Bodog Beat

Poker player Maria Ho is among the leaders heading into Day 2 of the WPT Legends of Poker. (Bodog Beat Image)

The WPT Legends of Poker event kicked off this weekend at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles and drew many of poker's biggest names to compete for the $1.09 million first-place prize. Now with Day 1A and 1B in the books, Mark Seif, Allen Cunningham, Freddy Deeb, Barry Greenstein and Maria Ho are among the leaders as the field heads into Day 2.

Even though the event drew a large number of well-known pros, attendance was still down sharply from last year, drawing only 373 total participants, a full 112 players less than the 2007 edition.  However, due to the lower numbers, the concentration of pros is higher, making it more likely that we will have more interesting stuff to write about.

Outside of the obvious storylines with the super well-known players, sitting in 10th place at the beginning of the day is 2008 WSOP final tablist and a member of the mythical supergroup "November 9″ is Kelly Kim, who seems to be using his newly-acquired bankroll to get into major tournaments and is doing quite well.

Other pros spotted out in the field were Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Michael Binger, Kathy Liebert, Scott Clements, Team Bodog members David Williams, Justin Bonomo, Jean-Robert Bellande and Ari "BodogAri" Engel, Daniel Negreanu, Jenn Tilly, Theo Tran, Alex Bolotin and Chad "lilholdem954″ Batista.

Play resumes at 2pm local time and will end when six blind levels have been completed. Stay tuned for more updates from the Bodog Beat and if you want a chance to qualify for the WPT for as little as $1, then check out the online poker satellites in the Bodog Poker room.