WPT Legends of Poker Day 1A Small Field of 279 Players Creates a Prize Pool worth $2,625,500 |
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When registration came to a close on day 1 of the $10,000 World Poker Tour no-limit hold’em championship event at the 2009 Legends of Poker the final tally stood at 279 players. That made the total prize pool for the event $2,625,500, and the eventual champion will walk away with $1,009,000. Last year’s field of 373 had been cut down by more than a fourth though, raising some questions about which players didn’t make it down to the Bicycle Casino.
Interestingly, none of the former seven champions in this event showed up. Chris Karagulleyan, Mel Judah, Doyle Brunson, Alex Kahaner, Joe Pelton and Dan Harrington were all no-shows. Even last year’s champion and reigning Card Player Player of the Year John Phan failed to attend. Even though the size of the field was down, the brand new event center at the Bicycle Casino shined after a renovation was completed earlier this summer.
Because of the small field size the tournament staff decided to reduce the number of levels during the day from six down to five. At the end of the fifth level just 180 players remained. Lost along the way during the first day of the tournament were Carlos Mortensen, Ali Eslami, Beth Shak, Shannon Shorr, Tom Schneider, Joe Sebok, Kathy Liebert, Haralabos Voulgaris, Cornel Cimpan, Michael Binger, Tim Phan, Nenad Medic, Jimmy Fricke, Barry Greenstein, David Williams, and current Card Player POY leader Eric Baldwin.
The chip leader at the end of play was November Nine finalist Steven Begleiter, who held 235,000 to pace the field in his first WPT tournament appearance. Begleiter eliminated an opponent when he rivered a full house to start his rise to the top with 180,000. He then busted Tim Phan with two kings in the hole to climb well above 200,000. Here is a look at the top 10 chip counts at the end of day 1:
| Rank | Player Name | Chip Count |
| 1 | Steven Begleiter | 235,275 |
| 2 | Alex Golshanara | 135,025 |
| 3 | Tommy Vedes | 124,725 |
| 4 | Eugene Katchalov | 124,150 |
| 5 | Sam Stein | 112,250 |
| 6 | Markus Gonsalves | 108,600 |
| 7 | Matt Marafioti | 107,500 |
| 8 | Eddie Ngo | 105,000 |
| 9 | Mike Krescanko | 104,950 |
| 10 | Toto Leonidas | 90,525 |
Here is a look at the total payout list for the tournament:
1: $1,009,000
2: $471,670
3: $231,300
4: $144,260
5: $116,225
6: $89,220
7: $64,400
8: $52,320
9: $39,240
10-12: $32,700
13-15: $26,160
16-18: $22,240
19-27: $18,285
The remaining players in the event will return to the Bike at 3 p.m. PDT tomorrow to play five more levels of poker. Check back in at CardPlayer.com for all of the action, featuring live updates, chip counts, and photos, as well as videos on CardPlayer TV.
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