Dan Harrington Wins 2007 Legends of Poker Main Event
Dan Harrington is 2007 Legends of Poker Champion
485 Poker Players paid the $10,000 for the World Poker Tour event at the 2007 Legends of Poker Championship Main Event in The Bicycle Casino near sunny Downtown Los Angeles, California. The prize pool was pumped up to $4,642,500 in this No Limit Hold’em freezout tournament with only 45 poker players making it to the cash. A 45th place finish gives $16,005 as a prize while a first place finish could land a payout of $1,600,365.
The WPT Legends of Poker Main Event kicked off on Saturday August 25, and went on for six days with the final table of 6 players working it for the WPT cameras on Thursday August 30. It took a Day1a and a Day1b to half the playing field. By end of Day Two of the Legends of Poker tournament, the 485 poker hopefuls were drastically cut to just 53, and with only 45 making it to the money. By the end of Day Three, there were only 18 players left with Joe Sebok and David Pham as the big chipleaders up to that point.
On Day Four, tournament commenced until a final table of 6 players was reached. There was a lot of amazing poker, but eventually Joe Sebok’s run ended at 7th place, leaving him out from the WPT television coverage that would cover the final table of 6 the next day. Joe Sebok still managed a $110,000+ prize, a pretty big ITM for the man who partnered with Barry Greenstein to come up with www.thepokerroad.com. - which is the one and only professional poker channel on the Internet.
Eventually, the final table of 6 which will come out in Season VI of the World Poker Tour video series included:
Shi jia ‘Jack’ Liu, a Management Science graduate from the University of California, San Diego who qualified to the Legends of Poker Main Event through a $1,000 satellite similarly to his co-final table player Thu Nguyen, who said that this final table finish is already the biggest highlight of his poker career.
There’s also top tournament player “Action” Dan Harrington who has amassed almost $5 Million in winnings, including an impressive WSOP Main Event Championship bracelet back in 1995 and two consecutive final table appearances in the WSOP Main Events of 2003 and 2004.
WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider is in a blistering streak this year - making three final tables and winning two bracelets in the recent World Series of Poker 2007. Schneider is currently ranked 12th in Card Player’s Player of the Year standings.
There’s also David “The Dragon” Pham, who has an impressive resume of 5 WPT final tables, two WSOP bracelets and Card Player’s Player of the Year in 2000. And there’s Michael McClain who was in the final table of the 2004 WSOP Main Event, and has some impressive ITM cashes in the 2006 WPT LA Poker Classic and in last year’s WPT Legends of Poker.
Of the six final table players, the first to go was Shi jia Liu, who got crippled earlier by a short-stacked Michael McClain. Eventually, Shi jia Liu pushed it with A-J off and was called by Harrington with QQ. A Jack on the flop helped Liu’s cause, but not enough to win the hand. Liu picked up almost $140K for his 6th place finish.
Michael McClain was next to go after a pre-flop raise, re-raise tug of war with Thu Nguyen eventually led to a pre-flop all-in. McClain called his A-Q suited to Nguyen’s J-J push. A Jack on the flop strengthened Nguyen’s lead. A club on the turn gave McClain outs, but the river didn’t pull through for McClain who scored $180,000+ for his fifth place finish.
Tom Schneider moved all-in under the gun with his A-9 off and was called by David Pham on the small blind with Kings. Schneider hit a 9 on the flop, but couldn’t improve and was taken out at 4th place and an almost $230,000 cash prize.
Thu Nguyen was the third to go. Nguyen pushed a little over a million in chips all-in from the big blind with A-5 suited. David Pham, who raised to 400,000 before Nguyen’s all-in, took the time to think and eventually called with A-Q off. The flop, turn and river didn’t hit anybody, and Pham’s Q kicker was enough to send Nguyen to the rail almost $390,000 richer.
The heads-up duel between David Pham and Dan Harrington should be regarded as a classic match, featuring two very different styles of poker play. There’s the hyper-aggression of David Pham versus the calculating game of Dan Harrington. At the beginning of heads-up play, David Pham was the chip leader, but a tug-of-war match saw the lead exchange a number of times.
Eventually, it was Dan Harrington who prevailed over David Pham in an all-in situation on the turn when Pham moved all in for all his chips and was quickly called by Harrington. Harrington showed two pair 10-5s and Pham only showed 7-5, drawing dead on the board. With their chips nearly equal, it took a while before the dealer and tournament director confirmed that Harrington had Pham covered, and that was the end of it. David “The Dragon” Pham takes away $800,000+ for second place while Dan Harrington takes close to $1.7 Million and the title of 2007 WPT Legends of Poker Champion.
This is Dan Harrington’s first WPT title, and becomes the fifth player to win both the WSOP Main Event championship and a WPT title. The others are Doyle Brunson, Joe Hachem, Carlos Mortensen and Scotty Nguyen.
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