Home / Poker News February 2011 / WPT LA Poker Classic – Day 1 report
WPT LA Poker Classic – Day 1 report
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2011-02-27 10:29
The first day of the LA Poker Classic kicked off on Friday at the Commerce Casino. 666 players showed up, and thanks to the late registration which allowed comers to buy-in during the first 5 blinds-levels, a $6,393,600 prize-pool was created. Mike Baxter managed to accumulate a stack of 125k chips, enough to give him the provisional lead.
The regular cast of nosebleed stakes ‘name’ players showed up for the event: Daniel Negreanu was there, together with Jason Mercier, Antonio Esfandiari, Erick Lindgren, Faraz Jaka, Phil Ivey and Barry Greenstein. Phil Hellmuth showed up too, fashionably late.
Mercier was the one in this select field of professionals who managed to accumulate the largest stack.
Mercier said that he owed his stack to being three-bet against a lot in the early going. On one occasion, Mercier flopped a set of 6s to take down a huge pot. Later on, he was lucky enough to find himself in a perfect hand situation, with his pocket rockets looking down on his opponent’s pocket Ks. Thanks to the impressive performance he turned in on Day 1, Mercier was rewarded with the Player of the Day title, courtesy of RISE Clothing.
No fewer than 507 players survived the first day of action at the Commerce Casino. Ronnie Ebanks followed Baxter at the top of the leader board, having amassed a stack of 121k chips. Arkadiy Stekoeschikov finished the day in 3rd place, with 111k chips. Gregory Brooks did well too, his 108k stack big enough to propel him into 4th place.
Jason Mercier was 5th with 106k chips. There were other big names in the top 10 too. Gavin Griffin finished 10th with a 96k chip stack. Michael Benvenuti was 8th with 98k and Tom McCormick was 7th with 100k.
John Racener also survived the first day of action, on an average-sized stack. Ryan Daut will also return on Day 2.
