VOLUME 9, NUMBER 33 (Day 1) MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2003 -
309 Play Championship/WPT!
Reflecting the phenomenal growth of tournament poker, a growth very largely fueled by World Poker Tour exposure, an incredible total of 309 players turned out for the 2003 Legends of Poker Championship/WPT event. This represents a 229 percent increase over the 135 players at the first WPT tournament at the Bike last year. The $1,545,000 prize pool also set an all-time record for any Bicycle Casino event.
Some 54 players remained after the first day’s action. Of the total entrants, more than 100 of them got there through the route of super satellites. Fourteen seats were won just yesterday, and six more today
Among the faces in the crowd of players were prior World Poker Tour winners Gus Hansen (two WPT events), Howard Lederer and Chris Karagulleyan, winner of last year’s WPT at the Bike. Other WPT final-table finishers playing today included Phil Ivey, Paul Darden, T.J. Cloutier, Stan Goldstein, Kathy Liebert, Layne Flack, John Juanda, Chris Bigler, Vince Burgio, Men Nguyen, Allen Cunningham and Hon Le. Also in the field were world champions Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, Carlos Mortensen, Jim Bechtel, Johnny Chan, Huck Seed and Scotty Nguyen; actors Ben Affleck and Lou Diamond Phillips; Vegas casino entrepreneur Bob Stupak; “Positively Fifth Street” author Jim McManus; and a galaxy of other world-class players including such names as WSOP Hall of Famer Chip Reese, Humberto Brenes, Erik Seidel, Randy Holland, Ken Flaton, Howard “Tahoe” Andrews, Mel Wiener, Chip Jett, Randy Holland, “Miami John” Cernuto, Chris Bjorin, Jennifer Harman, Marsha Waggoner, Mel Judah, David “The Dragon” Pham, Annie Duke, Louis Asmo, Barry Greenstein and Amir Vahedi, currently ranked number one in Card Player’s all-around rankings.
Last but not least, there was a contingent of four players from the private invitational tournament group known as “Aces & Eights: Jay “Moose” Moriarty, Dave “E” Moriarty, Dr. Mike “Zip” Vitullo and Glenn “Crazy Man” Cozen, who finished second to Bechtel in the 1993 championship event. The lone day 1 survivor of this group was younger brother Dave Moriarty, who had been down to $225 in early going.
A small army of cameramen descended on the tournament area. In addition to WPT television cameramen, there were representatives from ESPN and at least four local and network TV stations. At the Bike’s front entrance, floodlights and cameras were in place to film the arrival of a stretch limo out of which stepped … Arnold Schwarzenegger? No, Shana Hiatt, the prettiest of the three WPT hosts.
Cut-off time for the first day’s action was 4 a.m. Leading the 54 remaining players was Chip Jett with $99,900, followed by Bobby Hoff with $66,800. Average chip count was $28,611. Interestingly, four of the five remaining WSOP champions, Ferguson, Seed, Hellmuth and Chan, ended up in consecutive order, numbers 35, 36, 37 and 38. Mel Wiener, in ninth place with $43,000, said he had accumulated all his chips by 9 p.m. He had the good fortune to be seated at a table full of unfamiliar tournament “newbies,” whom he was able to run over.
As play wound down on Day 1, the “starriest” spot was table number six, at which were seated Hellmuth, Chan and Seed, along with veteran player Hoff. Tomorrow the tournament will be played down to six finalists, and the final table of this three-day event will start at 4:15 p.m. on Wednesday.
After the tournament wraps up on Wednesday, the footage revealing the down cards will be reviewed by hosts Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten and their additional commentary will be added. The event will be televised at a still undetermined date next year. This year there were 13 WPT events on the Travel Channel. Next year there are expected to be additional events as more casinos (such as Bay 101) sign on for the tour.
– Max Shapiro
EVENT #33 CHAMPIONSHIP/WORLD POKER TOUR
DAY 1
NO-LIMIT HOLD’EM
$5,000 + $85
$1,545,000 PRIZE POOL
309 PLAYERS
1. $579,375
2. $293,550
3. $146,775
4. $100,425
5. $69,525
6. $54,075
7. $38,625
8. $30,900
9. $23,175
10th thru12th $19,315
13th thru 15th $15,450
16th thru 18th $11,585
19th thru 27th $7,725
NEW ADDED EVENT
Ladies Invitational Freeroll For a $25,000 seat at the
Bellagio next April.
DAY 1 CHIP COUNT
Name Chips
1. Chip Jett $99,900
2. Jim Bechtel $66,800
3. Phil Laak $62,800
4. Bobby Hoff $53,800
5. Mike Matusow $49,000
6. Stan Goldstein $49,300
7. Bob Stupak $47,900
8. Toto Leonidas $46,200
9. Mel Wiener $43,500
10.Phi Nguyen $42,500
11.Fred Bonyati $42,000
12.T.J. Cloutier $39,600
13.Ernie Sebastian $39,100
14.Chip Reese $39,000
15.James Mena $38,100
16.Rick Chase $37,300
17.Tony Cousineau $36,800
18.Scott Lundberg $30,100
19.Steve Melton $30,100
20.Scott Yeates $29,100
21.Kenny Nguyen $29,000
22.Paul Phillips $28,600
23.Brian Nadell $28,200
24.Mel Judah $28,000
25.Hoyt Corkins $26,500
26.John Cernuto $24,300
27.Tom Jacobs $24,300
28.Adam Schoenfeld $22,900
29.John Juanda $22,600
30.Dave Moriarty $22,300
31.David Cowan $21,800
32.Andy Miller $21,300
33.Marty Morales $20,900
34.Andy Lakey $20,700
35.Chris Ferguson $20,600
36.Huck Seed $19,400
37.Phil Hellmuth $18,600
38.Johnny Chan $17,300
39.Jamie Perez $17,100
40.Brandon Wang $17,000
41.Duong Phat Binh $17,000
42.Jim Miller $16,600
43.John Spadavecchia $16,300
44.Mike Vatan $15,800
45.Abraham Tannous $15,700
46.Ken Davis $15,400
47.Eric Liebeler $14,000
48.Ken Flaton $12,300
49.Matt Heinschel $10,000
50.Louis Laxineta $9,800
51.Marsha Waggoner $8,100
52.Craig Brennan $4,600
53.David Lewis $3,500
54.Howard Andrew $2,700
SUPER SATELLITE FINAL RESULTS
Name Payoff
1. Marty Morales $10,000
2. Brent Carter $3,000
3. Dennis Waterman $2,000
Congratulations to our three top points finishers.
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