WPT Legends Of Poker

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Cash Money Plays: Legends Day 3

Despite the stench of a little overripe tuna inside the sushi bar/media room at The Bike today, everyone here could smell the money approaching as Day 3 of the WPT Season 7 Legends of Poker began.

We started with just 79 players remaining and plans to play down beyond the money bubble of 36 and onto the final 27. And while it appeared it could take a full day of poker to get there, the heavy action right out of the gate suggested something different with a number of short stacks deciding to waste very little time finding out if today was their lucky day.

In the bottom three when play began, it looked for a while like that just might be the case for one Kid Poker Daniel Negreanu. The Team PokerStars Pro doubled up with a runner-runner flush, but it didn't take long for those chips to be salted away. It was the same story for another Team PokerStars Pro as Barry Greenstein also doubled early, but was unable to keep the momentum and busted unceremoniously soon after.

Kid punked.

Many of the big-time pros left at Legends seemed to have small-time days here on Day 3 busting with little fanfare. WPT Season 6 World Champ David Chiu picked up a number of pots early, but couldn't hold it all together. Mark Seif had chips, but they were gone before long and Raymond Davis, Antonio Esfandiari, Gabe Kaplan, Toto Leonidas, Kathy Liebert, Erik Seidel, and November Niner Kelly Kim all fell short of the Legends title goal.

As the money bubble approached, two big hands had a major impact on the leader board. First, both Erick Lindgren and Tuan Le got all their chips in the middle against the larger stacked Trond Nguyen. Lindgren looked good for the double with kings until the flop left him shockingly in third place. Le's Q T caught two pair on the flop, but Nguyen had them both beat when his pocket sevens made a set. The set held, two of the biggest names left at Legends were gone and the relatively unknown Nguyen vaulted into the chip lead.

Next it was Gary Najaryan, an L.A. local with some small-time cashes in high-stakes events, including a 219th place finish at the 2007 WSOP Main Event, who took advantage of $200k mistake by an opponent and grabbed a lead with over $900k.

From first to worst.

Once those two had risen to the top of the heap the money bubble was quickly upon us. Ali Eslami, among the tournament leaders going into Day 2, started out on a huge downward spiral at the end of the second day that didn't finish until he bubbled today.

In the end, Eslami got all but one chip in with A Q and flopped top pair queens. The final nail was put in his coffin by his heads-up opponent's pocket kings.

2008 WSOP final tablist and online poker god Amit Makhija had a great day, putting him near the top by the time the bubble burst, but it was WPT Season 6 World Poker Challenge winner Lee Markholt who made the biggest move today. As the day's close neared Najaryan slipped a little and Markholt got on a huge rush to push into the chip lead.

It was a short lived time at the top for Markholt though. Big stack Justin Scott got almost-as-big-stack Paul Smith all in holding aces over Smith's kings and looked like a sure bet become the first player over $1 million in chips.

River king.

Unfortunately for Scott, Smith hit a king on the river to rake the massive pot and double up. A few hands later Smith's small pockets faded Scott's two overs to finish him off and ensure Smith was Legends' 1st millionaire and latest leader.

Layne Flack was the other big mover and shaker today doubling up right before the day ended by turning a flush to put him among the leaders. Flack talked about his day and more in our exclusive interview with him right here.

Played wrapped soon after Layne's latest move with Smith ($946k) still holding the lead followed closely by Makhija ($842k) and Flack ($807k).

Markholt, Nguyen, a resurgent Allen Cunningham and Najaryan also have a shot at this thing heading into Day 4.

Ho - need we say more.

Marco Johnson and John Phan are still in the hunt. Plus, Maria Ho, the last woman standing at the 2007 WSOP, looked like she might fall short of the final 27 here, but she still retains a shot at Legends glory after doubling twice in the late stages of the day to move on to Day 4.

We'll be back with more from The Bike tomorrow as 27 is magically turned into six in mere minutes by a sick series of aces over kings debacles and Thursday's final table is set. You are welcome to join us right here on PokerListings.com beginning at 2 p.m. PST as the most ballingest team in poker attempts to find out which six of these degenerate gamblers will have a shot to become the next legend of poker.