As its tenth season drives towards the final few tournaments of its schedule, poker players from around the world are descending on the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles for the World Poker Tour’s L. A. Poker Classic Main Event, one of the most highly prized jewels of the WPT schedule.
The stop at the Commerce has been a part of the WPT schedule since the inception of the tour back in 2002. In the inaugural event, Gus Hansen secured his spot in WPT lore by winning the tournament over such notable names as Andy Bloch, David “The Dragon” Pham and the late Bob Stupak. That victory by Hansen would be his second of the inaugural season and put Hansen on the map as one of the top professionals in the game.
In fact, the list of players who have captured the WPT L. A. Poker Classic crown reflect some of the biggest names in the game. Such players as Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Alan Goehring, Cornell Cimpan, Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Ivey have taken home the championship, while David Benyamine, Ted Forrest, Erick Lindgren, J. C. Tran, Chau Giang, Phil Hellmuth, Scott Montgomery, Vivek Rajkumar and Carlos Mortensen have all made a final table. The $10,000 buy in tournament is expected to once again have such star power when its final table plays out on Wednesday (February 29).
In action prior to the beginning of the WPT event today, two top professionals have already earned some money. In the $5000 No Limit Hold’em preliminary event, Vanessa Selbst defeated Jonathan Duhamel to take home the championship. In winning the event, Selbst pocketed a $140,294 payday (making her efforts in the WPT event a freeroll), while Duhamel (who has been on a tear in 2012) took down $121,115.
With a good run in the WPT L. A. Poker Classic, Selbst can potentially challenge current WPT Player of the Year frontrunner Will Failla for the crown as the season runs down. Failla currently sits at 1650 points in the POY race, with Vitor Coelho (1500) and Bobby Oboodi (1400) just behind him. Selbst currently sits back in a tie for sixth place with 1200 points; if she is able to make the final table of the L. A. Poker Classic and finish fourth or better, Selbst would pass Failla for the POY lead (provided, of course, that Failla doesn’t join her at the final table!).
Several of the players who will be participating in the WPT L. A. Poker Classic are already on the ground in Los Angeles and champing at the bit to get the tournament underway. “Got 11 hours of sleep that I badly needed,” Jason Somerville Tweeted to his followers early this morning. “Excited to play the $10K WPT event today!”
Hellmuth seems to be ready to go as well after a good day of cash game action. “I won $6000 playing Chinese poker,” he Tweeted. “Now resting in my room…LAPC WPT Day One at noon on Friday.”
WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage reports that early registration has players from around the world scheduled to be a part of the festivities. He also expects that the first place prize for the tournament will once again exceed $1 million, something that the tournament has done in each of its previous ten tournaments.
The L. A. Poker Classic will be taped for broadcast as part of the Season X presentation of the WPT on Fox Sports Network, which started its Season X broadcasts last weekend. The announcers for the WPT, longtime hosts Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, will be joined by guest anchor Marianela Pereyra (sitting in for the soon to be new mom Kimberly Lansing) and the Royal Flush Girls for the entirety of the tournament. Additionally, “The Raw Deal” host Tony “Bond_18” Dunst will start off playing the tournament; if he unfortunately busts from the event, he will provide the online streaming coverage of the final table on Wednesday afternoon.
