World Poker Tour -- Legends of Poker Day 1A186 Players Start the Tournament on the First Day of Play |
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Day 1A at the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker $5,000 no-limit hold’em main event began at 1 p.m on Friday, August 20. A total of 186 players joined the action on the first day offered and at the end of the night 90 remained.
Notable professionals that hit the rail during the day included David Pham, David Baker, Dwyte Pilgrim, Billy Baxter, Bruce Buffer, Faraz Jaka, Justin Smith, Lauren Kling, Soheil Shamseddin, Greg Mueller, Jimmy Tran, Hasan Habib (pictured right), and Jerry Yang. Habib hung on for most the day, but he fell in a big hand during the last level of the day.
Seat 9 limped in early position and Franco Brunetti and Steve Brecher also limped before Habib raised all in for his final 6,000 preflop. Seat 9 reraised to 15,000 and Brunetti made the call. Brecher mucked and then both live players checked the flop of Q
10
5
. The turn brought the 5
and seat 9 checked. Brunetti bet and his opponent made the call. The river fell 8 and Seat 9 checked. Brunetti moved all in for 16,000 and his opponent made the call after some thought. Their cards:
Habib: 10 10
Brunetti: Q Q
Seat 9: A A
Habib was eliminated on the hand while Brunetti grew his stack above 100,000. He increased his stack to 124,575 by the end of play, good for fifth chip-position.
Many professionals have survived to day 2 which will take place on Sunday. They include Maria Ho, Chris Moore, Ali Eslami, Dan O’Brien, Phil Collins, Jason Mercier, Steve Brecher, Kristy Gazes, Zach Clark, Ray Henson, Tom West, Allen Bari, Allen Kessler, Chad Brown, Mark Newhouse, and Marco Johnson. Some of the familiar faces that advanced did so with big chip stacks. Raymond Dolan (165,500), Tim Phan (110,700), McLean Karr (107,200), and Barry Greenstein (100,675) all ended the night with six-figure chip stacks. They will all be chasing the overnight chip leader Manuel Reyes, who ended play with 205,350.
Dolan (pictured left) made the biggest gain during the final level of play this evening. He won a huge hand that has him well on his way to making another final table in Los Angeles. He was the runner up at the 2009 WPT L.A. Poker Classic main event.
His fortuitous hand began when Steve Brecher raised to 1,100 in early position and Dolan made the call. The big blind then made it 2,200 to go and both Brecher and Dolan made the call. The flop fell A-Q-10 and the big blind checked. Brecher bet 3,500 and Dolan raised to 8,100 total. The big blind then moved all in for 50,000 and Brecher mucked. Dolan made the call and he flipped over K-J for a Broadway straight. His opponent turned over pocket aces and neither the turn nor river was able to reverse his fate.
You can check out some of the other big hands from the day on the live reporting page for the WPT Legends tournament on CardPlayer.com.
Here is a look at the top 10 chip counts at the end of play:
1. Manuel Reyes — 205,350
2. Raymond Dolan — 165,500
3. Max Casal — 138,500
4. Ken Michelman — 125,200
5. Franco Brunetti — 124,575
6. Mike Baxter — 117,700
7. Tim Phan — 110,700
8. McLean Karr — 107,200
9. Barry Greenstein — 100,675
10. Craig Bergeron — 95,400
Day 1B will begin at 1 p.m. tomorrow and a larger field is expected at the Bicycle Casino when cards get into the air. Stay tuned to Card Player for live updates, chip counts, photos, and videos from this WPT championship event.
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