There were a total of 368 players who entered the World Poker Tour’s Festa al Lago tournament. Although the size of the field was down in comparison to the last two WPT tournaments held, the prize pool set a new record for a Festa al Lago event due to the larger $15,000 buy-in. Over $5.3 million is up for grabs in the Bellagio tournament, with $1.4 million headed to its winner and the top 50 players taking home cash. Day 2 of the Festa al Lago begins today at 12:00 Noon Pacific Time.
Here is a look at how the massive $5.3 million prize pool will be divided:
1st Place: $1,411,015
2nd Place: $943,215
3rd Place: $506,245
4th Place: $373,010
5th Place: $266,445
6th Place: $186,510
7th Place: $133,225
8th Place: $106,580
9th Place: $85,260
10th Place: $63,945
11th-15th Places: $53,290
16th-20th Places: $42,630
21st-30th Places: $31,975
31st-40th Places: $26,645
41st-50th Places: $21,315
After the completion of two starting days, the odds-on favorite to win the Festa al Lago has to be Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, who holds a commanding chip lead over the rest of the field. He owns 50% more chips than his next closest competitor and has over twice the chip stack of the tenth place player:
1. Antonio Esfandiari, 313,000
2. Nicholas Sliwinski, 209,800
3. Daniel Schreiber, 206,925
4. Brian Rast, 206,225
5. Jennifer Tilly, 195,050
6. Jeremiah Vinsant, 184,575
7. Andrew Robl, 173,450
8. Nenad Medic, 167,250
9. Ryan Young, 156,725
10. Johannes Van Til, – 151,000
Other top 100 stacks at the Bellagio include:
11. Toto Leonidas, 149,775
12. Jason Mercier, 145,500
14. Joe Sebok, 142,050
16. Johnny Chan, 138,000
25. Isaac Baron, 116,825
27. Chau Giang, 115,025
30. Vivek Rajkumar, 108,550
37. Tim West, 105,275
42. Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, 100,825
55. J.C. Tran, 91,550
56. Isaac Haxton, 91,225
65. Dutch Boyd, 86,125
70. Mike Matusow, 83,200
87. Kenny Tran, 75,000
89. Gus Hansen, 71,400
94. Nam Le, 70,150
97. Lee Markholt, 67,800
98. Vinny Vinh, 67,775
99. Marco Traniello, 67,725
100. John Juanda, 66,925
There were 45 previous World Poker Tour winners who played on Tuesday, making up an extremely talented field. The survivors will all be gunning for Esfandiari. The Magician commented to WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman about a sizeable pot he played against World Series of Poker November Nine member Scott Montgomery on Day 1A: “I had a pair of nines. I raised, he re-raised. I was behind him, so of course I called. The flop came six-high and he made a weak bet and I called it. A nine came on the turn and he checked it and I thought my nines were good anyway. I bet and he moved in.” Esfandiari insta-called and was able to build his chip stack; Montgomery held K-9.
Among the previous WPT event winners who played on Day 1B were Erick Lindgren (Season II WPT Player of the Year), Michael Mizrachi (Season III L.A. Poker Classic), Roland de Wolfe (Season IV Grand Prix de Paris), Barry Greenstein (Season IV WPT Invitational), Scott “BigRiskky” Clements (Season VI North American Poker Championship), David Chiu (Season VI WPT World Champion), and Mike Watson (Bellagio Cup IV).
Noticeably absent from the WPT Day 1B field was U.S. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, who mingled with poker players on Monday. Phelps had hinted to tournament officials that he might be back for Day 1B. However, this ultimately did not happen. Phelps has been hounded by major tournament circuits to play, including the Asian Poker Tour and WSOP Europe.
The tournament’s winner will be crowned on Sunday, October 26th, when the six-handed televised final table will play out. It is slated to air on Fox Sports Net as part of the seventh season of the World Poker Tour.
