37 Remain at WPT Legends of Poker with Jeremy Joseph and Kimbo Ung Sharing the Chip Lead

By Tim Duckworth

Day 2 of the Season XVIII WPT Legends of Poker $5,000 Main Event has concluded at The Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California. Just 37 players remain from the 520 entries, and it is Jeremy Joseph (pictured above) and Kimbo Ung (pictured above) holding the tied chip lead with 1,110,000 in chips.

Joseph has collected over $1.7 million in lifetime tournament earnings with nearly $300,000 of them coming on the World Poker Tour. Joseph has two cashes to his name including a third-place finish at the Season XVII WPT Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open for $240,945. Ung sits with over $145,000 in lifetime tournament earnings with just one cash on the World Poker Tour after he finished in 49th place in the Season XVI WPT L.A. Poker Classic for $18,550.

The day began with a total of 27 entrants joining the field with Season XVIII WPT Gardens Poker Festival Champion Roger Teska leading the likes of Ben Keeline, Jeremy Kottler, and Jim Collopy as first-time entrants, while Joe Serock, Ryan Remington, Andrew Wisdom, Bill Klein, Nikolai Sears, Danny Fuhs, Antonios Roungeris, Kristina Holst, and John Hennigan were some of the players re-entering.

With registration now closed, the 520 entrant field would create a prize pool of $2,392,000 that would see the final 65 players finish in-the-money with a guaranteed $8,190 payday. Reaching the WPT Legends of Poker final table of six players will earn each player a guaranteed $96,955, while the eventual WPT Legends of Poker Champion will take home the $474,390 first-place prize which includes a seat into the season-ending $15,000 buy-in WPT Tournament of Champions, along with having the honor of their name engraved on the WPT Champions Cup.

View the complete WPT Legends of Poker payouts here.

As players jostled for position on the leaderboard, the pace of play would be fast as a multitude of players found themselves on the rail. WPT Champions Club members Teska, Hennigan, Viny Lima, Dylan Wilkerson, Matt Salsberg, Ryan Van Sanford, Adam Weinraub, Tuan Le, Craig Varnell, Dylan Linde, Harry Arutyunyan, J.C. Tran, Daniel Strelitz, and Pat Lyons all fell short of the money. Also hitting the rail prior to reaching the money include WPTDeepStacks Champions Upeshka De Silva, Faraz Jaka, and Jasthi Kumar, WPT500 Las Vegas Champion Sean Yu, and WPT Raw Deal Host Phil Hellmuth.

With the money bubble lasting several hands, it would unfortunately be Bud Lavassani (pictured above) becoming the WPT Legends of Poker bubble boy courtesy of Serock. Lavassani shoved all in from the small blind holding and was called by Serock in the big blind holding . The board ran out and Serock turned two pair to send Lavassani to the rail and guarantee the remaining 65 players a $8,190 pay day.

From there, Adam Levy (64th), Patrick Eskandar (61st), Mike Sexton (57th), Larry Ormson (56th), Kevin Song (53rd), Chance Kornuth (49th), Sam Panzica (48th), Ankush Mandavia (43rd), Phong Turbo Nguyen (41st), and Ryan Lenaghan (38th) all finished in the money, but short of a Day 3 berth.

With 37 players bagging chips to end the day, it would be Joseph and Ung sharing the chip lead with 1,110,000. The only players joining them in the seven-figure club are Brian Altman (1,050,000) and Gueorgui Gantchev (1,025,000). Nipun Java (820,000), Kitty Kuo (715,000), Owais Ahmed (580,000), Taylor Black (495,000), Isaac Baron (435,000), Jared Griener (405,000), Aaron Mermelstein (395,000), Cord Garcia (380,000), Phil Laak (320,000), Serock (285,000), Jordan Cristos (275,000), and Mohsin Charania (245,000) are just some of the players surviving into the penultimate day of play.

Day 3 begins on Tuesday, September 3, at 12 p.m. (PT) with the final 37 players guaranteed a $12,080 payday with plans to play down to the WPT Legends of Poker final table of six players, or eight 90-minute levels. Stay tuned right here to WPT.com for the exclusive live coverage of the tournament from start to finish to see who becomes the WPT Legends of Poker Champion, and wins his or her way to the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.

Photography by Jamie Thomson / PokerPhotoArchive

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