Bicycle Casino to Host WPT Legends of Poker Beginning Saturday in New $4 Million Events Center

Bicycle Casino to Host WPT Legends of Poker Beginning Saturday in New $4 Million Events Center

Date:8/22/2009 5:10:00 AM

BELL GARDENS, Calif., Aug. 21 // -- August is always an exciting month at The Bicycle Casino, and this year has been even more thrilling as the Southern California landmark celebrates its 25th anniversary with the Legends of Poker tournament series in its new Event Center. And on August 22, the Bike will welcome hundreds of the world's best poker players to its newly remodeled setting for the highly anticipated World Poker Tour $10,000 Legends of Poker No-Limit Hold'em Main Event.

The poker tournament series began on July 28 with the Employees NLHE event and followed up the next day with the official Event Center Grand Opening and Celebrity-Media Invitational Poker Tournament, which was attended by 60+ celebrities, pros and media professionals like JK Simmons, Camryn Manheim, Jamie Gold, Willie Garson, Mike Lansford and local TV news anchor Phillip Palmer. Ultimately, poker pro Annie Duke won the tournament, and $2,000 was donated to her charity, Ante Up For Africa.

As Legends of Poker continued through the month of August, poker players from around the world began to arrive for the numerous preliminary events, as well as to attend the Mariani/Buss No-Limit Hold'em Charity Poker Tournament on August 20 to benefit the Lakers Youth Foundation. Laker team owners, Frank Mariani and Jerry Buss were both in attendance with their families, and the event presented a good time for all. The tournament was an endurance test finishing at 11AM the next day, with Xuan Nguyen walking away the winner of $27,460.00, with $10,700 going to Lakers Youth Foundation.

All of the festivities leading up to one of the biggest World Poker Tour events of the year, the $10,000 buy-in Legends of Poker Main Event. Last year, there were 373 players in the tournament, and the final table action found local favorite John "The Razor" Phan able to defeat Amit Makhija in front of a live, fan-filled audience. Phan took home $1,116,428 with the WPT title. The 2009 Legends Main Event looks to be just as thrilling with millions of dollars on the line.

The tournament will start on Saturday, August 22, and wrap with the final table on August 26 at the new $4 million Bicycle Casino Event Center, just down the hall from the new "Legends" restaurant. With Zaven "Z" Esmaili and Eveliene Dullaart having recently taken over Poker Operations, and Jay Siegel as this year's Legends Tournament Director, the entire event will be taken to new heights in 2009.

The Bike's Marketing Director, Kelley O'Hara commented, "This is such an exciting year for the Bike! As a result of the courageous vision of Haig Kelegian [Managing Partner] and Hashem Minaiy [CEO], we have a gorgeous and spacious Event Center for our signature Legends of Poker Tournament series. We couldn't be more proud of the changes we've made, and The Bicycle Casino looks forward to welcoming players and fans alike in the days, weeks, and years to come."

Poker, blackjack, and other table games are offered year-round at The Bicycle Casino, which is located at 7301 Eastern Avenue, Bell Gardens, CA 90201, just off the 710 freeway and only minutes from the LAX and downtown Los Angeles areas.

For more details, see www.TheBicycleCasino.com. Contact: Kelley O'Hara at (949) 230-9957 or kohara4@gmail.com.