and [Jd][2d]
in his hand. Hahn, holding a lone pair of jacks and [Jc][5c]
on a flop of [Js][8s][2c]
was sent to second place. He received the sum of $30,636.
McEuen, as already mentioned, earned $49,676 for his victory at the first preliminary event of the third season for HPO. Minutes after his win, he shared with interviewers that his primary goal “was to test his skills in tournaments” before he went to Florida. The poker pro from Akron, Ohio is best known for playing cash games. He also shared that he was really happy with the Hollywood Casino where the event was held. The player even did not miss to mention that he was impressed with the professionalism of the venue’s staff.
When asked why he was so quite for the greater part of the tournament, McEuen said that he wanted to get to know his opponents first, to get into their heads in a way.
The next Hollywood Poker Open Regional Main Event is to be held in Toledo, Ohio some time in February 2015.
