The first day of the inaugural Epic Poker League Main Event kicked off on Tuesday and when the players bagged up their chips, it was New York’s Eugene Katchalov that sat in the lead. With 356,300 chips, Katchalov has almost a 70,000 chip lead over his closest opponent. With blinds and antes about to be 600/1,200/200, that lead is not insignificant, although there is still a lot of poker left to be played.
Katchalov is having an excellent year on the live tournament circuit. He started with a $1.5 million win in the Super High Roller Event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in the first week of 2011 and followed that up with a runner-up in the PCA High Roller Six-Max No-Limit Hold’em tournament, good for almost $132,000. He had another second place finish in a High Roller event, this time the Heads-Up Bounty Shootout at the North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun stop. This summer, Katchalov cashed three times at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), including a bracelet in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Event and a 4th place finish in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout. All told, he has won almost $2 million in live tournaments this year and over $6.4 million in his career.
The gentlemen sitting in second and third positions going into Day 2 have had their share of success recently, as well. Continuing his incredible (we were going to say “epic,” but that was too cheap and easy) streak of great play and “run good” is Ben “bemba” Lamb with 287,200 chips. Lamb was the star of the World Series of Poker, currently waiting to play the 2011 WSOP Main Event final table as a member of the November Nine. Lamb sits atop the WSOP Player of the Year standings thanks to five really deep runs, including a bracelet in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship, a runner-up finish in the $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Event, an 8th place finish, a 12th place, and of course, the Main Event final table.
In third place in the Epic Poker tournament, as well as in the WSOP Player of the Year standings is Brian Rast, who has 260,500 chips. Rast was a double bracelet winner at the WSOP, taking down the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em crown as well as the coveted $50,000 Poker Players Championship title for almost $2 million in combined winnings. He also placed 10th in the recently completed Epic Poker League Pro/Am.
All told, 137 paid the $20,000 to play in this Main Event (or won their seats at the Pro/Am), creating a $3.14 million prize pool after the additional $400,000 was added by the league. The top 18 places will pay, with a minimum prize of $43,190 and a first prize of $982,660. The field has already been chopped in half, with just 63 players remaining.
Play will resume today at noon Las Vegas time and the players will forge through another six levels before calling it quits. Tomorrow, the tournament will run until there are just six players remaining, with the final table being played out on Friday.
