The survivors from the three starting flights came together in a unified Day 2 on Sunday at the 2013 World Poker Tour (WPT) Legends of Poker Main Event. They were joined by 47 more registrants who took tournament organizers up on the opportunity for a “last chance” re-entry prior to the start of yesterday’s play. Just 71 players remain going into Labor Day with poker veteran Dan Heimiller leading the field, bagging 1.099 million chips. Nobody else is all that close: Richard Munro is next with 879,000 chips and Phil “The Unabomber” Laak is in third with 830,000.
With the “last chance” re-entries, the total number of registered players ended up at 716, creating a prizepool of $2,430,820. Payouts go down to 72nd place, so everyone playing today has already made the money. When the money bubble burst on Sunday at 73rd place, two players were eliminated on the same hand, effectively making the 74th place finisher the bubble boy and allowing the two eliminated players to split the $7,050 payout.
The winner of the tournament will receive $613,355 and the top five will all have six-figure paydays.
Our chip leader, Dan Heimiller, has been around the tournament poker scene a long time. He’s not a household name – he wasn’t one of those faces that was promoted on television during the poker boom of the middle of last decade – but he is very well known in the poker community. He has won over $3.5 million in live tournaments in his career and owns one World Series of Poker bracelet, one of 50 lifetime WSOP cashes. On the World Poker Tour, Heimiller has cashed eight times, coming close to a title in 2008 when he placed third in the Borgata Poker Open.
That chip gap between Heimiller and Munro was the immediate result of one of those bubble eliminations. He called a pre-flop raise to 12,000 chips by Jake Schindler and checked the flop of A♣-T♠-7♠. Schindler continued for 21,000, but then Heimiller check-raised him to 56,000. Schindler re-raised to 115,000 and Heimiller called. They both checked the 9♥ on the turn. When the 9♦ was dealt on the river, Heimiller moved all-in, putting Schindler and his remaining 276,000 chips at risk. Schindler pondered his next move for several minutes, knowing it was bubble time (the other hand was waiting on this one, so Schindler did not know if he would potentially bust out with no money or with a share of 72nd place). He finally called and then mucked his hand when Heimiller showed Q♥-7♥, giving him two pair. Because it was an all-in situation, Schindler was required to show his hand, so he revealed K♦-5♦ – the rare bluff call.
While millions of people across the United States are taking Monday off of work in observance of the Labor Day holiday, the 71 players still in the Legends of Poker Main Event will start their work day at 1:00pm Pacific at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California. They will play until just 18 players remain.
2013 World Poker Tour Legends of Poker Main Event – Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Dan Heimiller – 1,099,000
2. Richard Munro – 879,000
3. Phil Laak – 830,000
4. Craig Schauer – 722,000
5. Jordan Cristos – 635,000
6. Tom West – 624,000
7. Paruiz Sayyad – 600,000
8. David Daneshgar – 570,000
9. Ron Jenkins – 555,000
10. Ryan Goindoo – 535,000