By
Dan |
Published
Aug 25 2008, 08:55 AM
When the smoke cleared after Days 1A and 1B at the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker event at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, 248 of poker’s finest remained to battle it out for the $1.1 million first place prize. The field included many online poker players who were tracked by PocketFivesLive.com, your source for the best WPT coverage. Among those near the top of the pack at the end of Sunday’s Day 1B was Barry barryg1 Greenstein, a three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner. Greenstein finished with 82,100 chips, trailing Ali Eslami’s first place stack of 158,525. Another WSOP bracelet winner, Matt mattg1983 Graham, held 64,025 chips when play concluded for the day. Let’s take a look at how Greenstein, Graham, and other PocketFivers fared in the Legends of Poker.
Barry Greenstein was the chip leader halfway through play on Day 1B. He won the third bracelet of his illustrious WSOP career by taking down a $1,500 Seven Card Razz tournament during the 2008 World Series. The other two bracelets came by virtue of Greenstein winning a $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event in 2005 and a $5,000 buy-in No Limit Deuce to Seven Draw tournament in 2004. He recorded his very first WSOP cash in 1992. PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Court Harrington commented, “Greenstein is always tough. He doesn't make mistakes. At the table, he takes everything in and puts it to use against his opponents. Greenstein with a healthy chip stack can be an impressive sight to watch.” The PokerStars pro finished the day with 82,100 chips.
Matt Mattg1983 Graham (pictured at left) landed with 64,025 chips at the end of Day 1B. He’s a newly-crowned WSOP bracelet winner after defeating “Survivor: China” contestant and Bodog pro Jean-Robert Bellande heads up in the $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout tournament at the end of the 2008 WSOP. Graham took home $278,180 for the win. On his Legends of Poker performance, Harrington commented, “Confidence is a huge element in tournament poker. Matt is still fresh off a WSOP bracelet win and it is hard to find a better confidence builder than that.”
Graham sits at #28 on the PocketFives.com Worldwide Rankings. In the beginning of August, he won the PokerStars Sunday Second Chance for $53,329. A day later, he won the $100 rebuy on PokerStars for $38,390. In May, he took second in the $1K Monday on Full Tilt Poker for $56,960. So far this month, he’s racked up 41 cashes in tournaments that count for the Rankings for a total of $135,000.
Jordan iMsoLucky0 Morgan (pictured at right) finished Day 1B with a chip stack of 33,675. Morgan has over half a million dollars in career WSOP earnings, including a win in the Main Event of the Grand Casino Tunica Circuit Event last year. He’s logged a pair of cashes in WPT tournaments, totaling $32,575. Online, Morgan took fifth in the $100 rebuy on PokerStars for $14,074. He has some work to do on his chip stack on Day 2, but has an ample amount of live experience to start his comeback.
An interesting nugget from Day 1B surrounded PocketFiver Brian tsarrast Rast, who knocked off Phil Ivey a half hour into the Legends of Poker. With blinds starting at 50-100, Ivey pushed all in under the gun for 20,000 without looking at his cards. Rast called with pocket kings and Ivey flipped over 3-2. The five-time WSOP bracelet winner was sent packing for the first elimination of the tournament. Rast finished the day with 22,625 thanks to Ivey’s rash play.
Here’s a partial list of chip counts for members of PocketFives.com after Day 1B:
Barry Greenstein - 82,100
Matt Mattg1983 Graham - 64,025
Jordan iMsoLucky0 Morgan - 33,675
Ari Engel - 33,275
Peter #1Pen Neff - 22,225
Josh pbdrunks VanDuyn - 22,200
Jared TheWacoKidd Hamby - 16,675
Shane Shaniac Schleger - 15,800
Peter Nordberg Feldman - 10,850
PocketFivers eliminated on Day 1B included:
Justin ZeeJustin Bonomo
Scott BigRiskky Clements
Jason JDN Newitt
Scott SCTrojans Freeman
PocketFiver Adam alsmooth Weinraub is second overall in chips headed into Day 2’s play on Monday. The top ten chip stacks after Day 1A and 1B overall are:
Ali Eslami - 158,525
Alvin alsmooth Zeidenfeld - 154,750
John Smith - 134,125
Freddy Deeb - 125,450
Armen Momjian - 116,700
Justin Scott - 107,325
Evan McNiff - 105,675
Neal Wang - 103,600
Steven Graham - 101,925
Sami Rustom - 101,100
PocketFivesLive.com will have all of the action from The Bike on Day 2, which starts at 2:15pm PT on Monday. The final table will occur on Thursday. Check out all of the WPT coverage at PocketFivesLive.com.
