Day 2 : World Poker Tour Legends of Poker

Lower buy-in has boosted entries but reduced the prize levels

The ninth edition of Party Gaming's World Poker Tour Legends of Poker kicked off at the Bicycle in Los Angeles this week, attracting a 66 percent bigger entry field, thanks to a 50 percent reduction in the buy-in (from $10 000 to $5 000). However, whilst the number of players entering surged from 279 last year to 462 this, the prize pool shrank 18 percent to $2.15 million from $2.63 million.

Nevertheless, with a winner's prize of $750 000 and a chance for the top 45 finishers to cash, the Day 1 a and b flights were intensely competitive, with a good turnout of respected players from both the live and internet poker sectors that included no fewer than 16 former WPT champions.

One of the highpoints of the WPT Legends of Poker this time was the recognition and respect afforded veteran pro player Kathy Liebert, who was registered for her 100th WPT championship.

Paying tribute to Leibert, Mike Sexton said that she has set impressive benchmarks for women players with six final WPT tables, 15 cashes and over $1.75 million in winnings, although she has yet to secure a WPT main prize.

The ninth Legends did not improve Leibert's fortunes - she was eliminated late on Day 1a.

Day 2 kicked off with 241 survivors from the two Day 1 flights, including Phil Hellmuth, Joe Sebock, Allen Cunningham, Jeff Madsen, Jonathan Little, Shane Schleger and Adam Levy. Most of them were sent to the exit as play stretched into Sunday night, with Frank Kasella, Phil Hellmuth, Jason Mercier, Shane Schleger, Jared Hamby, Jeff Madsen, Allen Cunningham and a host of others all suffering the disappointment of not even making the money.

The flip side was the great performances from players like Vinny Vinh and Tom Braband, who generated plenty of excitement as they made their way into the top five by late night Sunday when InfoPowa went to press. At that stage level 12 had been reached and there were 115 players left by 10.45 pm LA time. The top five looked like this:

Vinny Vinh - 530,000
Adam Schiffer - 460,000
Tom Braband - 305,000
Phil Collins - 300,000
Tim Phan - 300,000

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