The 20th anniversary running of the L.A. Poker Classic has been ongoing for more than a month now at the Commerce Casino, but the centerpiece of this celebrated series is just now about to kick off. The $10,000 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Main Event gets underway on February 24th, and will continue on until a champion is crowned on the 29th.
This tournament has a history of massive prize pools and notable winners. In fact, in the past six years the prize pools of the LAPC Main Events have totalled more than $40 million, with a $11.5 million awarded to the past six champions. Since becoming a WPT event, some of poker’s biggest names have won this prestigious tournament, including Gus Hansen, Michael Mizrachi, Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Ivey.
Last year the Main Event drew an impressive 681 players, building a $6,537,600 prize pool. Eventual champion Gregory Brooks took home $1,654,120 and 2,400 POY points for topping that huge field and a tough final table that featured all-time leading WPT money-earner Carlos Mortensen, Vivek Rajkumar, 2010 Online Player of the Year Steve Gross, Daryll Fish and Amir Lehavot.
