When the World Series of Poker folds its tent—except for the November Nine playdown for the madefor- TV finale of the main event—poker tournament action moves to southern California as the Bicycle Casino and Commerce alternate tournaments during the fall, guaranteeing players that there is almost always an Autumn tournament series in the Los Angeles area.

The Legends of Poker is the Bicycle Casino’s signature event, and a major stop on the tournament trail for many players, and it runs about a month, beginning July 28 and ending up August 30. During that time there’s the week-long, World Poker Tour $5,000 buy-in event, with filming set for Wednesday, August 25 at 4 p.m.

There are also six events that each come with $150,000 guaranteed and three events carry a guarantee of $300,000. There’s also the Mariani/ Buss August 17 charity event that benefits the Los Angeles Lakers Youth Foundation, and some satellites offering a chance to win ones way into the IPPA Monte Carlo Championship. We’ll be bringing you results from this tournament series throughout its duration, and this issue contains results from the early events. Things got off with a bang, as 1,716 entrantes ponied-up $300 + $35 to enter the opening event, a no-limit hold’em tournament that carried a guarantee of a $400,000 prize pool. That was easily exceeded as the prize pool was nearly $500,000.

Mehrdad Shelechi took the first event, beating Estrella “Star” Baltazar heads-up, and winning $130,000. For her second place finish, Baltazar took home $60,856, while Jora Beit won $31,000 for third place, Raffi King’s fourth place finish netted $24,000, and Brian Markenson pocketed $18,000 for finishing fifth.

Early results follow, and we’ll continue our coverage of the Legends of Poker next issue.

BICYCLE casino LEGENDS OF POKER 2010

EVENT 5 8 /3/10
No Limit Hold’em
BUY-IN $200 + $25
PLAYERS 130 PRIZE
POOL $25,220
1. Michael Sanders . . . .$10,090
2. George Jura . . . . .$5,045
3. Roberto Valdez . . . . .$2,525

EVENT 4 8 /2/10
No Limit Hold’em
BUY-IN $250 + $25
PLAYERS 197
PRIZE POOL $38,693

1. Jeff Clayton. . . . . .$14,425
2. Luke Lyon . . . . . .$7,068
3. Jose Franco . . . . . .$3,630
4. Gioi Duc Luong . . . .$2,295

EVENT 3 8 /2/10
No Limit Hold’em
BUY-IN $200 + $25
PLAYERS 110
PRIZE POOL $21,340

1. Neng Lee . . . . . . .$8,550
2. Michael Marquez . . . .$4,275

EVENT 2 8 /1/10
No Limit Hold’em
BUY-IN $200 + $25
PLAYERS 256
PRIZE POOL $50,500

1. Harout Borsikian . . .$17,350
2. Jacky Lee . . . .$8,750
3. Arman Sogomonian . . $4,000

EVENT 1 7 /28/10
No Limit Hold’em
BUY-IN $300 + $35
PLAYERS 1,716
PRIZE POOL $499,356

1. Mehrdad Shelechi . $130,000
2. Estrella Baltazar. . . .$60,856
3. Jora Beit . . . . . .$31,000
4. Raffi King . . . . . .$24,000
5. Brian Markenson . .$18,000