John Phan Wins WPT Legends of Poker |
| Written by Jason Viscosi |
| Thursday, 04 September 2008 |
|
Poker professional John Phan took down the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker tournament this past weekend at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, California. Phan started the final table second in chips but was able to overtake Amit Makhija and win the title and the $1.1 million dollar first place prize. It has been a good year for Phan. He was the only player at the World Series of Poker to win more than one bracelet. He won the $5,000 2-7 Triple Draw event for $151,000 and a $3,000 No-Limit event where he took home $434,000. This Legends of Poker win was a good one for Phan and the heads-up battle with Makhijah was excellent. Phan held as much as a 4-1 lead in chips but Makhijah came back to take the lead. The hand that got Phan the 4-1 lead in chips came just after heads-up play began. Phan had A-K against Makhijah’s deuces and Phan hit a King on the river to win the hand and take the commanding chip lead. Surprisingly, Makhijah came back from that loss to get even and even take the chip lead again. The key hand that gave Phan a commanding lead once again came on a nothing board with four clubs. Phan called with J-9 hitting a nine high flush against a total bluff by Makhija. It was a great call and a critical hand in the match. The final hand was Phan’s pocket three’s holding up against Makhija’s K-7. It took 157 hands of final table play to determine the winner. 60 of those hands were heads-up between Phan and Makhijah. This was Phan’s third WPT final table. He finished fourth in the WPT Championship in Season 3 for over half a million dollars. He finished sixth in the Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament during Season Six and won just over $135,000. Here are the final table results and payouts from the WPT Legends of Poker: 1st place: John Phan - $1,091,428 The World Poker Tour goes to Atlantic City, New Jersey next for the Borgata Poker Open, which begins on September 14th. |
