In the World Poker Tour (WPT) Legends of Poker, two members of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine are dominating, as Steven Begleiter and Kevin Schaffel sit in the top three in chips.
Heading into Day 4 on Tuesday, Todd Terry leads the way with a stack of 850,000. Right behind him is Schaffel, who owns 728,000. Schaffel will claim the sixth largest chip stack when play resumes in November in the 2009 WSOP Main Event. He helped his cause in the Legends of Poker on Monday by knocking off Nick Schulman in 27th place. Schulman pushed pre-flop with pocket jacks, but ran into Schaffel’s pocket aces. The flop came ace-high and running jacks failed to come on the turn and river, sending Schulman home $18,000 richer for his efforts.
Begleiter will come armed to Tuesday’s play with a stack of 617,000, good for third place. Begleiter dropped a sizable pot to Toto Leonidas late in the day. On a board of J-10-10-2-2, Begleiter led out for 55,000 and Leonidas made the call, exposing pocket aces. Begleiter tossed his cards into the muck, giving Leonidas the chip lead. Leonidas then promptly doubled up Carter “ckingusc” King holding A-8 against King’s 10-9.
Bryan Devonshire was the chip leader with 27 players to go until his fortunes turned sour. On the money bubble, Devonshire doubled up David Demanski. On a flop of A-J-6, Demanski pushed with A-Q and Devonshire tanked before finally making the call with A-4. The turn and river came a three and eight, respectively, allowing Demanski to double up and hold the 13th largest stack entering play on Tuesday.
Shortly thereafter, Devonshire, a top online poker player, doubled up Matt Marafioti after coming out on the short end of a race with A-Q against Marafioti’s pocket jacks. The flop came A-J-6, giving Marafioti a set and Devonshire top pair. The board filled out 3-8, sending Devonshire’s chip stack down to 400,000. After Schulman was eliminated in 27th place, Devonshire was the next to go. He was all-in holding 10-8 of diamonds on an all-diamond flop. However, Terry held A-7 of the suit for the nut flush. Devonshire had gone from chip leader with 27 to go to railbird in the span of just 90 minutes.
Here’s a look at the 24 remaining players in the WPT Legends of Poker:
1. Todd Terry – 850,000
2. Kevin Schaffel – 728,000
3. Steven Begleiter – 617,000
4. Corwin Mackey – 609,000
5. Eugene Katchalov – 592,000
6. Bob Lauria – 534,000
7. Toto Leonidas – 456,000
8. Sam Stein – 452,000
9. Prahlad Friedman – 451,000
10. Matt Marafioti – 388,000
11. Tony Gargano – 342,000
12. Matt Widdoes – 312,000
13. David Demanski – 300,000
14. Mike Krescanko – 277,000
15. Thu Nguyen – 277,000
16. Sergei Veytser – 255,000
17. Kia Mohajeri – 215,000
18. Eric Hershler – 180,000
19. Vigen Manukyan – 168,000
20. Steven Chao – 164,000
21. Carter King – 119,000
22. Richard Sciuto – 108,000
23. Stan Jablonski – 92,000
24. Peter Rho – 60,000
Day 4 starts today at 3:00pm PT and will conclude when the final six-handed table is determined. Each player remaining is assured at least $18,000 for their $10,000 investment, with a top prize of $1 million up for grabs. Blinds were 3,000-6,000 with a 500 ante when play halted on Monday night, meaning Rho, the tournament’s short-stack, had 10 big blinds to work with.
News of the sale of the WPT’s parent company to a subsidiary of Party Gaming floated through the Bicycle Casino’s Events Center before play began. However, PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Court Harrington told Poker News Daily that the mood was upbeat and many of the players were unaware of the sale, the second in three weeks for WPT officials.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the WPT Legends of Poker.