Poker News

Tuesday marks the play down day in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Hollywood Poker Open. Online poker pro Frank “Frank1The1Tank” Calo paces the 15-player field that began Day 4 on Tuesday.

One of the final eliminations on Monday belonged to Full Tilt Poker pro Carlos Mortensen, who sent Joe Serock to the rails. Serock pushed for 21 big blinds and Mortensen re-shoved with A-Q of clubs. Serock showed 9-7 of clubs and a flop of A-6-4, all diamonds, gave Mortensen a commanding lead. The board filled out 2-3 and Serock was sent packing. Serock recorded five in the money finishes during the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP), including a $341,000 take for finishing second in a $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed tournament won by Brock “t soprano” Parker.

Mortensen also ousted Jamey Kramer on Monday after Kramer pushed all-in with pocket jacks on a flop of 9-5-4. Todd Terry folded pocket queens face up in the hand, but Mortensen made the call with a wired pair of fives for middle set. The turn and river fell a six and eight, respectively, and Mortensen’s stack ballooned to 288,500. Mortensen ended the day with 322,500 chips, good for the sixth largest stack in the Hollywood Casino, located just outside of Cincinnati.

Calo eliminated fellow online poker pro Keven “Stamdogg” Stammen after the latter committed his chips pre-flop with A-7. Calo held A-J and neither player improved. Calo paces the remaining players with a stack of 649,000, over 100,000 more than Terry, who holds the second largest total at 516,000. Calo is a WSOP Circuit gold ring winner.

Terry finished third in the 2009 Bicycle Casino Legends of Poker for $231,000 and plays online under the moniker “tbt4653.” In the virtual world, he won the challenging PokerStars $100 rebuy in October for $36,000. Five days prior, he was the runner-up in the site’s Super Tuesday for $47,000.

Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Eric “Rizen” Lynch busted Mike Bagdasaryan from contention with K-10 of diamonds against Bagdasaryan’s K-7. Lynch ultimately held two pair in the hand and boosted his stack to 189,000. Lynch slipped back a bit towards the end of the day, as he held 160,000 chips when all was said and done. Here are the 15 survivors of the first ever WPT Hollywood Poker Open:

1. Frank “Frank1The1Tank” Calo – 649,000
2. Todd Terry – 516,000
3. Mike Miller – 449,000
4. Len Ashby – 386,500
5. Dwyte Pilgram – 328,500
6. Carlos Mortensen – 322,500
7. Tyler “puffinmypurp” Reiman – 299,000
8. Chris Bell – 256,500
9. Mosa Mostafi – 196,000
10. Shawn Buchanan – 185,500
11. Eric “Rizen” Lynch – 160,000
12. Gevork Kasabyan – 156,500
13. Ravi “govshark2” Raghavan – 153,000
14. Craig Smith – 133,500
15. Jerry Payne – 128,000

The money bubble will burst during Tuesday’s play, which will see the field of 15 whittled down to just six, and the festivities will air as part of Season 8 of the WPT on Fox Sports Net. The top five players will pocket six-figures and the minimum payout in the $10,000 buy-in poker tournament is $23,000.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT results.

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