One of the final major events of the 2011 tournament poker season is underway at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, as the Epic Poker League’s third of five scheduled events began yesterday afternoon.
As with the EPL tournaments, every Main Event has a different format. Originally, the scheduled event for this third tournament was to have been a Heads Up format, but that was apparently scrapped due to lack of interest from the players. With that in mind, the EPL hierarchy decided to go with a “mix-max” No Limit Hold’em format developed by Tournament Director Matt Savage. For Day One, the tables would be eight handed, with Day Two having seven player tables (this will go to six handed if play reaches 36 players before the end of the day).
On Day Three, six handed tables will play down to twelve players, who will break up into four handed tables. Those four handed tables will go through Day Four until the final five players are determined, with the final five returning on Day Five. Whoever survives to the final two from the Day Five play will play a best two of three match (chip counts from tournament in first two games, even chip stacks in third if necessary) to determine the champion.
Prior to the start of action on Wednesday, the EPL granted its first ever lifetime “player’s card” (the EPL gives out two, three and five year cards dependent on tournament performance each season) to none other than the legendary Doyle Brunson. As reported earlier this week at Poker News Daily, Brunson was given the highest accolade possible in the EPL because of his contributions to the game of poker and his achievements on the felt. After he was presented with this honor and received the admiring applause of those in attendance, Doyle gave the call to “shuffle up and deal” and the tournament began.
With players starting with 50K in chips, you would figure that there would be a glacial pace to the proceedings. This was not the case for this tournament, however, as every table was stacked with some of the best professionals in the game. There were several all ins within the first hour of action, with players such as Vanessa Rousso, Vanessa Selbst, Andy Frankenberger, Jason Mercier and Jonathan Little all dropping their chips in the center in the first level. Because of this level of action, such players as Justin Bonomo, Curt Kohlberg and Christian Harder were casualties of the early play.
Once Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier made his way to his table, this EPL tournament took on a different tone. For the first time in their three event history, the Top Ten players on the Global Poker Index were all participating in an EPL tournament. By the time the late registration period had ended, the field totaled 100 players and, with another $400,000 tossed in by Federated Sports & Gaming (the owners of the EPL), the total prize pool was $2.36 million. Twelve players will get a piece of that pie, with the eventual champion taking down $801,680.
The names that will not be around to play for that bounty are almost as astounding as those who will survive to play on Thursday. Matt Marafioti, Dwyte Pilgrim, Andrew Robl, Lyle Berman, Jennifer Harman, Chris Moorman and Pro/Am champion Andy Bloch were all among the eliminated by the time five levels had been played, but several potential stories have emerged to send 2011 off with a bang.
61 players will come back to the EPL tables at the Palms on Thursday, with Erik Seidel holding down the chip lead. Seidel, who has had an unbelievable tournament poker season that dates back to the beginning of 2011, is looking towards making a third consecutive trip to an EPL Main Event final table. In the inaugural tournament, Seidel was defeated by David “Chino” Rheem and, in the second event, he finished fourth behind Fabrice Soulier, David Steicke and eventual champion Mike McDonald.
Seidel will have to deal with these threats this afternoon at the Palms:
1. Erik Seidel, 223,100
2. Scott Clements, 203,400
3. Vanessa Selbst, 159,000
4. Brock Parker, 155,600
5. David Williams, 155,400
6. Matt Glantz, 148,700
7. Tom Marchese, 139,900
8. McLean Karr, 139,300
9. Amnon Filippi, 139,000
10. Sam Stein, 135,500
Among others above the average stack are Eric Froehlich (132,800), Hoyt Corkins (117,200), Mike “SirWatts” Watson (113,700), Eugene Katchalov (108,100) and Sorel Mizzi (102,400). Players such as former champion Rheem (11K), 2011 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Ben Lamb (18K), Chau Giang (23K), Phil Laak (29K) and Rousso (37K) will have their work cut out for them.
The action continues at noon today (Pacific time) and Poker News Daily will monitor the day’s events as the Epic Poker League looks to crown its third champion.
