With August here, that can only mean the annual Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino is upon us. Though it began July 28, it runs through September, with 21 events, more than $2 million in guarantees and more than70 starting flights.
There is a ton of no-limit hold’em, of course, including a bounty tournament on Aug. 21, but for those who prefer other games, Event 16 (Aug. 20) is a $1,100 Omaha/8 event with a $50K guarantee.
The Bike also has Event 19 (Aug. 22), which has a $345 entry, $10K guarantee and is half deuce-to-seven triple draw, half badugi. It’s an event seldom seen in tournament series anywhere today. I’m interested to see the turnout.
As is the case every year, the World Poker Tour hosts the main event. In a twist I have not seen before, you have the option of entering at two price levels.
You can enter for $3,700 on any of the Day 1 flights(Aug. 23-25) or you can enter into Day 2 for $10K on Aug. 26 with what is being called “approximately average chips.”
Though the name of the tournament is the Legends of Poker and has the WPT event of the same name attached to it, there can be no mistaking the crown jewel of this series is the patented Mega Millions.
Kicking off on Aug. 8 with at least two $160 starting flights every day through Aug. 18, this $1 million guarantee is promising a minimum of $250K for first place. All of the past versions have crushed the guarantees.
As you can expect with the Mega Millions series, there are multiple entry points for those who don’t want to grind a smaller stack in the early levels.
In addition to the $160 level, there are four flights where you can buy in for $550, getting 25K chips with 10 percent of the field advancing to Day 2. For those with a larger bankroll, directly buying in to Day 2 with 250K chips can be had for $5,300.
SUMMER POKER SERIES: Just finishing at the Bike was the Summer Poker Series. All but the main event had buy-ins ranging from $65 to $150. The main event had multiple buy-ins of $75, $235 or $2,100 and ended up with a prize pool of more than $700K.
First place was slated to get nearly $151K, but an eight-way final-table chop netted three players, Horoico Aguiluz, Leonid Kaykov and Patrick Karschamroon more than $60K.
