The Bicycle Casino in California was the scene this week for the start of the 12th edition of the World Poker Tour with the highly respected Legends of Poker event front and centre.
The event attracted 593 entries with a standard buy-in of $3,700, but a Quantum Reload provision enabled 27 of that number to buy directly into the competition for $10,000, at the end of the day creating a total prize pool of $2,172,999.
Among the many respected names spotted around the tables were Phil Laak, Greg Mueller and Layne Flack, none of whom managed to make the final table.
Mike Eskandari had the biggest chip stack when play reached final table stage, with local pro Harut “Harry” Arutyunyan his nearest rival. The duo ploughed through the final table to enter the heads up on the fifth day with Eskandari holding a 4 to 1 chip lead.
It was the start of a gruelling 90-hand heads up in which Arutyunyan fought his way back into contention with a series of spectacular double-ups and then took the lead around hand 133 to eventually take the game, leaving Eskandari with the runner-up prize of $330,110.
To the victor go the (main) spoils, and Arutyunyan received $576,369; a $15,400 seat into the season-ending WPT World Championship; Bicycle Casino’s Wild Bill Hickok trophy; an expensive Hublot watch; a set of pricey gold headphones; and of course the WPT Champions Trophy, on which his name will be engraved.
Other final table pay-outs included:
Tyler Kenney $213,600
Taylor McFarland $145,640
Tyler Cornell $103,560
Jeremy Kottler $83,075