The LA Poker Classic was a beacon for a whole range of poker players from professionals to newcomers to the game. Held at Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, California from February 23, 2008 to February 28, 2008. this 6 day event drew 665 entries who each paid $10,000 to participate. At stake was the total pool prize of $6,384,000 which saw 63 payouts in all by the end of the tournament.

At the final table was a varied set of players who began pitting their skills with blinds beginning at 40,000 to 80,000 and antes at 10,000. The seating and chips count at the start of the final table were:

• Seat 1 – Quinn Do with 1,450,000 chips
• Seat 2 – Name Le with 1,180,000 chips
• Seat 3 – Phil Hellmuth with 2,380,000 chips
• Seat 4 - Phil Ivey with 4,100,000 chips
• Seat 5 – Charles Moore with 1,510,000 chips
• Seat 6 – Scott Montgomery with 2,680,000 chips

A tense battle of the titans ensued for over five hours before game ended at 10.42pm with Phil Ivey emerging as the new LA Poker Classic title holder, amassing a prize of $1,596,100. He beat Quinn Do with a winning hand of A hearts and 8 diamonds against Do’s 9 hearts and 8 hearts. At heads-up play, Ivey held more than a 4 to 1 chip lead over Do who made do with $909,400 in cash as the runner-up.

Charles Moore was eliminated in third place with $625,630 whilst Name Le took home $411,770. Scott Montgomery cashed $296,860 at the final table and Phil Hellmuth was the first to exit with $229,820.

Phil Ivey has earned the nickname ‘The Tiger Woods of Poker’. Not least because he’s a young, fresh faced African American aged 32 who holds 5 World Series of Poker bracelets to date and made 8 final tables. Born on February 1, 1976 in Riverside, California, Ivey grew up in Atlantic City, New Jersey and is now a professional poker player based in Las Vegas, Nevada. He has accumulated total live winnings that exceed $10million at as the end of 2008.

Ivey is happily married to his high school sweetheart, Luciaetta and bypassed college to concentrate on poker full time. He is on the design team of Full Tilt Poker and can often be found playing high stakes cash games online at the site. He’s a Los Angeles Lakers and Houston Rockets fan who often wears basketball jerseys.

-- Reinu C.