HPO Charles Town Main Event Day 2, Two November Niners on Opposite Ends of Leaderboard
It’s too bad there’s not a go-to theme song for the start of a poker tournament, because today is an exciting day. For now, imagine something similar to the first time you heard the Monday Night Football theme.
It’s Day 2 of the Hollywood Poker Open Charles Town $1,115 Regional Main Event and 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker is the massive the chip leader by almost 200,000. In the past two HPO regional main events, Moneymaker hit a few bumps at the end of Day 1 and was unable to cash, but this time he looks as sure as ever that he's not only going to cash, but make a run at his second HPO title.
In St. Louis, he would have finished Day 1 over 300,000 if it wasn’t for Peter Brooks. Brooks cracked Moneymaker's pocket aces and he finished just outside the money.
In Columbus, just two weeks ago, he doubled up Josh Lowing on the very last hand of the night. Moneymaker had 
against the pocket tens of Lowing and couldn’t catch up. That left him with just about 50,000 and he couldn’t make much happen on Day 2, finishing outside of the money again.
The table is set for Moneymaker to make a deep run, and with a 200,000-chip lead he might have the chance for a Joe Ebanks-type run here in Charles Town. Ebanks won the HPO Columbus Regional Main Event at the last stop, eliminating the final five players before finally making a deal with Jeremy Detamore to seal it off.
Moneymaker will start the day with 371,800. On the opposite end of the spectrum, another player with WSOP Main Event final table experience is the shortest stack. That's Lee Childs. Childs will enter the day with 14,600. He has been truly grinding his way through this tournament and managed to get into Day 2, albeit with only seven big blinds, so his work will be cut out for him.
Dennis Summers (199,700), Day 1b chip leader Andrew Rudnick (188,700), Mike Sites (184,600), and Habib Dabbagh (167,000) round out the top five chip stacks behind Moneymaker. Dabbagh is a Lebanese player with only four cashes in the US. He has $86,000 in earnings and a deep run here could put him over the $100,000 mark.
Stay tuned throughout the day for all the updates and photos from the field as the HPO crowns its newest champion, the last of Season 4 regional main events.