A whopping 791 players made their way to the Commerce Casino’s LA Poker Classic to pony up $10,000 a piece yesterday. The Classic has traditionally been one of the WPT’s crown jewels, a massive star-studded event always followed by the Celebrity Invitational, accepting Oscars stragglers and pros alike.
The story of day one was Joe Sebok. Son to Barry Greenstein, Sebok has been improving his game by leaps and bounds over the last two years. He’s become a popular figure in the poker community, with his forays into radio, television and Internet multi-media, but he’s still lacking that one huge score.
Sebok finished the day with an astounding T204,000 chips, more than ten times the buy-in. Only Allan Engle finished the day within T50,000 chips. Greenstein himself finished with T93,000, setting up a glimmer of potential for a dream final match up.
The most brutal hand of the day came at the expense of one of our Hollywood types. Jen Tilly has made the highly recognized conversion from film to poker (“I’m a poker girl now”) and has shown her 2005 ladies event victory to be more than a fluke with repeatedly solid showings. She found herself sharing a table with one of the best players in the world, Daniel Alaei.
The two got into a raised pot preflop with Tilly holding A-J to Alaei’s pocket queens. When the flop came with both an ace and a king, Tilly moved all-in. Alaei, trusting his read, made an unusual decision, calling despite the two overcards. When the hands were flipped up, it seemed like the duel was all but over, except the turn brought a queen, ending Tilly’s day. Happening on the cusp of a break, she was then seen seeking comfort in boyfriend Phil Laak’s arms. Alaei ended the day as one of the chip leaders.
Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com
