2011 WPT Legends of Poker Final Table Set

Today is the day that every player on the World Poker Tour (WPT) wants to reach: the televised final table. Just six players were able to hit that goal when play stopped early Tuesday morning at the WPT Legends of Poker at the legendary Bicycle Casino, having outlasted 751 other players since Thursday. Going into final table play, it is Will “The Thrill” Failla atop the field, with 6,775,000 chips.

Not counting this tournament, the New Yorker has won over $2 million on the live tournament circuit during his poker career. This includes seven WPT cashes ($233,494 total winnings) and 18 World Series of Poker (WSOP) cashes ($469,040). The last two years have been particularly good for him at the WSOP in terms of number of cashes, with five coming this year and seven last year. His biggest tournament cash occurred in January 2011 when he won the $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, banking $241,950. Failla’s deepest WPT run was in this May’s WPT World Championship at the Bellagio, where he placed 15th.

Will Failla was obviously both exhausted and excited when play concluded around 3:45am Pacific time, as he tweeted a string of random text a short time ago. Maybe it was delirium from the all-nighter, maybe it was nervousness, but either way, the man needs to rest his brain.

One of the most important hands of the day came only about half an hour before play ended this morning. With seven players remaining, the tournament was just one elimination away from setting the televised final table. Ken Aldridge, one of the chip leaders going into Day 4, was now one of the shorter stacks with only 18 big blinds remaining. After Ray Henson raised from the cutoff pre-flop, Aldridge moved all-in from the button and Henson called with K-K. Only one hand had that beat, and Aldridge had it. For good measure, Aldridge flopped an Ace, giving him a set and the resulting double-up, taking his stack up to 3,850,000.

That hand changed the complexion of the final table. Had Aldridge lost, he would have been knocked out and the final table would have been determined right there. Instead, Ray Henson was down to just over 1,000,000 chips and was instantly in desperation mode. After surviving an all-in with a chop, Henson was in even worse shape when he played his final hand. Shoving from early position pre-flop with A-6, he ended up against Jeff Vertes, who dominated him with A-K. The board presented no help for Henson and he was eliminated in 7th place.

Here is how the standings look going into Tuesday, the final day of the WPT Legends of Poker:

1. Will Failla – 6,775,000
2. Joshua Pollock – 5,315,000
3. Jeff Vertes – 4,005,000
4. Ken Aldridge – 3,640,000
5. Adam Aronson – 2,185,000
6. Owais Ahmed – 1,720,000

The $758,085 first prize is up for grabs as the final six recommence their battle at 4:00pm PST. For those who want to watch the proceedings without waiting for the telecast on GSN, the WPT will be providing its first ever final table webcast. It can be seen on a 30-minute delay on WPT.com.

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Poker argot:

ON THE COME - A situation where the player does not have a complete hand but hopes to make one if the right cards come up.
FORCED BET - In some stud games a player may be required to make a bet to start the action on the first card. This is similar conceptually to blinds and antes, but in this case is dependent on the cards shown rather than player position. Usually the weakest hand is forced to bet.
STRAIGHT FLUSH - A hand consisting of 5 cards in sequence and the same suit.
FOURTH STREET - In stud poker, the fourth card dealt to each player. Sometimes used to refer to the fourth community card dealt in Hold'em, although the more common term for this is TURN (q.v.).
DOYLE BRUNSON - In Hold'em, 10-2 in the hole. So named because Doyle Brunson won two straight WSOPs (q.v.) in 1975 and 1976 with 10-2 on the last hand. (Suited (spades) in 1975, unsuited in 1976).
RERAISE - To raise after an opponent has raised.

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