As a big name boycott ends, the WPT Championship finds itself low on poker player quantity, but high on quality.
The World Poker Tour Championship started Saturday at Bellagio's Fontana Lounge, but something is missing - poker players. This year, 210 poker players turned out for Day 1A, which means it does not look like the tournament will match its numbers from last year. Sunday was better, bringing in 335 poker players, a strong rebound which should guarantee a nice prize pool. It looks as if over $13 million will be awarded to 100 players, with the winner taking home a little over $3 million while second place will have to settle for a little over $1.5 million.
Some of the better known poker players in this year's field include Mike Sexton, Jonathan Little, Michael Gracz, Brandon Cantu, Andy Black, Joe Sebok, Scott Clements, Tony "Bagels" Cavezza, Hoyt Corkins, J.C. Tran, Marcel Luske, Eli Elezra, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Mike Matusow, Bruno Fitoussi, Barry Greenstein, and eleven time World Series of Poker champ Phil Hellmuth.
One of the reasons some names are missing from this year's WPT Championship may be the WPT boycott many players were observing. On July 19, 2006, some of the biggest and most respected names in poker - Andy Bloch, Annie Duke, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Phil Gordon, Greg Raymer, Joe Hatchem, and Howard Lederer - rocked the poker world when they filed an antitrust complaint against the WPT. Specifically, the poker players disagreed with wording in the WPT tournament documents, fearing that that it would caused a conflict with their endorsement deals. As the lawsuit dragged on, Hatchem and Raymer dropped the boycott. Hatchem went on to win the WPT Five-Diamond World Poker Classic in December of 2006, taking home $2.1 million.
Back to poker news! Day 1A saw Daniel Alaei went all in against Roy Winston, but lost when a 3 of Hearts came out on
Tom "durrrr" Dwan played well on Day 1B, despite having to wear a Chiquita banana hat. He lost a bet with Alan "The Usher" Sass that he would arrive on time for the tournament and must wear the hat the entirety of the tournament as punishment. The end of Day 1B found Paul Chaudersonin first with 200,900 chips, Kenny Tran in second with 193,025 chips, Robert Mizrachi in third with 173,375, Juan Carlos Mortensen in fourth with 172,075 chips, and Jordan Morgan in fifth with 171,750 chips.
Play resumes at noon today and the tournament will finish up with the final table on Saturday, April 25th......
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