LA resident Tuan Le is the new World Poker Tour champion, taking
home $2.9 million after 7 tough hours at the Bellagio tables in what
has become the world's most expensive poker tournament, reports the
Las Vegas Sun.
Now in its third year at the Bellagio, the tournament draws only a
few hundred people compared with the thousands that gather each spring
for the World Series of Poker. But with a $25,000 buy-in, the Bellagio
event attracts the world's best and most aggressive players.
There were no Internet-tournament players - the six people who made
the final table Sunday are all experienced casino tournament players.
Le won a World Poker
Tour event at the Foxwoods casino in Connecticut last year. Paul
Maxfield of England, who took second, placed in a World Series of
Poker event last year. Third place winner Hasan Habib of Los Angeles
placed second at last year's WPT Championship. Long Beach resident
John Phan, in fourth, won a Commerce Casino tournament this year and
placed in a tournament at the Plaza casino in downtown Las Vegas last
year. Fifth place winner Rob Hollink of the Netherlands won a European
Poker Tour tournament in Monaco this year.