Day 1B of the 2008 World Poker Tour Legends of Poker event kicked off on Sunday from the Bicycle Casino in sunny Los Angeles, California. When registration closed for the second of two starting days of the hallmark WPT tournament, just 373 entrants coughed up the $10,000 buy-in. Last year, the tournament attracted 485 players, which means that attendance dropped 23% in 2008. The eventual winner of the 2008 Legends of Poker will take home $1.1 million.
The top 36 spots will pay at the Los Angeles WPT event. Entering Day 2, which features the survivors from Days 1A and 1B, these were the top 10 chip stacks in the room:
Ali Eslami: 158,525
Adam Weinraub: 154,750
John Smith: 134,125
Freddy Deeb: 125,450
Armen Momjian: 116,700
Justin Scott: 107,325
Evan McNiff: 105,675
Neal Wang: 103,600
Steven Graham: 101,925
Sami Rustom: 101,100
Eslami has two World Poker Tour cashes which together total $20,505. He also finished in the money in the World Series of Poker Main Event in 2004 and 2007. Weinraub won the WPT Celebrity Invitational during Season V, taking home $100,000. Deeb is a two-time WSOP bracelet winner who won the $50,000 HORSE Championship in 2007 for well over $2 million, besting Bruno Fitoussi heads up.
Scott is also a WSOP bracelet winner. He took down a $2,000 buy-in No Limit event during the 2006 WSOP for $842,262. McNiff recorded his first three WSOP cashes in 2008; combined, they exceed $70,000. Wang finished fourth in a $5,000 buy-in no limit tournament during the 2005 World Series of Poker, cashing for $153,315.
Several extraordinary stories dominated discussion in the Bicycle Casino on Sunday. The first marked the peculiar exit of Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey. Regarded by many as the best all-around poker player in the world, Ivey pushed all in for 20,000 without even looking at his cards 30 minutes into the day’s play with blinds of 50-100. Unfortunately for Ivey, his 3-2 ran into pocket kings and he hit the exit. WPT live coverage gave no indication of what Ivey was in a hurry to leave for; the WSOP bracelet winner was the first casualty on Day 1B.
Another side story from Day 1B involved a $200 prop bet between Allen Cunningham and Phil Laak. Cunningham bet that Laak couldn’t juggle three apples for one minute, but Laak won the bet in the end. The WPT’s website explains the scene while the bet was being carried out: “Phil is in the corner yelling like a wild man, convulsing back and forth as he tries to pull off the task.”
Last year’s Legends of Poker event saw 1995 WSOP Main Event winner Dan Harrington defeat David “The Dragon” Pham to win $1.6 million. It was Harrington’s second WPT final table, as he finished as the runner up in the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship during Season IV. Pham has six career WPT final table appearances and has banked more than $1.8 million total.
Here is the final payout structure for the 2008 Legends of Poker, which is a $10,000 buy-in tournament:
1st Place: $1,116,428
2nd Place: $563,320
3rd Place: $281,645
4th Place: $246,450
5th Place: $211,245
6th Place: $176,035
7th Place: $140,830
8th Place: $105,620
9th Place: $70,415
10th through 12th: $42,250
13th through 15th: $35,205
16th through 18th: $28,165
19th through 27th: $21,125
28th through 36th: $14,085
Play continues on Monday with Day 2, which begins at 2:15pm PT. The champion of the 2008 WPT Legends of Poker will be crowned on Thursday night, August 28th. We’ll have all of the latest for you from the Legends of Poker on PokerNewsDaily.
