Antonio Esfandiari In Front After Day 1a of WPT Festa al Lago

Lance Bradley | October 21, 2008 at 1:34 pm

More than four years after his ground-breaking win at the World Poker Tour’s L.A. Poker Classic Antonio “the Magician” Esfandiari appears to be up to his old tricks.

Esfandiari chose Day 1a as his starting day for the $15,000 buy-in WPT Festa al Lago at the Bellagio and given his massive chip lead, it appears to have been the right call. With 313,000 chips Esfandiari is 103,200 ahead of his nearest competitor, Nick Sliwinski, who has 208,900.

Esfandiari’s lead can be partially attributed to a confrontation with the November Nine’s Scott Montgomery. Holding a set Esfandiari was all too happy to call Montgomery’s all-in check raise. At the time both players were hovering near the chip lead but the monster pot sent Esfandiari onto his strong finish.

One poker player that grabbed a lot of attention at the Bellagio on Monday was Olympian Michael Phelps. The 14-time gold medal winner was escorted around the Fontana Lounge by Phil Hellmuth leading to speculation that Phelps may enter the tournament and play on Day 1b. Phelps recently made the final table of a a $1,500 buy-in Caesars Palace Classic event.

The top five chip counts feature some more big names with big stacks. Right behind Esfandiari and Sliwinski is Jennifer Tilly with 195,050 and Andrew “good2cu” Robl is in fifth with 173,450. Also having a strong start to the tournament were Joe Sebok (142,050), Johnny Chan (138,000), Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron (116,825) and Allen Cunningham (105,825).

Day 1a brought out 153 players and when the day was done 52 had been sent to the rail. Some of the biggest names eliminated on Day 1a included Hellmuth, Alan Goehring, Carlos Mortensen and Phil Laak. Day 1b will begin Tuesday at 3 pm ET.

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