Poker Tournament Results

Legends of Poker / WPT Event Season 7

Place	Name	Prize
1	Mariela Y Lopez AKA "La Niña" (Costa Mesa, CA, USA)	$52,925
2	David Carl (Glendale, CA, USA)	$26,325
3	Julian Chung (USA)	$12,875
4	Kevin McCormack (Chino, CA, USA)	$8,585
5	Omar Rezec	$6,440
6	David Cheng	$5,010
7	Richard Rivlin (Laguna Hills, CA, USA)	$3,575
8	Phillip Sparta (Fairfax, VA, USA)	$2,860
9	Hien Truong (Fountain Valley, CA, USA)	$2,145
10	Kyle Binns (San Pedro, CA, USA)	$1,785
11	Minh V Nguyen (USA)	$1,785
12	Scott Carpenter AKA "King" (Fairfax Station, VA, USA)	$1,785
13	Scott Reese (Cupertina, CA, USA)	$1,430
14	Patrick Peercy (Fortville, IN, USA)	$1,430
15	Julian Bach (Costa Mesa, CA, USA)	$1,430
16	Linda Balint AKA "tough cookie" (Thousand Oaks, CA, USA)	$1,215
17	Jack Bagosian (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$1,215
18	Damon M Robinson (Downey Ca)	$1,215
19	Brian Lord (Ventura, CA, USA)	$1,005
20	Raoul Eshak (West L.A, CA, USA)	$1,005
21	Josh Lachman (Hermona Beach, CA, USA)	$1,005
22	Armen G Momjian (Glendale, CA, USA)	$1,005
23	Eric Dam (Evansville, IN, USA)	$1,005
24	Thanh Luong (Budd Lake, NJ, USA)	$1,005
25	James Mills (Downey, CA, USA)	$1,005
26	Edgardo Villareal (Torrance, CA, USA)	$1,005
27	Anh Nguyen (Tustin, CA, USA)	$1,005
28	Shaun T Padelford (Buelton, CA, USA)	$1,005

Tournament Report

Mariela Lopez's First Live Tournament – First Live Win The 2008 Legends of Poker continued its strong draw with 295 players in event #3 creating a prize pool of $143,075. With 4,500 starting chip stacks, the final table assembled 9-handed with 1,327,500 total chips in play at 2:20am. With over 80% of the total prize pool to be awarded, play started cautiously without seeing a flop for the first 12 hands. On hand #13 Hien Trong got it all-in with pocket 9s against Omar Rezec's K-Q. Rezec has Trong covered and the flop came J-6-4. Hein extended his lead but the turn paired Omar's Queen and Trong was drawing to two outs. The river 8 gave Omar the pot and Hien Trong was eliminated in 9th place earning $2,145. On hand #26 Philip Sparta pushed on Kevin McCormack who called. Philip showed his pocket 7s and Kevin showed Ad-5d and admitted it was a loose call. The flop of J-8-5 (no diamonds) and Kevin saw a little more hope but was still behind. The turn 5 launched Kevin into the lead. The river King sealed the hand for Kevin. Philip Sparta, in from Fairfax, VA, finished in 8th place and secured $2,860. Just after 4am, on hand #37 David Carl raised preflop with A-Q and was re-raised by Rich Rivlin for his last chips and a dominated Q-10. David had to call only 18K more and quickly tossed his chips into the pot. The flop was K-8-2 and David retained the lead. The turn Ace paired David but still left Rich with four outs (Jacks) for the gut shot straight draw. The river missed with a 7 and David Carl dragged the pot leaving Rich Rivlin out in 7th place for $3,575. On hand #46, 3-way action had David Cheung, short stacked and winning his frequent all-ins, pushed again for 22.5K from the cutoff and was called by blinds - Omar Rezec and Mariela Lopez. The board was checked down to the river (6-4-2-2-Q). David showed A-9 for an Ace high, Omar mucked his J-10 and Mariela showed her big blind special of 8-6 for two pair. Mariela took down the 70K pot and David Cheung finished in 6th place for $5,010. David started the final table last in chips and moved up 3 spots by playing his fearless and aggressive short game. Play continued 5-handed for about 5 hands when a blind vs. blind confrontation occurred. Mariela Lopez woke up with pocket Kings and open raised in the small blind. Kevin looked at Q-J in the big blind and re-raised all-in looking to take the pot down if Mariela was doing the'blind steal' thing. She wasn't and quickly called. The board came 6-2-2-4-A and Mariela took the pot and the chip lead. The players looked at a chip count deal and accepted it as the clock ticked past 5am. Mariela Lopez was the current chip leader and was declared the winner of her first live tournament. -- Jay'Bugsy' Siegel BIOGRAPHY Mariela Lopez has only been playing poker for just one year. She has played exclusively on-line in Sit-n-Go's and Tournaments. She decided it was about time to try a live tournament and registered in the afternoon. Mariela learned poker from her boyfriend who was tired of her beating him at chess and decided if she learned poker he could at least beat her at that. She now can beat him at both. Mariela enjoys watching televised poker and has seen every WPT broadcast. She is considering taking some of her prize money and play in the $10,000 WPT event in the Legend's series later in August. Mariela said she played the final table very straight forward: no big bluffs, played the strong hands strong and had the chip lead at the right time. CHIP COUNTS ARRIVING AT FINAL TABLE Seat 1 Hien Truong $104,000 Seat 2 Julian Chung $187,500 Seat 3 Omar Rezec $92,000 Seat 4 Philip Sparta $118,000 Seat 5 David Carl $88,000 Seat 6 Mariela Lopez $160,500 Seat 7 Rich Rivlin $135,000 Seat 8 Kevin McCormack $389,000 Seat 9 David Cheung $52,500 Chip Variance =-1000