The first day of play is in the books at the World Poker Tour’s L. A. Poker Classic, with a sizeable field coming out for their shot at the latest championship for the WPT’s Season Ten.
When the bell rang for the start of action on Friday, 389 players were in their seats with late registration allowed until the start of play on Day Two. The big news of the day was the arrival of Phil Ivey, who hadn’t played in a tournament in the United States since early last year. He wasn’t the only big name to show for one of the most prestigious tournaments on the WPT schedule; Daniel Negreanu had the potentially dubious honor of being at the featured table, while Vanessa Selbst had some difficulties among her combatants.
“Big joke of a starting table at LAPC,” Selbst, who won the $5000 preliminary event prior to the WPT Main Event, joked. “McLean Karr and some other heroes here. It’s OK, I thrive at tough tables!” Unfortunately for Selbst, she wasn’t able to gather any steam in the first few hours of the tournament and was eliminated in the early going.
Negreanu also had a tough draw for his featured table, with Kathy Liebert, Jason Somerville, Ted Lawson and David “The Dragon” Pham among his opponents. After earning some chips in the first level – and providing some entertainment for those viewing the live stream online – Negreanu would also be eliminated in a rather brutal fashion.
After he had lost with pocket Aces against Somerville, Negreanu went into a three way pot with Pham and another opponent. The group checked a rainbow K-6-4 flop and, after a seven on the turn and a bet from Pham, both Negreanu and the third player called. An Ace on the river put the spark to the fireworks, with Pham once again betting out and Negreanu making a three bet. After the third player dropped his cards in the muck, Pham pushed out enough chips to put Negreanu all in.
Debating his options, Negreanu attempted to get some information from Pham with some table banter, to no avail. He eventually made the call – remarking that he couldn’t lay the hand down – and turned up pocket sixes for a set, only to see Pham open up pocket Kings for a better set to eliminate the popular Canadian pro from the L. A. Poker Classic.
Ivey, for his part, seems to have lost none of his skills after his hiatus from the game. He steadily marched his way through the field alongside tablemates David Chiu and Eric Hershler (like Ivey, a former L. A. Poker Classic champion) before ending the day among those atop the leaderboard. Ivey will take 116,300 chips, good for fifth place, into play Saturday afternoon.
By the end of the action on Friday night, 523 players had ponied up the $10,000 buy in for their shot at the LAPC Main Event title. When the action resumes on Day Two Saturday, here’s how the Top Ten lines up:
1. Michael Rocco, 156,200
2. Tuan Phan, 141,500
3. Chance Kornuth, 131,275
4. Travis Carson, 118,950
5. Phil Ivey, 116,300
6. Behzad Teranie, 110,000
7. Jesse Yaginuma, 103,550
8. Eric Cloutier, 103,225
9. David “The Dragon” Pham, 103,175
10. Michael Aron, 102,300
Notable names about the chip average include 2010 World Champion Jonathan Duhamel (98,950), Tony “Bond_18” Dunst (90,000) 2005 World Champion Joe Hachem (86,700) and current WPT Player of the Year leader Will Failla (77,300). The notables who will not be coming back to the Commerce Casino on Saturday include Olivier Busquet, Kyle Julius, Xuan Liu, Adam Levy and Liebert.
The tournament clock shows that 396 of the original 523 players are still alive, but that number could grow as players jump into the fray before the start of Saturday’s play. At this point, the prize pool for the tournament is just over $5 million, which should guarantee the eventual champion of the WPT L. A. Poker Classic a million-plus dollar payday.
