An "Epic" Day 2 Recap
Day 2 of the inaugural Epic Poker League Event is in the books as we played our way down to the final 18 competitors. While that officially takes us into the money, more importantly perhaps, is that everyone is now guaranteed points towards the end of the season freeroll when $1 million will be up for grabs. Sam Trickett continues his fantastic 2011 and will enter Day 3 with over a million chips, good enough for the lead after almost a full 13 levels of play. Trickett, along with the other 17 players, decided at the end of the day to take $17,340 from 2nd place and give it to the winner, so they are now fighting for $1,000,000 up top.
We started the day with 63 people remaining and players were eliminated early and often. Dwyte Pilgrim, Dan Shak, Vanessa Selbst, Sorel Mizzi, Phil Laak and Daniel Alaei were just some of the Level 1 casualties. As play continued, we lost Chad Brown, Shannon Shorr, Mike Sexton, John Racener, and Justin Young. Antonio Esfandiari made a fantastic play early in the day against Chino Rheem when he overbet the pot on a flop by moving all in for nearly 150,000, despite the pot having only reached about 30,000 to that point. Rheem called and Esfandiari's held on against the of Rheem. He too, however, could not make it through Day 2.
After the dinner break, play got increasing tense as the possibility of cashing in the very first EPL Event became more and more real. Ben Lamb, Tom Marchese and Nam Le all got within a table of making the history books but fell just short. Brian Rast was busted by Jason Mercier near the end of the day as well, in a hand he won't soon forget. Creating a pot of over 600,000, he moved all in on a board of with but was drawing dead against the of Mercier.
The most unfortunate player of the day, however, was Matt Graham who found himself exit squarely on the bubble. He limped from the small blind before Chino Rheem jammed from the big blind. Graham called off his final 142,500 with and found himself ahead against the of Rheem. It didn't take past the turn, however, for Rheem to make the nut-flush when the board ran out .
While Graham was understandably unhappy about his elimination, it brought a quiet smile to 18 faces around the room as they began bagging up their chips for tomorrow. It should also be noted that of the eight players that owned temporary cards via entry from the Pro-Am, two still remain, Dan Fleyshman and Brandon Meyers.
The first two days of the Epic Poker League have exceeded expectations. The field was strong with the top talent from across the world showing up to test their skills against the best. The action has been sharp, the pots lively and entertainment vast. Tomorrow will be sure to continue right along with those trends so be sure to check back here tomorrow at noon local time when, as always, we will have as much action as you can take as we play our way down to the final table!