Yesterday marked the start of Season X of the World Poker Tour (WPT) in the United States of America as some of the world’s best poker players descended on he famous Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California, for the Legends of Poker. The WPT has already had two European stops during Season X, in Spain and Slovenia, but the Legends of Poker kicks of the tour on American soil.
This particular stop of the long-running tour has seen numbers dwindle from a high of 839 entrants in 2005 ($5,000 entry fee) to just 279 in 2009 ($10,000 entry fee). In an attempt to increase the attendance last year’s event had the buy-in dropped to $5,000 and a total of 462 players took to the felt, each of them outlasted by Andy Frankenberger. This year the WPT has taken the decision to lower the buy-in once again, this time to $3,700 but they have made the tournament a re-entry event meaning players who bust out on Day 1a can buy back in on Day 1b, which should boost figures immensely, especially as 322 players took to the felt yesterday.
A number of big name players busted out during Day 1a and have already announced they will be buying back in when Day 1b gets underway in around 11 hours time. Allen Kessler, Matt Affleck and reigning champion Frankenberger were eliminated at different points of the day and will be exchanging $3,700 for 30,000 tournament chips when the Bicycle Casino opens registration later today.
Some of the players who will not need to buy back in include WPT regular Amit Makhija, Allen Cunningham, Mike Sowers, Jeff Madsen, Maria Ho and former November Nine member Soi Nguyen. However, the man they all need to catch when play resumes is Matthew Berkey who ended the day with a massive stack of 248,500 chips. Berkey resides in Las Vegas, Nevada and had an impressive set of results to his name including two cashes in WPT Season IX events last year. He finished in 15th spot in the $1,0000 LA Poker Classic in February and followed that up with a 29th place finish in the Bay 101 Shooting Stars event in March. Can he make it a hattrick of WPT cashes? Only time will tell.
