Day 1A

Prop Bets and Late Stall Tactics Rule Day 1A at the Bike 

Legends of Poker - Day 1A Recap

Day 1A of the Legends of Poker event at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, California, began at 2 p.m. today. The first flight of the tournament attracted 219 players and they played six levels of poker into the night. This included the 2006 champion, Joe Pelton who was poised to defend his title. The early afternoon saw the exits of three notable women players in close succession. Vanessa Rousso, Kathy Liebert, and Mimi Tran all made early exits and they were soon joined by Jared Hamby, Max Pescatori and the 2006 LA Poker Classic champion, Eric Hershler. 

The most entertainment during day 1A was found at the table that featured Raymond Davis and Burt Boutin. The two started an epic prop-bet battle by betting on the horse races that were on live feed in the tournament room. Davis jumped into a quick lead as quite a few $100 bills made a one-way trip to Boutin. Davis remarked at one point, "I'm going to get my buy-in back," and let out a hearty laugh. During the races the two players kept one eye on the felt and one towards the television. Davis gave a hilarious running dialogue on the action. “He’s way behind; you need binoculars to see him. I think he’s running the wrong way," remarked Davis. The two then turned to betting on the colors of cards, on the flop, turn, and river. At one point Boutin misplayed a hand because he was so focused on the prop bets. When the table between Boutin and Davis finally broke, Boutin had mounted a comeback that was capitalized by a $200 win on the final hand.

Back at the felt, as level four began, 160 players were left in the field and Toto Leonidas and Alan Goehring were lost along the way. One player tried to take his cards with him when he was eliminated:

A short stacked player is all in with [AcAs] against Steve Sung's [QdJh]. The board comes [KhQh10sQs10c], and the player with aces starts to celebrate. The dealer mucks his hand, and explains to him that Sung's full house is the winner. The man becomes visibly upset, and grabs his aces off the table. He says, "I'm keeping these!" and storms out of the poker room, cards in hand. After he exits, the table, which includes Shannon Shorr and “Miami” John Cernuto, burst into laughter. Security staff eventually tracked the man down, and returned the aces to the deck.

Allen Cunningham then took one of the worst beats of the day on this hand:

After a flop of [Qs8h2d], Allen Cunningham bets 2,500 from early position, the player to his left folds, and the player in seat four calls. The turn card is the [As], Cunningham checks, his opponent bets 3,500, and Cunningham calls. The river card is the [Jd], Cunningham checks, his opponent bets 4,000, and Cunningham calls. His opponent shows [Kd10h] to win the pot with a runner-runner straight. Cunningham briefly flashes his cards before he mucks, but says he had top two pair, aces and queens. After the hand, Cunningham is down to about 9,700.

As the day played on many players began to grow their stacks on pivotal hands. Peter Neff and Steve Sung were the first to jump into the 100 grand club, but they were joined later in the night by Nick Cassavetes, Brian Powell, and Anna Wroblewski. Raymond Davis was flirting with the line as well with a healthy 95,000 to his name:

With the board showing [Ah5h3sAc] on the turn, a player is all in against Raymond Davis. Davis says, "Full house," and his opponent slumps and says, "I flopped a straight." Davis confidently says, "I knew you flopped a straight." The meaningless river card is the [3c], and Davis wins the pot with fives full of aces, busting his opponent and catapulting near the top of the leader board with 85,500 in chips.

Late-night bust outs included Hoyt Corkins, Scott Clements, Shannon Shorr, Justin Bonomo and Joe Pelton. The crippling blow to the defending champion was an especially painful experience:

Pelton moved all in for his last 13,900 and seat three goes into the tank. She ponders her decision for a moment and then makes the all-in call. Pelton turns over pocket aces and she shows down pocket tens. The board rolls out [KcKs5d8h10s] and the table collectively gasps on the river. Pelton now has only 1,800 remaining.

The end of the day featured one of the most bizarre occurrences in tournament poker this year. The amateurs were obviously stalling and the professionals were not happy, most notably David Pham and Ted Lawson at table 12. The tournament clock was then paused to announce hand-for-hand play would be implemented, but this was met by an uproar from the tournament field. It was then ruled that table 12, where all the stalling took place would play five more hands, while the rest of the field played their final minute and 30 seconds. The table continued to play as the rest of the field bagged up their chips.

When the dust settled Steve Sung was the chip leader with 147,200 and 88 players remained. These players will return on Monday, August 27 to join the remaining players from day 1B, which begins tomorrow at 2 p.m.

Day 1B

Pros Come Out of the Woodwork For Day 1B at the Bike

Legends of Poker Day 1B Recap

By BJ Nemeth

The 2007 <i>Legends of Poker</i> started Day 1B looking for a larger field than 2006, which featured 460 players. Play began today with about that many, but by the time registration ended after the first level a total of 485 players entered this event -- beating last year's field by 25 players.

Shortly after registration closed, the players finally learned what they'd be playing for -- a total prizepool of $4,607,500, with a top prize of $1.6 million. The top 45 finishers would earn at least $16,005, and everyone who makes the WPT final table will win at least $137,175. But that's all in the future, because nobody will likely reach the money until Tuesday. First, these players need to survive Sunday.

It only took a quick glance at today's field to see a big difference from the day before -- most tables were stacked with multiple big name pros. It's actually easier to list who <i>didn't</i> play today: both Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey were no-shows in this event. They weren't missed, however, with players from Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth to Scotty Nguyen and Jamie Gold to Cyndy Violette and Kristy Gazes to Tom Schneider and Men 'The Master' Nguyen to Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok. The field was rounded out by Vinny Vinh, who seemed to be in good health, although he was eliminated in the middle of the day.

Even in this field, Table #21 stood out from the rest:

TABLE #21
Seat 1 - Chris McCormack
Seat 2 - Joe Deniro
Seat 3 - Jonas Entin
Seat 4 - Nicolas Mlouk
Seat 5 - <b>Gavin Smith</b>
Seat 6 - <b>Mary Jones</b> <i>(2006 WSOP Ladies Champ)</i>
Seat 7 - <b>Mike Matusow</b>
Seat 8 - Albertin Hernandez
Seat 9 - <b>Jerry Yang</b>
Seat 10 - <b>Erick Lindgren</b>

Gavin Smith eliminated Mary Jones in the first few minutes, jumping to an early chip lead with 40,000 in chips, and immediately settling into his trademark loose-aggressive style.

We didn't get much of a look at Jerry Yang in his first major tournament after his victory in the WSOP Main Event -- he busted early in the day. Many poker pundits have been wondering how Yang would handle his role as poker's new champion, and it's a good sign that we saw him in the first major post-WSOP tournament. The players at his table were as curious as everyone else, and the table chatter covered a variety of topics, including his large charitable donations.

Doyle Brunson played today, along with his daughter Pam, who won the ladies tournament last week. With that victory, the daughter of poker's patriarch will fill the open seat on Friday night for the filming of WPT Ladies Night V. Both Brunsons survived Day 1B in good shape, with 24,600 for Doyle and 63,600 for Pam.

Kevin O'Donnell has really made a name for himself at the Legends of Poker tournament the past two years, finishing 6th in 2005 and 4th in 2006. He played today and, true to form for this tournament, finished the day fourth in the chip counts with 127,000.

O'Donnell was one of 103 players to survive Day 1B. Here are the top 10 chipleaders from today's play, along with a few other notables with above-average chip counts. (The average chip count is 50,785).

1. Francois Safieddine - 165,400
2. Jordan Morgan - 153,900
3. Alfred Megrabyan - 136,100
4. Tom Schneider - 128,300
5. Kevin O'Donnell - 127,000
6. Ali Sarkeshar - 123,700
7. Thu Nguyen - 116,400
8. Tuan Le - 116,400
9. Kia Hamadani - 108,800
10. Theo Tran - 102,400

Barry Shulman - 77,400
Haralabos Voulgaris - 75,000
Pam Brunson - 63,600
Mike Wattel - 56,600
Kenny Tran - 56,000
Young Phan - 55,300
Men 'The Master' Nguyen - 52,800
Joe Sebok - 51,000

Day 2 will start tomorrow with all 191 survivors from both day ones, and the combined field should get close to the money bubble -- 45 players. With the average chip count at 50,785, here are the top 10 chipleaders for the start of Day 2:

1. Francois Safieddine - 165,400
2. Jerome Mangum - 157,800
3. Jordan Morgan - 153,900
4. Steve Sung - 147,200
5. Brian Powell - 138,500
6. Alfred Megrabyan - 136,100
7. Tom Schneider - 128,300
8. Kevin O'Donnell - 127,000
9. Nick Cassavetes - 124,000
10. Ali Sarkeshar - 123,700

Return to WorldPokerTour.com on Monday at 2:00 pm PST for continuing live coverage of all the action.

Day 2

In a quiet corner of the Bicycle Casino, day two of the Legends of Poker played out as the antithesis of the World Series of Poker. The first major tournament since hoards of poker fanatics descended upon the circuit, Legends produced a focused group of name professionals that batted until 53 were left standing. Flurries of action were set between long periods of calm, and numerous pros fell early.

Men Nguyen was the first to fall, when he moved all in on a board [KcJc2h]. Brandon Grevlich insta-called and tabled [2c2d]for bottom set. Men’s [AhKs] did not improve and he was sent packing. Noah Schwartz, Mike Matusow, Gavin Smith, Barry Shulman, Scotty Nguyen, Mario Silvestri, Jon Little and Doyle Brunson were all eliminated shortly thereafter. Haralabos Voulgaris was also eliminated in spectacular fashion. In what was the largest hand at the time Dutch Boyd raised to 6,000 from late position and Voulgaris smooth called from the cutoff. Todd Phillips called on the button, and the flop came [Kd10d8h]. Boyd led for 9,000 and Voulgaris reraised to 40,000. Phillips mucked, and Boyd moved all in for 144,900. Voulgaris insta-called and tabled 10-10 for middle set, but he was drawing to only one out when Boyd showed down the monstrous K-K. The next two cards came [5h7d], and Boyd just had Voulgaris covered.  This sent Voulgaris to the rail and gave Boyd the chip lead at the time.  He survived the day, and ended with $244,000 in chips.

It turned out to be a bad day to have chips early, as big stacks Tuan Le and Francois Safieddine were also eliminated. Safieddine started the day with 165,000 was eventually eliminated by Barry Greenstein, who nursed a short stack for most of the day. Safieddine was eliminated when he was all in with [7h6h] against Greenstein’s 3-3 on a board of [6s4h3h]. Greenstein’s set held when the board ran [Ad6c] and he was up to 130,000, finally above average. Joe Sebok wandered over from his seat, shocked to see Barry with so many chips. "What happened? I walked by a few minutes ago and you had like 20,000." Barry replied, "I had three good hands in a row." Greenstein ended the day with 383,500.

Tuan Le started the day with 116,400 and plagued his table with a hyper-aggressive style. He chipped up early and looked to be unstoppable.  The poker gods proved they could give and take away, and by 9 p.m., Tuan was eliminated.  In his final hand, Tuan got it all in with [QcQh] on a [Qs10c7s6s] board. Adam Geyer showed [AsKc] for the flush draw and the gutshot straight draw. The river brought the 3s and the table went silent. A stunned Tuan streaked out of the room while Geyer sheepishly collected the stacks of chips to his right. That hand brought Geyer to 400,000 and he would finish with the chip lead at 505,000.

Many big names still remain in the field of 53, including “Miami” John Cernuto, Joe Sebok, Gavin Griffin, Dutch Boyd, Tom Schneider, and David Pham. The field will be whittled down to 18 tomorrow. 

Day 3

Joe Sebok Rises to the Top
Legends of Poker Day 3 Recap

Fifty-three players returned for their third day of play, but only 45 would leave the Bicycle Casino with something to show for their efforts. After half an hour of quiet, methodical play around the money bubble, the action opened up and the players started dropping like flies. 

Mari Lou Morelli went out on the first bad beat of the day. On a flop of [As8s3s], Morelli moved all in and was called by James Dowdy. Dowdy showed [Ah7h] but was behind to Morelli's [Ad9h]. The turn gave Dowdy outs for a chop when the [3c] hit the felt. But the river was a cruel [7s] sending Morelli to the rail out of the money.

With 47 players remaining, two pros got involved in a huge hand that would leave one devastated and the other with the chip lead. After a series of preflop raises resulting in a 155,000 pot, Mike Wattel moved all in for $160,000 more. Lee Markholt went into the tank for several minutes while Wattel sat motionless. Eventually, Markholt stated that he must call, getting almost 2-1 odds on his money. He tabled [AcKh] and Wattel showed [QcQs] stating he didn't want to be in this position. The board came [Js4c3h6dKc], and Markholt spiked a king on the river to win the massive pot, and eliminate Wattel just short of the money. Wattel stormed out of the tournament area, devastated by the end result.
 
The bubble would burst after only a few rounds of hand-for-hand play. The action moved around to Steve Kerman in the small blind, who pushed all in for 72,000. Joe Sebok insta-called and had Kerman out chipped by only a few thousand. Kerman showed [Qd10d] and Sebok showed pocket aces.  The flop came [QcJs9d] giving Kerman several outs, but the turn and river came [6h4h], making Kerman the unfortunate bubble boy.

Once the bubble burst, the eliminations came at a rapid rate and many well-known professionals were among the casualties, including David Daneshgar (45th), Josh Arieh (44th), Minh “PokerHost” Nguyen (41st) and Steve Brecher (37th).
 
Anna Wroblewski, the lone remaining female participant, ran into some bad luck to finish in 42nd place. She raised from late position to 24,000 and Brian Powell moved all in from the button for 165,000. Wroblewski called all in with [KcKd] and Powell showed [Ah10s]. The board came [AcAd7dQs3s], and Powell flopped trip aces to eliminate Wroblewski. As she started to collect her things she said, "I never win with that hand."
With four tables left Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok were moved to the same table.  But the father-son final table wasn’t mean to be when Greenstein was eliminated in 31st place.  Barry Greenstein raised to 25,000 from the cutoff and Gavin Griffin reraised to 75,000 from the button. Greenstein called all in showing [QcJc] and Griffin showed [10s10c]. The board came [AhAc2cAsKs] and Sebok was left fatherless at the table.
 
Other notables to finish in the money included David Chiu (35th), Justin “looshle” Pechie (34th), Jordan “iMsoLucky0” Morgan (33rd), Dutch Boyd (30th), Peter “number1pen” Neff (29th), “Miami” John Cernuto (27th), and Adam “Csimmsux” Geyer (24th).

Gavin Griffin had an up and down day.  After eliminating Captain Tom Franklin, Griffin had a massive chip lead on the rest of the field. But Griffin got unusually cold decked to drop down to one of the short stacks. As the day winded down, Griffin pushed all in for his last 95,000 from under the gun, and Joe Sebok moved all in behind him. Griffin tabled [Kh3h] but was dominated by Sebok's [AsKc]. The board ran out [Ac5c2d8s8d], and Sebok's hand held up to put him over the 1 million chip mark. Griffin was sent to the rail in 20th place.
 
Eighteen players will return tomorrow to battle down to a six-handed World Poker Tour final table.  Here are the remaining players and their chip counts:

Table 13
Seat 1 – Mike Jung – 191,000
Seat 2 – Thu Nguyen – 490,000
Seat 3 – Franco Brunetti – 218,000
Seat 4 – Mike McClain – 684,000
Seat 5 – Lee Markholt – 873,000
Seat 6 – Raymond Davis – 539,000
Seat 7 – Brian Powell – 248,000
Seat 8 – Shi Jia Liu – 476,000
Seat 9 – Joe Sebok – 1,057,000

Table 17
Seat 1 – Peter Feldman – 853,000
Seat 2 – Dan Harrington – 370,000
Seat 3 – Robert Goldfarb – 296,000
Seat 4 – David Pham – 1,007,000
Seat 5 – Don Zewin – 378,000
Seat 6 – Sean McCabe – 183,000
Seat 7 – Wayne Chang – 281,000
Seat 8 – Tom Schneider – 803,000
Seat 9 – Billy Pilossoph –788,000

Day 4

Legends of Poker Day 4 Recap

Eighteen players were vying for six spots at day four of the 2007 World Poker Tour Legends of Poker. The theme of the day was survival, and whoever had the correct combination of skill and well-timed luck would persevere. Aggression was in the air as the shorts stacks tried to double up and the large stacks continued to press their advantage. Wayne Chang fell in the first 15 minutes of the day when his pocket nines ran into the pocket kings of Dan Harrington.

Mike Jung fell in 17th place and Franco Brunetti
exited in 16th place. Joe Sebok was riding high at the start of the day with over $1 million. He further increased his chip lead to as high as $1.7 million before falling back to earth. He was doubled up through twice during the second level of the day, first by Thu Nguyen to take him down to 1 million, and then by Shi Jia Liu, to take him down to 530,000. What had looked like a surefire WPT final table appearance for the young star was now going to be a fight to the finish.

Robert Goldfarb and Don Zewin were sent to the rail in 15th place and 14th place respectively. That was when, for the second time of the day, a solid professional won hue a pot against Feldman to jump to the top of the leader board. This time the results were fatal for Feldman, who was eliminated in 13th place.

After disposing of Feldman, Schneider was up to 1,950,000 and had claimed the chip lead. Sean McCabe was the next to fall in 12th place. He was fighting on a short stack all day and was surprised he even made it to the fourth day of the tournament. “I'm obviously disappointed I didn't go deeper, but I have to be happy with my performance. I never really had any monster hands or situations where I could really play my game, so to last this long is quite the accomplishment,” said McCabe. His elimination was followed in quick succession by the departures of Brian Powell in 11th place and Raymond Davis in 10th place. Davis had not only been the life of the party on day four of the event, but the whole time with his witty comments and the prop-bet-palooza he had ongoing with many competitors. With the comedic relief of the event gone, the final nine players grabbed their chips and united at the final table to focus on the task at hand.

Seat 1: William Pilossoph - 885,000
Seat 2: Shi Jia Liu - 476,000
Seat 3: Dan Harrington - 863,000
Seat 4: Tom Schneider - 1,920,000
Seat 5: Lee Markholt - 673,000
Seat 6: Thu Nguyen - 1,780,000
Seat 7: David Pham - 1,394,000
Seat 8: Mike McClain - 1,195,000
Seat 9: Joe Sebok - 520,000

This is the point of the day where action hit the wall. Chips were obtained and lost through pre-flop positioning for the blinds. Action was far and few between as play tightened up with the final prize so close to realization. Almost three hours after the elimination of Davis, another professional’s tournament was over:

Markholt raised to 70,000 from middle position and Mike McClain reraised to 250,000. Markholt moved all in, and McClain insta-called. Markholt said, "This is the best hand I've seen all day," and turned over pocket queens. McClain quietly showed down pocket aces and had Markholt dominated. Any suspense was eliminated on the flop when it came [Ah3c3d], giving McClain aces full. Markholt turned the [Qs], giving him a one outer draw to the [Qc], but the river brought the [4c] to sending Markholt to the rail in ninth place.
Action chugged along for another large block of time, with many players doubling up along the way, and the chips made the rounds from one stack to another around the table. Then the action kicked into high gear, and the Dragon was the master of ceremonies. He got knocked down to 335,000, but Pham doubled up to climb back to respectability. He then let the fireworks fly on a hand, where he took down a 1.2 million pot, despite not one player moving all in. On the very next hand after that, Pham found himself in the mix with Schneider:

Nguyen bet 120,000 (UTG+1). Pham raised to 300,000 total (UTG+2) and Schneider moved all in for exactly 1 million under the gun. Nguyen folded after a few minutes of pondering and action was now on Pham, who was still stacking his chips from the massive pot he won on the prior hand. He had more than enough chips to call, and even pulled out an additional $10 bill to cover the $7 Schneider had out on the table. "I'll lay you odds," said Pham. The two players then went back and forth in a running dialogue:

Pham: "Two aces?"
Schneider: "Do I need two aces?"
Pham: "Yes."
Schneider: "Then I better have a beer then."

Pham eventually folded his hand and left two red jacks face up on the table. He then offered Schneider the $10 from their side bet to see his cards.

While all of this madness was going on, Dan Harrington doubled up and quietly built his stack to take the chip lead. The calculating, methodical, unnoticed way that he accomplished this feat was an ample reflection of his personal demeanor. After scoring the large pot off of Pham, Schneider joined Harrington atop the leader board in the 2 million dollar club. That was when Billy Pilossoph’s day ended when he was eliminated in eighth place by Nguyen. His A-6 was dominated by the A-K of Nguyen, and the board provided no assistance. A few more hands ensued and then the final hand of the night brought an abrupt end to the evening.

Sebok raised to 120,000 from middle position and was reraised by Schneider out of the small blind. Sebok moved all in, and Schneider called. Sebok tabled pocket queens, and Schneider showed [AsJs]. Sebok retained the lead on the flop when it came [6h5s2h]. However the turn brought a crushing [Ac], and Sebok was drawing to two outs. The river was a brick when it came [10s], and Sebok was sent to the rail in seventh place. A sick silence spread throughout the room and disappointment was written across Sebok’s face as he left the room. Many may remember that Sebok was also the television bubble boy at the 2006 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star and the sting of this repeat effect hung heavy in the room. After this development on the bubble, the final six were set and play ended for the night. They will return tomorrow at 5 p.m. to play for the $1,634,865 and the title of Legends of Poker champion.

Here is how things will look tomorrow evening:
Seat 1 - Shi Jia Liu - 1,305,000
Seat 2 - Dan Harrington - 2,230,000
Seat 3 - Tom Schneider - 3,495,000
Seat 4 - Thu Nguyen - 1,475,000
Seat 5 - David “The Dragon” Pham - 470,000
Seat 6 - Mike McClain - 725,000