Day 1A at the WPT Legends of Poker

Prop Bets and Late Stall Tactics Rule Day 1A

Day 1A of the World Poker Tour 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.
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.

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.

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.

courtesy Cardplayer.com

News Added: 26 August, 2007

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