WPT: Legends of Poker Day 1B RecapThe Official Number of Players Stands at 373 |
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Day 1B at the 2008 World Poker Tour Legends of Poker attracted the lion’s share of players in the field, with 212 buying in for $10,000. When combined with the participants from day 1A, the total number of competitors in the tournament stood at 373. This was 112 players less than 2007, a 23 percent reduction in the tournament field. The winner of the event will still become millionaire (or add to their millions) when they take home the $1,091,428 first-place prize on Thursday, Aug. 28.
Many big-name players were in the field today, including Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Michael Binger, Freddy Deeb, Kathy Liebert, Scott Clements, David Chiu, David Williams, Allen Cunningham, Barry Greenstein, and Daniel Negreanu. One big-name player spent a very short time in the field today. Phil Ivey open-shoved blind with 4-3 and then 3-2 right out of the gate in an attempt to double up for the day to survive getting blinded off, because he had somewhere he had to be for a few hours. The open-shove with 3-2 did not go so well for Ivey, as he ran into pocket kings and was bounced from the tournament just minutes into the first level. He finished off the $10,000 chicken and rice he had ordered when he sat down and then left the tournament area.
The table that Ivey left was table 21. Another early casualty at that table was Daniel Alaei. Quality players took Ivey and Alaei's places though, and any time a seat opened up at that table for the rest of the day, another pro was moved over. Here is what the seating chart looked like during level 4 of the day:
Seat 1: Phil Laak
Seat 2: Brian Rast
Seat 3: Robert Cheung
Seat 4: Van Tuyet Nguyen
Seat 5: Maria Ho
Seat 6: Benjamin Arnold
Seat 7: David Williams
Seat 8: Allen Cunningham
Seat 9: Michael Binger
Even later in the evening when players would bust from this table, strong professional players were moved in. Williams hit the rail late in level 4, and Kathy Liebert was moved over to take his seat. Other players that joined Williams, Alaei, and Ivey on the rail during day 1B included Justin Bonomo, Jennifer Tilly, Jean-Robert Bellande, Scott Clements, Theo Tran, and Amir Vahedi. Ferguson survived late into the day, but he busted out of the tournament when his straight draw failed to improve against his opponent’s pocket queens that had flopped a set. A few minutes after he was eliminated, Ferguson admitted that he was unable to get any momentum started throughout the day. Griffin was another late elimination on day 1B.
Throughout day 1B, Ali Eslami found his chip stack healthy, and he was the first player to eclipse the 100,000 mark. By the end of the night, he had built that up even farther to 168,500. Others that had crept up to the top of the leader board included Maria Ho, Mark Seif, Greenstein, and Deeb.
The approximately 140 players that survived day 1B will now join the 106 players that made it to the end of day 1A for day 2 tomorrow at 2 p.m. Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for another six levels of poker action in live updates, chips counts, pictures, and videos from the Bicycle Casino.
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