After a flurry of activity on Saturday, the World Poker Tour’s stop at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, CA, for the Legends of Poker smashed through last year’s total entries, finally ending at 669 buy ins. Along the way, a new overall leader for the three Day Ones was crowned in Fabrice Touli.
Even from the start of action on Saturday, it was obvious that the players were coming out of the woodwork for their shot at the first WPT Season XII championship on American soil. 255 players were on the floor of the Bike at the start of the Day 1C action (larger than either of the first two Day Ones), including several players who had already taken shots in the previous Day Ones but had come up short. Dan O’Brien, Taylor Paur, Gavin Griffin, Athanasios Polychronopoulos, Ali Eslami, Sam Barnhart, Ray Qartomy and a host of other notable names were firing at least their second bullet in the tournament, which would make them have to go deep to break even in the event.
Along with those players who had been on the Bike’s felt over the previous two days, there were some new faces in the crowd for Day 1C. Allen Cunningham, Liz Lieu and defending champion Josh Hale were a few of those who decided to take their shot at the latest WPT championship and Hale looked to do well early on. He doubled up through an opponent when, holding pocket tens, he flopped quads on a K-10-10-8-K board and was paid off when his opponent held A-K.
There were others, however, for whom the Legends of Poker has been a nightmare. Polychronopoulos was one of those players, firing a bullet for each day of the three starting days, but he wouldn’t make it out of the Day 1C action. Jeff Gross, Tuan Le and Chris DeMaci would all take the long walk to the exits of the Bike but, for those who were able to stick around, they got additional info on what is in store for those who drive deep in the event.
Another 328 entries came to the tables on Saturday for the Legends of Poker, pushing the total entry count to 669. This outpaced the performance for last year’s tournament (622 entries) and set the prize pool at slightly more than $2.3 million. There is another wrinkle yet (more on that in a bit) before the actual prize pool and payout list will be released, however.
By the end of the night, Touli had been able to fashion the largest Day One stack of anyone in the tournament and the other players on the Day 1C Top Ten could put their stake down in making a deep run in the event:
1. Fabrice Touli, 272,400
2. Ryan Goindoo, 269,000
3. David Tuchman, 190,400
4. David Daneshgar, 178,500
5. Steve Kelly, 176,800
6. Taylor Hemme, 170,500
7. Lev Rofman, 170,200
8. Mark Makaryan, 166,500
9. Ki-Joon Nam, 165,500
10. Scotty Nguyen, 159,400
Others making it through the Day 1C carnage include 2013 WSOP Championship Event November Niner Ryan Riess, Dan Heimiller, David ‘Doc’ Sands (after three days’ worth of effort), Paul Volpe, Lieu and Cunningham.
With his monstrous stack, Touli will enjoy the distinction of being the overall chip leader when the cards fly this afternoon at the Bike:
1. Fabrice Touli, 272,400
2. Ryan Goindoo, 269,000
3. Barry Hutter, 212,400*
4. Nick Phoenix, 207,700*
5. David Tuchman, 190,400
6. Joseph Cheong, 188,100*
7. David Daneshgar, 178,500
8. Steve Kelly, 176,800
9. Christopher Richter, 176,500**
10. Parvis Sayyad, 175,400**
* – Day 1A player ** – Day 1B player
The 124 players who survived Day 1C will now join together with the 135 runners from the previous Day Ones to create a Day Two field of 259 players. But the actual size of this afternoon’s field hasn’t quite been determined as of yet. There will be a “last chance” re-entry before play starts on Sunday at 1PM (Pacific Time), which will allow players to get another 30K stack of chips to attempt to get deep in the tournament. The current chip average is 77,490 so, with some fortune, a “last chance” entry still does have the opportunity to make an impact on the event.
Along with action in Barcelona, Spain for the European Poker Tour’s first stop of Season Ten, the WPT’s Legends of Poker truly signify that poker has emerged from its post-WSOP slumber. By Wednesday, we will know the champion of the first WPT Season XII tournament on American soil.