It appears that at least one member of the November Nine can’t wait until November to make some waves in the poker world. Steven Begleiter, the former Bear Sterns executive who sits third in chips in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, is leading the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker event after Day 1 in Los Angeles.

Begleiter ended the first day of play with 235,275 chips and is nearly 100,000 chips ahead of his nearest competitor, Alex Golshanara. A total of 279 players in the field make this the smallest $10,000 buy-in Legends of Poker Main Event in history. Despite the low turnout tournament organizers managed to build a prize structure that sees first place pay a cool $1 million.

The average chip count after the first day is 46,500. Golshanara finished the day with 135,025. He’s followed closely by Tommy Vedes (124,725), Eugene Katchalov (124,725) and Sam Stein (112,250).

Some of the bigger names in contention after the first day are Nick Schulman (88,000), Jonathan Little (81,100), Billy Baxter (74,375) and David Pham (68,900). Players who made the trip to the Bicycle Casino for the event but saw their tournament end on Day 1 include David Williams, Barry Greenstein, Carlos Mortensen, Michael Binger, Jimmy Fricke and Kevin Saul.

Only 180 players survived the action on Day 1 and will return to the felt on Day 2 at 3 pm PT. 

WPT Legends of Poker Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts

1. Steven Begleiter  235,275 
2. Alex Golshanara  135,025 
3. Tommy Vedes - 124,725 
4. Eugene Katchalov - 124,150 
5. Sam Stein - 112,250 
6. Markus Gonsalves - 108,600 
7. Matt Marafioti - 107,500 
8. Eddie Ngo - 105,000 
9. Mike Krescanko - 104,950 
10. Toto Leonidas - 90,525

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