Saturday, August 13, 2011

Epic Poker - Inaugural Tournament Series

The very first Epic Poker tournament series has just come to completion at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas.  (For those that hadn't heard, this is the league created by a group called Federated Sports and Gaming League which includes Annie Duke and Jeffery Pollack amongst others).

There were 3 tournaments that ran from August 5th to the 12th.

PRO/AM EVENT


Buy-in - $1 500
Entries - 190
Prize Pool - $259 350


The top 9 players gained a $20 000 seat into the Main Event.  Andy Bloch was the only player in the top 9 that already has a card to play in the Main Event, so 8 players that had been blocked from the big one, got their chance to prove themselves against the world's best.  Here is how this event played out;

 1st:     Steve O'Dwyer        $43,810 
 2nd:    Brandon Meyers      $31,900
 3rd:     Andy Bloch             $27,540 
 4th:     Cliff Waite               $25,160 
 5th:     Jeremiah DeGreef    $23,570 
 6th:     Micah Raskin           $22,780 
 7th:     Dan Fleyshman         $21,990 
 8th:     George Long            $21,190 
 9th:     Sean Getzwiller        $20,000 
10th:    Brian Rast                $3,170 
11th:    Michael Chow         $3,170 
12th:    Vanessa Selbst        $3,170 
13th:    Evan Karcie            $2,380 
14th:    Aniko Lendvai         $2,380 
15th:    Jordan Jayne           $2,380 
16th:    Chris Klodnicki       $1,590 
17th:    Mike Matusow        $1,590 
18th:    Eli Elezra                 $1,590 



CHARITY EVENT



Buy-in - $240 with $100 rebuys and a $100 add on
Entries - 91
Prize Pool - $53 800 - all of which went to Operation USA

The first ever Epic Poker Charity event was hosted by Brad Garrett and Jeremiah Smith.  The charity of choice for this tournament was Operation USA which will benefit the victims of the tornadoes that devastated Joplin Missouri.  The tournament was quite a fun event with players joking with one another as well as with the rail.  The final table had Gavin Griffin raving about how this was one of the toughest tables he has ever played at.  Besides Griffin, the final table featured Dwyte Pilgrim, Justin Young, Mike McDonald and the winner, Andy Frankenberger.

Frankenberger donated his 80% of his first place money to Operation USA and the remaining money to the dealers.


MAIN EVENT

Buy-in - $20 000 
Entries - 137
Prize Pool - $3 140 000 (includes $400 000 added by Federated Sports and Gaming)

This was run as a 6-Max No Limit Hold'Em event and was only open to Epic Poker League card carrying members as well as the top 9 finishers from the Pro/Am.  The tournament structure was developed by Matt Savage, so you know it was a good one.

The final table of this event featured a ridiculous amount of talent as you would expect with the design of  this league.  Hasan Habib, Jason Mercier and Chino Rheem started at the top end of the chip counts while Gavin Smith, Erik Seidel were lower in the counts with Huck Seed entering as the chip stack.  

Seed made up some ground before being knocked out in 6th.  Mercier then knocked out Smith when Smith's nines failed to improve against Mercier's queens.  Habib was the next to go when his sixes were barely overpaired by Rheem's sevens.  Seidel sent Mercier to the rail in 3rd when he won a big coin flip and then finished him off when Mercier shoved with 89 off suit.  

Heads up had Rheem winning pot after pot and had him and Seidel showing each other cards and having a great time talking back and forth.  In the end Seidel had AQ and Rheem had AK and the win.

Rheem didn't show much joy in his win which might be explained by the rumours that he owes a number of pros money, some of whom were sweating his final table play, waiting to collect.  Rheem was escorted to the cage following the presentation of the championship ring by League Commissioner Annie Duke.

Here is the ITM list for the Main Event;

1st: Chino Rheem - $1,000,000
2nd: Erik Seidel - $604,330
3rd: Jason Mercier - $360,970
4th: Hasan Habib - $237,560
5th: Gavin Smith - $154,260
6th: Huck Seed - $107,980
7th: Adam Levy - $70,960
8th: Eugene Katchalov - $70,960
9th: Brandon Meyers - $70,960
10th: Isaac Baron - $49,360
11th: Sam Trickett - $49,360
12th: Ted Lawson - $49,360
13th: Noah Schwartz - $43,190
14th: Matthew Glanz - $43,190
15th: Dan Fleyshman - $43,190
16th: Hafiz Khan - $43,190
17th: Hoyt Corkins - $43,190
18th: Justin Bonomo - $43,190

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