Run for a Remington: LAPC Trophies Have Become One of the Hottest Poker Prizes

By Sean Chaffin

The cash is nice, but the trophy is pretty great too. That’s the general feeling among many winners here at the L.A. Poker Classic. With a history dating back to 1993, the L.A. Poker Classic has plenty of history and prestige.

Players in the WPT championship event aren’t only vying for a chance at big money and adding their name to the Champions Cup, the winner also adds the Commerce Casino’s Remington statue to their trophy collection. This year, 69 Remingtons were given out in events played out over two months. 

The trophy is one of the most sought-after pieces of hardware in poker. The sculpture is based on one of artist Frederic Remington’s first pieces called “Bronco Buster,” a real piece of Americana and the beautiful trophy harkens back to poker’s Old West roots – including many players battling it out on the felt in 19th Century California.

Remington was born in New York in 1861 and attended Yale University where he played on the football team. He fell in love with the American West on trips to Montana and New Mexico, and began memorializing the landscape, people, and culture of the region as a painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer. Much of his work featured cowboys, Native Americans, and the U.S. Cavalry.

Adding a Remington becomes quite an addition to any trophy case and one of the originals has been housed in the Oval Office at the White House for decades.

During the LAPC, Commerce hands out a statue to every winner (not including survivor tournaments). The pewter trophies aren’t light, weighing about 14 pounds, and the opportunity to take one home has led to the nixing of quite a few possible deals at final tables through the years. Many times, players would rather just play it out for a shot at taking home the trophy.

The Remington for the WPT Championship stands out even more. The sculpture is about three times the size of the other Remingtons and weighs 44 pounds. Simply lifting the trophy isn’t easy.

One player will walk away with that ultimate prize when the final table plays out on March 31at the HyperX Esports Arena at Luxor. Poker pro Faraz Jaka loved winning a Remington but his isn’t quite for the event he won.

“They’re awesome, they’re very unique,” he says. “I actually won a $1,000 no limit event but it was the last event of the series, so they only had limit trophies left. So mine says ‘limit’ at the bottom, but I swear I’ve never won a limit tournament.”

Sean Chaffin is a freelance writer in Crandall, Texas, and his work appears in numerous websites and publications. Follow him on Twitter @PokerTraditions.