7. Dao Bac
: $166,800
Garden Grove, CA
8. Eriberto Soto.
: $125,100
Mesa, AZ
9. Mark Bryan
... $83,400
Irvine, CA
10.Adam Richardson..
$45,870
San Diego, CA
11.Webber Kang
.
$45,870
12.Amnon Filippi
.$5,870
13.Damon Ahmadi
..: $37,530
14.Joe Graciano
..
$37,530
15.Ralph Levine
.$37,530
16.James Olson
.:
$29,190
17.Jim Robinson
$29,190
18.Alexander Roberts
$29,190
19-27
.$20,850
28-36
... $14,595
37-45
..
. $12,095
46-54
..
.$9,800
55-62
..
.$8,340
64-72
..
.$7,500
Prize Pool Sets WPT Record
door-busting 839 players generated a prize pool of $4,195,000 for Legends of Poker/WPT 2005, numbers that not only shattered all Bicycle Casino records, but were also the largest-ever on the World Poker Tour circuit. Day 3 started with 72 players, all of them in the money, and it took until 5:30 a.m. to get down to the final six. TV filming will begin at 4:15 p.m. with Todd Phillips, a director/writer, holding a slight chip lead of $1,895,000 over Alex Kahaner, a computer consultant, with $1,855,000. Following them are pro player Kenna James, poker dealer/pro player Jake Minter; poker player Tim Phan; and Kevin O'Donnell, who is in both the restaurant and mortgage business.
So big was the turnout that Day One had to be split into two flights. Even so, players spilled over onto the balcony, side rooms and main floor areas. First place will pay $1,125,000. Last year the championship/WPT event drew 667 players who created a $3,335,000 prize pool. Appropriately enough, the 2004 Legends championship was won by the Legend himself, Doyle Brunson. This year, however, he was card-dead and only lasted four hours into Day One.
Chip leaders at the start of Day Two included Gabe Kaplan, Jerry Buss and Barry Greenstein. Day Three started with Kahaner as leader with $581,600, followed by Paul Phillips with $401,400.
One of the notable bust-out hands came when Carlos Mortensen was all in with A-K against Cyndy Violette's pocket 10s. He passed her on the turn when the board showed 8-7-6-A, but then a river 9 gave the little flower an inside straight.
There weren't many recognizable names left as it got down to three tables, and James Olsen knocked out two of them in succession: First Can Hua, then Phillips. Violette finished 22nd. She was very short-chipped in the big blind with A-7, felt forced to call a raise and couldn't help.
That left Lunton Anderson as the final female. She had a narrow escape when she was all in for $155,000 with A-10 and the board came Q-10-7-5-J, but the paired 10 held up and she doubled through. But not long afterward it became an all-male club when she had the best hand, Q-J to Phan's Qc-8c, losing when two 8s came and finishing 19th.
Surprisingly, despite the big money involved, with three tables or less left, two players carelessly got 10-minute f-word penalties and one 20 minutes for cards off the table.
At the next break, with 18 players left, Phan had a substantial lead with about $2,750,000, close to five times the average. Twenty minutes later he picked up another quarter-mill when he moved in with pocket aces and got called by Alexander Roberts with 9-9. And, after knocking out James Olsen in 16th place (KK to Olsen's A-Q), he was pretty close to $3 million.
By the next break we were down to 12 players. Phan had taken a couple of big hits, but still had a substantial lead with $2,380,000. But he kept drifting down, and by the time the final table of 10 assembled, his lead of $1,666,000 wasn't much more than Phillips' $1,478,000 or Mark Bryan's $1,326,000.
Blinds were $8,000-$16,000 with $2,000 antes, 43:52 left. Just before the next break, Adam Richardson (';a pro, starting tonight') moved in for $264,000 with Ac-Jc. Phan had the chips to call him with Ah-10h, leaving Richardson in 10th place when a 10 flopped.
Blinds now were $10,000-$20,000 with $3,000 antes. A whole 90-minute round went by. It was now after 4 a.m., there were still nine players left, and Phan was still chip leader with about $1,600,000. Blinds became $20,000-$40,000 with $5,000 antes.
At 4:30 a.m., we finally lost our second player. In multi-way action, a pot was checked down to fourth street, showing K-8-3-10. Perhaps thinking he had the best hand, Mark Bryan moved in for about $280,000 with pocket 7s. Minter was slowplaying K-Q and nailed it with a queen on the river.
Forty-five minutes later another player left. Eriberto Soto moved in for about $700,000, and Kahaner called, asking, ';Do you have a pair?' Soto did, 9s, but Kahaner had 10s. The board came A-3-2-7-K, and the players were one away from the film stage.
By this time, Phan had been passed as chip leader by Phillips with about $1.9 million; Alex Kahaner, $1.8 million; and Jake Minter, $1.5 million.
Not long after, the goal was reached. Pro player Dao Bac pushed all in with pocket queens and got a quick call from James with pocket aces. The board came 5-3-3-6-J. Dac missed the filming, but took home $166,800 as a consolation prize as the six finalists hustled off to bed to prepare for the big showdown a few hours away. -Max Shapiro
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