After what was an expected short Day Three, former World Poker Tour champion Joe Tehan has amassed a tremendous lead at the Epic Poker League‘s $20,000 “Mix-Max” Main Event after one of the most controversial hands seen in a poker tournament in some time.
Day Three began innocently enough, with 25 players remaining in pursuit of the latest EPL Main Event at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas and Noah Schwartz holding down the chip lead. The tournament schedule, as set by EPL Tournament Director Matt Savage, called for the players to work their way down to the final twelve players before calling it a day. Coincidentally, those final twelve players would also be the only players who would take home a payday from the $2.36 million prize pool.
With that in mind, the short stacks looked to gain ground on the leaders. Within the first hour, Randal Flowers had doubled up through Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, while Matt Graham was eliminated at the hands of Brock Parker. In what would turn out to be a huge hand in the early play – and would change the leaderboard – Schwartz, Hasan Habib and Scott Clements decided to square off.
After a raise from Schwartz and a three bet out of Clements, Habib decided to make his stand, pushing his chips into the center of the felt. After Schwartz moved all in over the top, Clements immediately made the call and tabled his pocket Aces. Habib, who was at risk, had a solid (but beaten) pocket Queens, while Schwartz held Big Slick. Although a King came on the turn, Clements’ Aces stood up, catapulting him to the top of the leaderboard, cutting a chunk out of Schwartz and eliminating Habib in 24th place.
By the time the players headed off for the first break, Yevgeny Timoshenko had joined Habib and Graham on the rail. Mizrachi kept moving up after his elimination of Graham, taking more chips from Parker when he rivered trip fours. Meanwhile, the final female professional in the field, Vanessa Rousso, continued to mount a drive for the championship by eliminating Eric Froehlich in 22nd place soon after the first break concluded.
Tehan, who started Day Three paly in sixth place, kept himself out of the limelight until about the midpoint of Friday’s play. In a blind fight, Tehan and Justin Smith decided to see a rainbow flop of K-Q-J, which ignited the action. Tehan made an 11K bet, only to get raised by Smith. After Tehan responded by moving all in, Smith made the call and tabled his K-Q for two pair. This wasn’t good enough, however, as Tehan dropped A-10 on the table for the Broadway straight. Looking for one of four outs to win the hand or a runner-runner Broadway to split the pot, Smith instead saw a measly four and seven on the turn and river to eliminate him in nineteenth and push Tehan over the 500K mark.
Over the next two hours, Marco Johnson, Flowers, Eric Baldwin and Parker would be eliminated in eighteenth through fifteenth places, respectively. While the players settled in for what they thought would be a slog on the bubble, it instead ended in a colossal hand that has the poker world buzzing.
After Faraz Jaka moved all in from under the gun, Rousso made an isolation move raise to 120,000 chips. After some deliberation, Tehan asked Rousso what she had left before pushing his chip leader’s stack into the center. Agonizing on the decision herself, Vanessa finally made the call of Joe’s raise and the threesome turned their cards.
Jaka’s pocket Aces were out in the for the main pot of roughly 190K, but Rousso held the edge in a monstrous side pot with her pocket Queens over Tehan’s unbelievably (you fill in the blank as to your thought) 4-2 off suit. A four came on the flop, keeping Jaka and Rousso in their respective leads, but a four on the turn stunned those in attendance. A river ten ended the action for the day, eliminating Jaka in fourteenth and Rousso as the understandably outraged bubble player in thirteenth.
Over Twitter, Jaka stated, “One of the most absurd hands ever…Tehan shoves 85bb with 4-2 and busts us both.” A stunned Rousso, for her part, simply stated, “Unbelievable. I just bubbled with QQ versus 2-4 off (suits dominating even).” After being quite talkative over Twitter during the day’s play (as he has been throughout the tournament), Tehan would justify his move by saying, “Thanks for all of the “donk” and “idiot” comments, folks. I never claimed to be the greatest. I’m just a recreational tourney player,” and has been silent since then.
That admittedly questionable move has put Tehan atop the leaderboard for Day Four, which starts at noon (Pacific Time) in the Palms, with an overwhelming lead. These men will attempt to knock Tehan off the top of the mountain:
1. Joe Tehan, 1.142 million
2. Michael Mizrachi, 627,500
3. Scott Clements, 496,000
4. Amit Makhija, 424,000
5. Hafiz Khan, 417,000
6. Jason Mercier, 394,500
7. Chris Klodnicki, 371,500
8. Andrew Lichtenberger, 298,500
9. David Williams, 242,500
10. Noah Schwartz, 225,000
11. Sorel Mizzi, 185,000
12. Amnon Filippi, 162,000
Action for Saturday’s Day Three may be as short (or even shorter) as Friday’s proceedings. The format calls for three, four handed tables for the players and the day will end once the final five players have been determined. On Sunday, the champion of this EPL Main Event will be determined, with the final two players engaging in a best two of three Heads Up match.
Very good article. Keep up the good work.