The 2017 edition of the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker is entering its final stage. The winner of the festival’s $4,000 Main Event will become known later today and there are six finalists left to contend for the title and the $668,692 first-place prize set for the champion.
The final day of the Main Event is one certainly to look forward to. The tournament’s official final table is comprised of two two-time WPT champions, a record-breaking 14-time WSOP gold bracelet winner, and three more players ready to fight fiercely for the title.
The final pack of six is led by J.C. Tran, a player the WPT community certainly knows. With tournament winnings of over $12.5 million, Tran is one of the most profitable live poker players of our time. What is more, he is a two-time WPT Main Tour Main Event champion.
Tran won his first WPT title back in 2007 when he took down the World Poker Challenge for a first-place prize of $683,473. Title number two came in 2014 when he won the WPT Rolling Thunder $3,500 Main Event, good for $302,750.
Tran will enter the final day of the WPT Legends of Poker Main Event holding a stack of 8.295 million. He took the chip lead on Day 3 of the event, finished that day as the chip leader, and maintained and cemented it on Day 4 of play.
And it was actually Tran who set the final table late on Wednesday. The player eliminated David “Doc” Sands in seventh place to scoop the latter’s chips and end the day with an even larger stack.
Art Papazyan bagged and tagged the second-largest stack at the end of Day 4 of play. The player accumulated a total of 6.005 million to secure a good Day 5 starting position. Fourteen-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth will start the day third in chips. Despite Hellmuth’s numerous poker accomplishments over the course of his career that spans back almost three decades, a WPT title has evaded the player so far. However, he is on fire now, coming fresh and victorious from the Poker Night in America-presented King of the Hill, and there is a huge chance that we see him capture the title.
D.J. Alexander (2.73 million), Adam Swan (1.655 million), and Marvin Rettenmaier (1.224 million) are the other three players that are set to return today for a final day of play. Rettenmaier, just like Tran, is eyeing his third WPT title. If any of the two players wins the Main Event, they will join Carlos Mortensen, Gus Hansen, Anthony Zinno, Chino Rheem, and Darren Elias in the elite club of three-time WPT Main Event winners.
About the 2017 WPT Legends of Poker $4,000 Main Event
As usual, The Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California is playing host to the WPT Legends of Poker festival. The $4,000 buy-in Main Event kicked off on August 25. It attracted a total of 763 entries, who generated a prize pool of $2,738,407. The money was split in 81 portions, with minimum cashes starting from $7,135.
The tournament’s final table will be played today at the host venue. Action is set to resume at 4 pm local time. Each of the six finalists is guaranteed a minimum cash of $91,825. As mentioned above, the winner will receive $653,692, including a seat in the WPT Tournament of Champions, as well as a Hublot Watch.
