This just in: Guarantees in Los Angeles were missed. I don’t think I’ve ever reported that before, though I don’t think anyone can say the Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino wasn’t a great success. There were six missed guarantees out of the 26 events that offered them, and even with the shortfalls, the cumulative guarantee amount of $2,275,000 still was exceeded by more than a million dollars.
As usual, plenty of Los Angeles-based pros made their way to the cage during the series. Toto Leonidas cashed twice, and making their presence known were Can Kim Hua, Mel Judah, Barbara Enright and David “the Dragon” Pham.
The World Poker Tour Main Event attracted 716 runners for a prize pool of more than $2.4 million. Greg “FBT” Mueller made a deep run in the main, finishing 20th. Jordan Cristos won the title and $613K, outlasting long-time pro Dan Heimiller. Phil Laak also made the final table.
Christopher Kwong captured the Mega Millions with its $160 buy-in and million-dollar guarantee. He pocketed $179K and change as part of a six-way chop.
Media personalities were in attendance, too, as Vince Van Patten finished third in Event 21. Live at the Bike and World Series commentator David Tuchman cashed in the main and fellow Live at the Bike commentator and WSOP bracelet-holder Owais Ahmed won Event 25 (badugi/2-7 triple-draw/baduci mix).
Continuing the tournament grind, with the Legends of Poker complete and the Commerce Poker Series running through September, next up is back to the Bike for one of my favorite series, Big Poker Oktober. It features 23 events with buy-ins from $75-$150. All are $235 or less, except for the $550 main event, which has more than 20 mega satellites if you want to get in for much less.
Of the 32 events, 29 are re-entry, which seems to be the norm everywhere these days. Thirty-one events have guarantees totaling more than $700K, with the only exception being a $120 survivor event that pays $1K each to the top 10 percent of finishers. Also, 29 of the events are some version of no-limit hold’em, with five bounty events, six deepstacks, the survivor event and tournament director Mo Fathipour’s patented Quantum Reload on Oct. 5. The other events are two Omaha/8 events and a stud/8-Omaha/8 mixed $235 event. There is an afternoon and evening event nearly every day so come by if you’re in town; you’ll definitely be able to find a game.
— Email Dave Palm at LA.AnteUp@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @AnteUpLosAngele.
