Jeff Vertes Leads WPT Legends of Poker

Jeff Vertes finds himself in the top chip position with just 21 players remaining at the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker Main Event. The tournament, being held at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California, is the first event of the 10^th season of the World Poker Tour.

This year’s version of the Legends of Poker featured a few new twists. Last year, the buy-in was dropped from $10,000 to $5,000. For the 2011 version, the buy-in was reduced yet again, to just $3,500. However, re-entry was allowed; a player who played on Day 1A who was not satisfied with their performance (or eliminated) was eligible to reenter on Day 1B and try running up a better stack.

In total, there were 757 entries into the tournament, including 116 players who took a “second chance” entry on Day 1B after playing on Day 1A. This resulted in a prize pool of about $2.5 million, of which just over $758,000 will go to the eventual winner. In total, 81 players were paid, with every winner making at least $7,000. Both the attendance and prize pool figures are up from last year’s event.

Currently, Vertes has just over 2.7 million chips, which gives him a significant lead over the field. James Carroll, David Daneshgar and Joshua Pollock round out the leaders, but all have 1.9 million chips or less. The current chip average is just under 1.1 million.

On Monday, the field will play down to the final table of six. That final table will be played on Tuesday, and filmed for televised coverage. However, for the first time ever, the WPT will also be streaming the final table live online during play, which will begin around 7:30 pm Eastern US time on Tuesday evening.

The 10^th season of the WPT has seen several changes to the popular tour, including the addition of the previously mentioned live coverage. Other changes include an upgrade to the final table set, as well as a new Champions Cup trophy, which will feature the name of every WPT champion ever.