The first of two starting days of the World Poker Tour’s Festa al Lago event was played out on Monday. Day 1B will kick off today, but sitting as the leader in the clubhouse is World Series of Poker bracelet winner Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, who holds 50% more chips than his next closest competitor. Jennifer Tilly, Jason Mercier, Joe Sebok, and Johnny Chan are also in the top ten in chips.
There were 153 entrants who began Day 1A at the Bellagio, which is playing host to the Festa al Lago tournament. When play wrapped up for the night, 101 remained. The field was paced by Antonio Esfandiari, who won his first and only WSOP bracelet back in 2004, taking down a $2,000 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em tournament for $184,860. He won the Season II L.A. Poker Classic on the World Poker Tour, cashing for $1.4 million. He holds a decisive chip lead over the rest of the top ten:
1st Place: Antonio Esfandiari, 313,000
2nd Place: Nicholas Sliwinski, 209,800
3rd Place: Jennifer Tilly, 195,050
4th Place: Jeremiah Vinsant, 184,575
5th Place: Andrew Robl, 173,450
6th Place: Johannes Van Til, 151,000
7th Place: Jason Mercier, 145,500
8th Place: Joe Sebok, 142,050
9th Place: Johnny Chan, 138,000
10th Place: Kagawa Masaaki, 123,150
Tilly won the $1,000 buy-in Ladies No Limit Hold’em tournament during the 2005 World Series of Poker, winning her first bracelet and pocketing $158,000 in the process. She has a pair of WPT cashes for a total of $114,000 in earnings. Tilly will be looking to use her superior poker skills to navigate the talented Festa al Lago field successfully.
Mercier has two European Poker Tour wins under his belt and is one of the most feared names in poker on the other side of the Pond. He emerged victorious in the San Remo leg of the EPT in April for $1.3 million. He also took down the High Roller event in London for a healthy payday of $900,000, besting WSOP Europe champion John Juanda. He also finished sixth in the Barcelona event last month for $321,000. Mercier has the seventh largest chip stack at the Bellagio and is in prime condition to make a run at his first major tournament title in North America.
Sebok has never made a final six-handed table of a WPT event. However, he has two seventh place finishes in WPT events along with two WSOP final table appearances on his poker resume. Sebok has been quiet as of late, notching just one in the money finish during the 2008 WSOP, cashing for $16,920 in a $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Shootout tournament.
Chan is one of the legends of poker. He is tied with Doyle Brunson for the second most number of bracelets ever won with 10 and has 41 in the money finishes at the WSOP for a total of $4.1 million. “The Poker Brat” Phil Hellmuth leads both Chan and Brunson with 11 bracelets total. Chan’s most recent piece of hardware came by virtue of winning a $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event in 2005, defeating Phil Laak heads up.
Other notable names to survive Day 1A included:
11th Place: Isaac Baron, 116,825
12th Place: Chau Giang, 115,025
15th Place: Allen Cunningham, 105,825
18th Place: Daniel Negreanu, 99,325
25th Place: Doyle Brunson, 94,200
26th Place: Isaac Haxton, 91,225
39th Place: J.C. Tran, 71,550
40th Place: Lee Markholt, 67,800
41st Place: Marco Traniello, 67,725
42nd Place: John Juanda, 66,925
45th Place: Scotty Nguyen, 62,050
50th Place: Justin Bonomo, 59,675
53rd Place: Hoyt Corkins, 55,400
70th Place: Erik Seidel, 38,550
73rd Place: Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, 36,975
76th Place: Phil Ivey, 34,850
90th Place: Chris Ferguson, 22,400
101st Place: Layne Flack, 6,775
The big news coming out of the Bellagio for today’s Day 1B is the possibility that U.S. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps may enter the tournament. The winner of eight gold medals during the 2008 Beijing Games was introduced to many members of the field on Day 1A by Hellmuth. WPT officials told Poker News Daily that he stated he would “be back on Tuesday” to play.
