Failla Leads WPT Legends of Poker

Poker News / Matthew Pitt / 30 August 2011 / Leave a Comment

The official six-handed final table of the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker has been reached and it is Will "The Thrilla" Failla who is the man they have to catch when play resumes at 1600 local time.

A bumper field of 757 descended on the Bicycle Casino, Bell Gardens, California over the two official starting days making this tournament one of the largest in WPT history. This was helped by the buy-in being reduced to just $3,500 +$200 and the organisers making this a re-entry tournament, meaning anyone who busted out during Day 1a could buy back in on Day 1b.

Of the 757 players who took part on the two Day 1s, 341 survived to play on Day 2 and these were whittled away to just 99 survivors for the start of Day 3. Early after the restart on Day 3 the money bubble had burst, the unfortunate soul being Joe Ressler. He had lost all but 1,500 chips when his AsKs was beaten by the AdQd of Brent Hanks when the latter hit a flush on the river, and these went all in the very next hand from the small blind with 9s7d and was up against the Qc3d of Hanks and when the board ran out 8c-5d-3h-2c-Ts everyone who still had chips in front of them was guaranteed to take home at least $7,000. By the time Day 3 drew to a close there were only 21 players remaining and the prize money was starting to get serious.

Within 10 minutes of Day 4 kicking off the tournament had lost a player, Zachary Fahmie going down in the record books as the 21st place finisher. Four hours later and Tyler Cornell was eliminated in 11th place, his three-bet shove with AcQd being ill-timed as Joshua Pollock was sat waiting with pocket kings to snap him off and bust him out. The surviving ten players were then all seated on an unofficial final table with them continuing play until only six of them remained.

It took two hours for the first player, Matt Kay, to be sent to the rail. He busted out when his ace-queen ran into the kings of Pollock in a mirror of the hand that sent 11th place finisher Cornell to the rail. A further two and a half hours for the next player, David Danesghar, to be eliminated and another three hours for James Carroll to bust out.

They played seven-handed for another 60 minutes before the 190th and final hand of the day took place. A short-stacked Ray Henson moved all in from early position and Jeff Vertes called in the cutoff. Henson turned over Ad6c and was in need of some help against the AsKd of Vertes. Both players paired an ace on the Ac-7s-2c flop but the turn and river were the 8h and Qs respectively, which eliminated Henson from the tournament and gave everyone a well deserved break until 1600 this afternoon (local time.)

Failla goes into the final table armed with 6,775,000 chips, more than 1,400,000 more than second placed Pollock. Failla has an impressive poker résumé that includes eight WPT cashes and 18 World Series of Poker cashes, including five at this year's festival. In January this year he won a $2,000 side event at the PCA but that was his first win for three years, can he make it two victories in the same year when play resumes later today? Tune in tomorrow to find out.

WPT Legends of Poker seat draw

Seat 1: Joshua Pollock: 5,315,000 chips
Seat 2: Owais Ahmed: 1,720,000
Seat 3: Will Failla: 6,775,000
Seat 4: Adam Aronson: 2,185,000
Seat 5: Ken Aldridge: 3,640,000
Sea 6: Jeff Vertes: 4,005,000

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