Fresh off the conclusion of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series over the weekend, the entire poker world will turn to The Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, California, to partake of the 2008 Legends of Poker, a World Poker Tour event. The Legends of Poker will be filmed as part of the seventh season of the WPT, which will air for the first time on Fox Sports Net, and it is one of the most storied events that takes place every year on the tournament series circuit. Past winners of the Legends of Poker have included some of the biggest names in the poker world.
Last year’s Legends of Poker event was won by Dan Harrington, a two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner who won the Main Event in 1995 for $1 million, at the time one of the largest poker prizes ever handed out. Harrington won his first bracelet in a $2,500 No Limit event, also in 1995, and he took fourth in the 2004 Main Event for $1.5 million. Donning his trademark green baseball cap, Harrington bested a final table in 2007 in Los Angeles that included Tom Schneider and David “The Dragon” Pham, whom he beat heads up.
During Season V of the World Poker Tour, Joe Pelton – a youngster who made his first WSOP final table this year – beat out a star-studded final table that included poker stars Hoyt Corkins and Scotty Nguyen; while the latter took down the $50,000 HORSE event in the 2008 WSOP, the Prince of Poker is a five-time WSOP bracelet winner. The Season IV final table was won by Alex Kahaner, who defeated Kenna James heads up. Others at the final table that year included Tim Phan and Todd Phillips.
In 2004, the Legends of Poker tournament at The Bike was won by a true legend of poker, Doyle Brunson, who came back from a chip deficit heads up to defeat Lee Watkinson. At the time, Watkinson was one of the young guns on the World Poker Tour, showing down against the Texas Dolly, poker’s elder statesman. It was an epic battle of the ages and occurred right at the beginning of the poker boom in the United States. For many, it was the first time they had been exposed to Doyle Brunson’s poker abilities.
The 2003 Legends of Poker tournament represented the final year that this hallmark WPT tournament would be played before the onslaught of amateur poker players attacked the poker world. At the end of the day, Mel Judah, a two-time WSOP bracelet winner, beat Paul Phillips, who piled up earnings from the “dot com” boom several years before. The rest of the cast included T.J. Cloutier, Chip Jett, Farzad Bonyadi and Phil “The Unabomber” Laak.
The inaugural WPT Legends of Poker was won by Chris Karagulleyan, who beat out a final table that included Hon Le, Stan Goldstein, Mark Seif, Can Kim Hua and Kathy Liebert. Karagulleyan knocked out both Le and Liebert to win.
Here’s a look at the schedule for the Main Event of the Legends of Poker, which is a $10,000 buy-in tournament:
Day 1A: Saturday, August 23rd at 2:15pm PT
Day 1B: Sunday, August 24 at 2:15pm PT
Day 2: Monday, August 25 at 12:00pm PT
Day 3: Tuesday, August 26th at 2:15pm PT
Day 4: Wednesday, August 27th at 2:15pm PT
Final Table: Thursday, August 28th at 4:00pm PT
