Tyler Cornell ran away with Day 1C of the 2014 World Poker Tour (WPT) Legends of Poker Main Event Monday, finishing the day with nearly 100,000 more chips than his nearest opponent. As is almost always the case in a multi-starting flight event, Day 1C was the largest of the three flights, with 222 entrants taking their shot at glory. Just 95 made it to Day 2, bringing the total Day 1 survivors to 223.
Normally the payout schedule would have been published by now, but this is a Quantum Reload tournament, so we will have to wait until part way through Day 2 to find out about the prize allocation. The Quantum Reload Concept has unleashed some controversy in the poker world, but the World Poker Tour and the Bicycle Casino have stuck to their guns and stayed with the format for the WPT Legends of Poker. The tournament starts out the same as a re-entry event – players who are eliminated on Days 1A or 1B can still pony up another $3,700 buy-in to play in a later starting flight (players can take a shot at all three starting flights if need be). It doesn’t end there, though, for players who bust out prior to Day 2. Anyone, even those who don’t even register for any of the Day 1 flights can buy-in directly to Day 2, but there is a price: $10,000. Those who have the wallet for this direct buy-in will start with 60 big blinds.
Day 1C was sort of an odd day. Very often, the starting flights that have the most players also have larger chip counts at the top of the leader board than do the other flights. In the case of this year’s WPT Legends of Poker, however, the Day 1C leaders had far fewer chips than those in Days 1A and 1B. Not necessarily up and down the top ten, but certainly at the very top. Day 1A had three players with over 200,000 chips and Day 1B had four players over that mark. Tyler Cornell was the only player to finish Day 1C with more than 200,000 chips. He is also the only player from Day 1C to enter Day 2 amongst the top ten chip stacks.
Day 2 is now underway at the Bike as the 223 survivors all meet together for the first time along with anyone who decided to pay $10,000 to start today.
2014 World Poker Tour Legends of Poker Main Event – Day 1C Chip Leaders
1. Tyler Cornell – 258,300
2. Nipun Java – 160,600
3. Christopher Whitcomb – 157,200
4. Dustin Dobrilovic – 155,400
5. Dan Matsuzuki – 154,000
6. Joseph Cosentino – 153,000
7. Jimmy Lee – 151,100
8. Harut Arutyunyan – 146,200
9. Charles Lei – 145,000
10. Joe Tushnet – 128,000
2014 World Poker Tour Legends of Poker Main Event – Overall Day 1 Chip Leaders
1. Nick Grippo – 272,400
2. Tyler Cornell – 258,300
3. Jeff Loiacono – 240,800
4. Randy Bowie – 217,800
5. Massoud Eskandari – 215,400
6. Ryan Rivers – 214,800
7. Andrew Shack – 209,800
8. Samuel Bekerian – 205,600
9. Owen Crowe – 190,800
10. Matt Salsberg – 187,700
* Tournament updates and information courtesy WPT.com
