2014 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Day 1: Scott Blackman Tops After First Day
The World Poker Tour traveled to Los Angeles, CA for the latest stop on the tour, and the 2014 WPT L.A. Poker Classic Main Event kicked off on Saturday. On Day 1 of the event, over 500 players came out to action. Under 400 of them survived to Day 2, although registration will remain open until the start of Level 8. Following the first day of play, which spanned six levels of action, Scott Blackman topped the pack with 190,300 in chips.
Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott Blackman | 190,300 |
| 2 | Ali Eslami | 129,200 |
| 3 | Joe Tehan | 112,850 |
| 4 | Daniel Steinberg | 111,000 |
| 5 | JC Tran | 108,800 |
| 6 | Corey Hochman | 106,575 |
| 7 | Ryan D'Angelo | 106,000 |
| 8 | Anthony Gregg | 103,775 |
| 9 | Luis Velador | 100,225 |
| 10 | David Paredes | 97,575 |
As you can see, Blackman finished well ahead of Ali Eslami in second place, and the remaining spots behind him are filled with big names and notable faces. Then, just outside of the top 10 are Naoya Kihara, Chris Moorman, Eric Buchman, JJ Liu, Joe Keuther, and Shankar Pillai.
While plenty of familiar players are still alive in the event, Day 1 did have many casualties. WPT Champions Club members Layne Flack, Matt Salsberg, Matt Giannetti, Michael Mizrachi, Ted Forrest, Phil Laak, Noah Schwartz, and Sean Jazayeri were some of those to hit the rail. Tom Marchese, Kyle Bowker, John Racener, Jonathan Aguiar, and Andrew Lichtenberger were some of the others.
Salsberg was eliminated in Level 5 with the blinds at 150/300/50, according to the WPT live updates, at the hands of Eslami. Salsberg raised from under the gun to 600, Eslami reraised to 1,000 out of the hijack seat, and then Ryan Goindoo called from the cutoff seat. Action folded back to Salsberg, and he too made the call to see the flop come down J♠7♠4♦.
Salsberg checked the flop, Eslami bet 1,800, Goindoo folded, and Salsberg called. On the 4♥ turn card that paired the board, Salsberg checked, Eslami bet 3,000, and Salsberg called. Then, the 4♠ completed the board on the river. Salsberg checked, and Eslami bet 7,000, which was enough to put his opponent all in. After a bit of tanking, Salsberg called. Eslami tabled the Q♠Q♥, Salsberg mucked and was out.
Day 2 will begin at 12 p.m. local time out on the West Coast of the United States, and you can be sure to find a recap from the day's play right here on PokerNews, so stay tuned.
Photo and data courtesy of WPT.com.
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