The eagerly anticipated first Main Event of the Epic Poker League got under way yesterday at the Palms Resort Casino in Las Vegas and saw a total of 128 players exchange $20,000, and nine qualifiers swap their tickets for 50,000 tournament chips and a chance of winning almost $1,000,000.
The 137 players helped create a prizepool of $3,085,200 in this rake-free event that also boasted $400,000 added value. This huge amount of money will be distributed amongst the top 18 finishers with a min-cash being worth $43,190 and the eventual winner walking away with $982,660 for their efforts. Leading the way after the first day is Euguene Katchalov who managed to turn his 50,000 starting stack into a very impressive 356,300.
Katchalov is a member of Team PokerStars and is one of the most under-rated players of his generation, despite the fact he has close to $6,500,000 in live tournament winnings in his career so far. Katchalov is the model professional and often shuns the limelight of the media and just goes about his business and attempts to fly under the radar. Although he has performed consistently well over the past few years, which has earned him a three year Epic Poker League card, it has been his performances during the current year that have impressed the most. So far in 2011 he has managed to win the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Super High Roller event, that had a $100,000 buy-in, for a cool $1,500,000 and then came second in the six-handed $10,000 High Roller at the same festival. Along with a number of other deep runs, Katchalov also won his first World Series of Poker bracelet when he took down the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event a few weeks ago.
Hot on the heels of Katchlov is a certain Ben Lamb, a man who can seemingly do no wrong at the felt right now. Along with leading the WSOP Player of the Year standings, winning his first WSOP bracelet and reaching the final table of the WSOP Main Event, Lamb has also ended Day 1 of the Epic Poker League with a stack of 287,200 and yet another deep run is expected of him.
Play resumes at 1200 noon Las Vegas time and it is expected that they will play down to the money bubble. Who will make it and who will be swept aside by a fellow poker Goliath? Only time will tell.
Top six chip counts at the end of Day 1.
1st: Eugene Katchalov: 356,300
2nd: Ben Lamb: 287,200
3rd: Brian Rast: 260,500
4th: Antonio Esfandiari: 244,000
5th: Noah Schwartz: 220,000
6th: Vanessa Selbst: 205,000
