NAPT Los Angeles Main Event Final Table Moved from Bike to Crystal Casino in Compton

By Pauly
Los Angeles, CA

The final table of the NAPT Los Angeles will be played out at the Crystal Casino in Compton on Wednesday at 2pm. Much of the assumption going into the NAPT LA was that the final table would be played out at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, since that's where the tournament began on Friday. The official statement about the new location of the final table was released on Tuesday afternoon. The powers to be are calling it a "venue change", which is a fancy PR term for switcheroo.

I guess you can file this under breaking news, although there were whispers and rumors about the final table being played out in Compton began swirling around the Bike last weekend. The reasoning for the venue change is obvious -- the Bike has a contract with the WPT, which gives the WPT an exclusivity for televised poker tournaments at the Bike. Well, the loophole that the NAPT found was to start the tournament start and then end up at the Crystal Casino in Compton, where they do not have any exclusive contracts with the WPT.

When a televised $5,000 Bounty Shootout at the Crystal Casino was added to the schedule two weeks before the NAPT LA kicked off, all anyone could talk about was the fact that it was in Compton. Shootout in Compton. Sure, it's lazy and cheap joke, but that's what anyone was talking about. The schedule mentioned that the Shootout would start on Tuesday and the final table would be played out on Thursday. That should have been a "tell" that the Main Event final table could, at least in theory, be played out on the TV set since it was scheduled for Wednesday and that the top-notch crew at 441 Productions already constructed a final table stage/set for the Shootout.

I dunno what happened exactly behind the scenes but for now, the Crystal Casino has become a remote TV set for the NAPT Los Angeles, filming both the Shootout and the final table of the Main Event.

OK, so here's who advanced to the final table...

NAPT Los Angeles - Main Event Final Table Players & Chip Counts
Seat 1: Jake Toole - 1,975,000
Seat 2: Joe Tehan - 1,907,000
Seat 3: Mike Binger - 1,670,000
Seat 4: Anh Van Nguyen - 1,058,000
Seat 5: Jason Mercier - 3,800,000
Seat 6: Al Grimes - 982,000
Seat 7: Ray Henseon - 3,268,000
Seat 8: Christopher DeMaci - 6,283,000

NAPT LA - Main Event Final Table Payouts:
1st - $725,000
2nd - $440,000
3rd - $250,000
4th - $195,000
5th - $145,000
6th - $114,000
7th - $84,857
8th - $60,000

Follow along with the action at 2pm Wednesday over at PokerStarsBlog with coverage from three of the best scribes in poker: Otis, Howard, and Change100. I almost forgot about Joe Giron, one of the best photogs in the industry, helping tell the story with his exquisite photos.