The Bicycle Casino Hosts Media and Mariani/Buss Charity Tournament Prior to Welcoming the World Poker Tour for the Legends of Poker Main Event

BELL GARDENS, Calif., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- The Bicycle Casino wraps up a month-long series of tournaments this week as it prepares for the start of the World Poker Tour $10,000 Legends of Poker no-limit hold'em main event set to begin on Saturday, August 25.

Twenty-two tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $300 to $2,500 have crowned champions whose names will proudly be added to the Legends of Poker record books. Thousands of the best players from around the world flocked to Southern California to participate in the widely acclaimed Bicycle Casino Legends events. One of those tournaments was the $1,000 WPT Ladies Night No-Limit Hold'em event that teamed up with the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation to benefit a worthwhile cause and send the winner, Pamela Brunson, to the WPT Ladies Night Out tournament on August 31. "We were excited to add a $1,000 buy-in tournament, part of the LPA (Ladies Poker Association) Tour to this year's event, along with our LIPS (Ladies Invitational Poker Series) Tour event held early in the schedule. The ladies of poker have been asking for higher limit events, and clearly, women are very important to the Bike," states Kelley O'Hara, the Bike's Director of Marketing.

The Bicycle Casino also hosted its annual Legends of Legends/Media Invitational on Thursday, August 23 where members of the media were invited to play in a no-limit hold'em freeroll tournament against Legends champions. Ninety-four players participated and enjoyed a fun event hosted by the Bike. James Hoeppner of Las Vegas was the third place finisher but the last Legend of Poker standing, which won him the $10,000 seat into the Legends of Poker main event this weekend. The final two players were locked in a media heads-up match that ended with All-In Magazine publisher Kasey Thompson defeating PokerPages reporter Brian Hepinstall to win the $2,500 cash prize and $2,500 donation to the Lakers Youth Foundation in his name. Thompson gave a portion of his winnings to Hepinstall and donated the remainder of the cash to a charity.

Also on Thursday, August 23, the Bike was host to the 6th Annual Mariani/Buss Charity Open to benefit the Lakers Youth Foundation. Lakers legends Mychal Thompson and Kurt Rambis were on hand to sign autographs, and a number of professional poker players like "Miami" John Cernuto, Marsha Waggoner, and Men "The Master" Nguyen joined the festivities. Beginning with a cocktail reception at 5:30pm, one hundred fifty five participants gathered to enjoy the buffet and play in the $1,000 buy-in tournament at 7pm. Donations were made to the Lakers Youth Foundation along with $97 from each buy-in contributed to the charity. The final 18 players will return tonight to crown a champion.

The World Poker Tour will coordinate with the Bike on Saturday, August 25 to host the Legends of Poker $10,000 main event. With thousands of poker players gathering to attend, there will be an additional Day 1 on Sunday, August 26. Each day's play will begin at 2pm. The tournament will culminate in the much-anticipated final table at 5pm on August 30 to be filmed by the World Poker Tour for airing on GSN in early 2008.

All players are welcome at the Bicycle Casino throughout the events, as hundreds of tables are available for poker, blackjack, 3-card poker and various other games at a wide range of dollar limits. During the Legends festivities, there is no other place to be than the Bike!

The Bicycle Casino 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 http://www.thebike.com/ .