As the first Main Event of the new Epic Poker League gets set to kick off at the Palms Resort Hotel in Las Vegas, Steve O’Dwyer might find it hard to concentrate. O’Dwyer, a 29-year old poker pro, won the league’s first Pro/Am tournament yesterday, besting 189 competitors and pocketing $23,810 plus the $20,000 seat in today’s Main Event.
While not a household name by any means, O’Dwyer is no stranger to live tournament success, having already won just a hair over $1 million in his career. His biggest cash was, coincidentally, the last one before the Epic Poker League tournament, when he won the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the Bellagio Cup VII just three weeks ago for $259,452. He has eleven career World Series of Poker cashes and three World Poker Tour cashes, including a $202,362 haul for a sixth place finish at the 2009 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event.
Before this victory, O’Dwyer ranked 129th on Epic Poker’s Global Poker Index (GPI), a ranking system designed to determine the best live tournament players in the world, based on the preceding 36 month period. The win will certainly vault him in the standings, ahead of the likes of David “Chino” Rheem (128th) and Justin Smith (127th), and possibly above Shaun Deeb (116th), Erick Lindgren (114th), and David Williams (109th).
O’Dwyer was the chip leader heading into the six-handed televised final table, consisting of mostly unknown poker pros. Unknown, that is, except for Andy Bloch, who placed 3rd. Bloch was the only member of the Epic Poker League to make the final table. All of them, though, as well as 7th through 9th place finishers, won $20,000 seats in the Main Event.
As for that Main Event, the $20,000 buy-in tournament begins this afternoon at 12:00pm Pacific time at the Palms. The only players able to register are those who have earned their Epic Poker League membership cards or won a seat at the Pro/Am. $400,000 will be added to the prize pool, so there should be a further incentive to play above and beyond the desire to be the best of the best. Unlike most poker tournaments, this one will be strictly six-max. Players will receive 50,000 in starting chips and will play six 90-minute levels on each of the first two days. Blinds start at 100/200. On Day 3, play will halt when the field is narrowed to six players. The televised final table will commence on Friday, August 12th, at 2:00pm. Players can register up until the start of Level 5, which will come immediately after the dinner break.
The next Epic Poker League tournament series will start on September 2nd with the Pro/Am Event. The Charity Event will be on September 4th, while the Main Event will run September 6th through September 9th. There will be two addition tournament series before the League Championship, a $1 million freeroll for the top 27 money winners across the four Main Events, which will be held on February 13th, 2012.