A Brit in Vegas

Player appreciation night

Steve — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:55:02 +0000

The Bike held the monthly player appreciation tournament this weekend.The Event Center was filled for both nights with 1130 players trying for the $3.1k first prize.

Thirty four players returned on Monday .Mo Fathipour rewarded the players and me(dia) with a really good dinner buffet. Chip leader was Wonyol Yi with 10% of the 5m chips in play. The field also included Marshall Ragir usually a high low player.

1) Rafael Castanon $3.1k + NAPT seat
2) Jose Lopez $2.4k + seat
3) Robert Tamayo $1.8k + seat
4) Pete Satong $1.4k + seat
5) Jim Trotter $1.2k + seat
6) Brandon Long $3k

The Bike hands over to the, hater of online poker , Commerce during September before Oktoberfest brings the action back to Bell Gardens.

They are hosting a charity tournament on September 11th hosted by Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher for American Veterans.

Legends back at work

Steve — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 07:28:46 +0000

It was back to the grind for WPT televised FT players Tom Lee and Franco Brunetti tonight. Both played in the Bikes $545 $300k guarantee tournament. The event has three re entry day ones with the final on Monday.In fact Franco made the FT.The make up was typical L.A. with five Asians ,one Armenian and the rest middle Eastern! The pool included $32k of Bike make up money as the total entry was 537 .

Paul Chauderson 1st $96k
Hon Le 2nd $47k
Chau Nguyen 4th $16k
Jason Kim 8th $6k
Alex Hua 6th $9k
Ramsi Srour 5th $12.5k
Gevorg Margaryan 3rd $25k
Frank Preciado 9th $5k
Franco Brunetti 7th $7.7k

The August freeroll was a monster with over 1200 entries..

Final Table at the Legends gallery

Steve — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 07:32:54 +0000

TV table set.New Legend tomorrow

Steve — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 06:34:43 +0000

The final six, to the relief of those media with a WSOP hangover, was decided by 6pm today Returning tomorrow will be:

A Frankenberger NY 3m . Andrew won $162k at the Venetian in June. 1st
Tom Lee L.A. 2.9m The sole hope of the L.A. Asian players. 3rd
Kyle Wilson B.C. Canada 2.8m .Kyle finished second in the 2009 Wynn classic. 2nd
Jared Jaffee Georgia 1m.Jared finished second in the 2010 Wynn classic.
Tom Braband L.A. 1m.Tom has nine WSOP cashes but none in the Wynn classic.
Franco Brunetti L.A. 800k. Franco is THE local tournie player with many small cashes.6th

Monday Legends + IPPA

Steve — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 21:37:26 +0000

As I left late yesterday two Legends Eskimo Clark and Mike Laing were sat on a bench outside the Bike. I arrived before Noon today Eskimo was still in the same seat.

Vinny Vinh and Zach Hyman were late eliminations yesterday leaving 60 trying for one of the 45 payouts. Ted Lawson, Chris Moore,Oleg Osadtchi,Eric Yilmaz and Alvin Zeidenfeld are the first to visit valet.

Brian Patrick was the bubble.Amit was the first to visit the cashiers cage.

The day ended with seventeen players. The WPT will probably need “rent a crowd” on Wednesday at 4pm. Chip counts here

Today was also the launch, to a skeptical world, of the $250k buy in IPPA event in Monte Carlo. After a launch party the first step, a $1k buy in, saw twenty hopeful players enter a shootout that will see one player win a seat on Friday.The event hopes for 48 players to play for $5m first prize. Online qualifiers are planned and the casino has pledged to buy seats for their high rollers.

Latest updates here.

Sunday Day2

Steve — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 23:55:52 +0000

The main ladies are out. Thuy Doan, Lynda Tran, Jennifer Tilly and Kristy Gazes all made early exits today.Ray Dolan and Manuel Reyes are still amongst the chip leaders. Over in Cyprus L.A. players Chris K and Kelly Kim are in pole position.

Dinner break approaches. It appears over 100 hungry mouths will be fed. The railbirds are still excluded from the room at this stage but will be welcome for the final day.

Vinny Vinh, who appears to be dating the woman fom the Bikes salon, has maintained his chip lead. Another bizarre show from Phil Hellmuth. Yesterday, his day started around 4pm. He didn’t eat dinner with the rest of the players.He returned around ninety minutes late from dinner. Today, he returned with 66.8k yet acted as if he had a plane to catch.

Scott Diamond started his blog today. He interviewed Thuy Doan and Allen Kessler on his flip here

The players had seven levels to play so they will not be playing until daybreak on Tuesday.

Play ended with 61 players. Ted Lawson and Phil Collins both had mild food poisoning (didn’t see too many players going from handling chips and cards before the buffet).Erica Schoenberg ha a lock on last woman standing but does she still have a ride back to Vegas with Erich Lindgren who busted?

Day1b at the Legends

Steve — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 21:35:55 +0000

The numbers are in: 462 players played. The winner will take home $750k with the bubble being in 46th place.

Entering the “Last Woman Standing’ side comp are Jenny Tran, Jennifer Tilly,JJ Liu, Erica Schoenberg and Kathy Liebert.Estrella Baltazar was building her stack throughout the day.

Still not too many names although Negreanu,Hellmuth and Hachem are here today. Last years winner Prahlad is out.

Legends of Poker Day1a

Steve — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 07:34:27 +0000

The big day has arrived at the Bike. The buy in has been halved from last years $10k. 185 played today and close to a hundred have already signed up for tomorrow. I am assured tomorrows players will include a higher percentage of recognizable players. The satellites were busy tonight including Tong Le who has won two events so far.

Eddie Alaei told me both he and son Daniel are playing tomorrow.He added “hopefully not at the same table.”

One railbird asked TD Mo Fathipour if anyone famous was playing. Mo pointed out Barry Greenstein, “I don’t like him.Is Daniel Negreanu here?” He wasn’t.

The last woman standing in this years WSOP ME Breeze Zuckerman was here. She won’t be the last woman standing in this event though. That could be brave Thuy Doan, Mel Weisner,Kristy Gazes or Maria Ho from todays field.

For the second time in a week I entered as the buffet was being taken from the room. I did manage a piece of carrot cake.I also missed the Royal Flush girls.

The biggest stacks I found belonged to Manuel Reyes and Ray Dolan.Chris Moore wins every tournie I ever see him play. He informed me he had a bad WSOP. I wasn’t there.Maybe I am his good luck charm.

Updated chip counts available on Worldpokertour.com

Tuesday Legends update

Steve — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 06:26:30 +0000

The Legends is on hold for the day as the annual Buss/Mariani was held in the event center tonight. Scott Diamond informed me that this used to be a big deal with top poker pros mingling with Laker players and Hollywood celebs. No more. The closest I was to a greatness was Thor Hansen who is a living legend in Norway.At least to aspiring poker players.Even Frank didn’t attend.

Those who made up the 70 player field included : Alex Maser, Soheil Shamseddin, Eric Herschler and Chainsaw Kessler.

When I arrived the food had gone and so had the Laker cheerleaders. Much as I love chocolate strawberries the food tonight would be no match for the Hillel foundation tournie.

It didn’t take long for me to photograph Allen Kessler in a discussion with the floor.Eric Herschler looks like he wants a seat change.

The final seven were:

Dana Kellstrom
Mike Shelton
Bobby Suer
Denny Robinson
Joe Serocil
Jon Persekian
Jerry Plager

My discussion was with onlooker Sirous about who can afford the $250k buy in at Monte Carlo. We failed to fill two tables.

Yesterday Tong Le won his second event at the Legends,the $200 turbo.124 entered.

1) Tong Le $9.6k
2) Jerry Mann $4.8k
3) Dino Banuelos $2.4k
4) Will Acosta $1.6k
5) Gevorg Mararyan $1.3k
6) Ed Hansen $1k
11) Estrella B $420

The Stud8 attracted 80 players.The results were:

1) Donald Webb $10k
2) Henry Ferguson $5k
3) Henry Minasyan $2.8k
4) Alex Dimitrov $1.6k

The bounty tournie from Sunday PM was won by Vasile Buboi.He considers himself a tournie player.Vasile won $14k plus some bounties no doubt.

Phuong Tran one to watch

Steve — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 05:31:24 +0000

For the third consecutive weekend Phuong Tran cashed in a Legends tournament. Today she actually made the FT and was certainly the most popular player with the railbirds judging by how many asked for me to take her photo. Phuong finished seventh for a $3.5k payday.

Young Phan was the star in the returning field of 28.

Freddie Legaspi was another popular character but didn’t quite make the FT.He was around to witness Mesbah Khaffaji spitting at a dealer. I was watching Jenny Baldivid’s KK v AA at another table. Khaffaji, from upscale La Canada, was disqualified and I saw two Bell police vehicles outside suggesting the matter may be taken further. His chips were removed from the table with twelve players remaining.

Other players at the FT:

Behtaj Amiri 4th $8.8k
Eugene Chun 2nd $24k
Badei Khoury 6th $4.9k
Peter Lenkey 8th $2.7k
Alex Maser 5th $6.3k
Cuu Hoang 10th $1.8k
Chuck Sklar 1st $48.7k
Mike Kaishar 3rd $11k
Jenny Baldivid 9th $2.1k

First place is $48.7k on a day when everyone seemed to hit the Del Mar pick six.A two day carryover of over $800k ensured a pool of $3.3m. No outsiders won and the winning share was $3k.