The World Poker Tour has reached the sunny climes of Los Angeles, CA, for its latest event, the Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino, and the players have responded. Over the span of two Day Ones, the $3500 re-entry (if you bust on Day 1A, you can come back on Day 1B) brought out a host of top pros to compete as well as several notable “amateurs” who have seized the leaderboard.
On Friday, 247 players came to the tables for action, but it was action of another sort that seemed to draw the attention of many around “The Bike.” Early during Day 1A play, two notable young stars of the game, Matt Marafioti and Jon Aguiar, had an altercation that almost resulted in fisticuffs (Marafioti and Aguiar have been having a spat in social media prior to this meeting). Although there wasn’t any physical action, Marafioti and Aguiar had to be separated by security. After a “cool off” period, both would come back to the tables, although Aguiar would bust soon after this and Marafioti would end the day with 54K in chips.
Aguiar would have plenty of company on the rail as the day wore on. Vanessa Selbst would fall at the hands of a two outer during Level Two and Justin Young would follow her out the door soon after that. Victor Ramdin, J. C. Tran, Tuan Le, Christina Lindley, Barry Shulman and David “The Dragon” Pham would also be some of the notable casualties as players attempted to set themselves up for making it to Day Two with some ammunition.
By the end of Friday’s action, 114 survivors were left with the Top Five looking like this:
1. Michael Lipman, 257,100
2. Vadim Bulavchik, 242,200
3. David Marshall, 211,000
4. Joseph Hunter, 173,700
5. David Randall, 169,500
On Saturday, the tables filled quickly around the tournament arena as players either took their second shot at the WPT Legends of Poker or took their first shot at winning one of the most prestigious events on the WPT calendar. Selbst was back in action with a second bullet (as was Shulman), joined by Allen Kessler, Erik Cajelais, Kathy Liebert and Andy Frankenberger. Former WPT World Champion David Williams would have a quick day of play, coming into the event during Level Three and departing soon afterwards when he failed to hit against an opponent’s pocket Aces.
After the field had taken a split dinner break, the official numbers were announced to the field at the WPT Legends of Poker. There were 622 entries in the event, building a prize pool of slightly more than $2.1 million, of which 63 players will share in. The big prize everyone was looking at, though, was the $500,000 first place prize and the seat to the 2013 WPT Championship.
As the Day 1B action drew to a close, Selbst would be eliminated from the tournament, joined by former Legends champion Prahlad Friedman, Amnon Filippi and Shulman. By the time the surviving players were bagging up their chips, the Top Five of Day 1B looked as such:
1. Hilmar Solvason, 227,000
2. Bhagwan Tejwani, 177,700
3. Thanh Van Tran, 159,500
4. Behzad Teranie, 158,000
5. Stephen Graner, 154,900
Combining the two Day Ones, here’s how the field lines up for the start of Day Two play this afternoon:
1. Michael Lipman, 257,100
2. Vadim Bulavchik, 242,200
3. Hilmar Solvason, 227,000
4. David Marshall, 211,000
5. Bhagwan Tejwani, 177,700
6. Joseph Hunter, 173,700
7. David Randall, 169,500
8. Thanh Van Tran, 159,500
9. Behzad Teranie, 158,000
10. Stephen Graner, 154,900
While these names may not be the “top” players that poker fans like, they do demonstrate the difficulty of the Legends field. These amateurs have been able to work their way through the Day One carnage to be in excellent position to take down a big championship on the WPT.
There are some names that players might recognize among those down the leaderboard, including Gevork Kasabyan, Steve Sung, Randy Dorfman, Jason Dewitt, Joseph Cheong, Dwyte Pilgrim, Lee Markholt, Jeff Madsen and Jonathan Little. All of these players have nice sized stacks, although they aren’t in the overall Top Ten.
Today’s Day Two action begins at noon (Pacific Time), but there is a long way to go yet. With 308 players returning today, the money bubble will probably not be reached until Monday at the earliest and the final table is set for Wednesday afternoon, when the WPT will crown the victor of the Legends of Poker alongside such past champions as Mel Judah, Doyle Brunson, Dan Harrington, John Phan and defending champion Will Failla.
