August 12 2011, Donnie Peters
Day 3 of the first Epic Poker League Main Event wrapped up on Thursday night after the elimination of Adam Levy in seventh place. Levy took a sick beat on the river after first sucking out on the flop with pocket queens versus Chino Rheem’s pocket kings. Rheem rivered a better full house however, eliminating Levy, ending the tournament for the day.
With Levy being sent to the rail, Rheem and five others were left in contention for the title: Gavin Smith, Jason Mercier, Hasan Habib, Huck Seed and Erik Seidel. There’s certainly no shortage of superstar power at the final table and Friday is set to be a great day of poker.
When the day began, Sam Trickett led the final 18 as the only player over one million in chips. Trickett was able to ride his stack out to an 11th-place finish after not being able to get much going during the day. On his final hand, Rheem busted Trickett with pocket nines. Trickett failed to get there holding two sevens after all of the money went in preflop. Eugene Katchalov (8th), Matt Glantz (14th), Hoyt Corkins (17th) and Justin Bonomo (18th) were a few of the other bust outs on the day en route to this first EPL final table.
Two of the top three players in the world, according to the Global Poker Index, are still in contention at the final table. Seidel sits in second on that rankings list and Mercier in third. Both have had an amazing year already and snatching this title would only set them further apart from the rest of the poker world. Already in 2011, Seidel has earned $5,656,738 in live tournament earnings coming from 14 cashes, which includes nine top-10 finishes, four of which are wins. Mercier has won $1,183,770 this year and has 10 cashes, which includes seven top-10 finishes, three of which are wins. One of those wins for Mercier is a World Series of Poker gold bracelet, the second of his career.
The GPI’s number one spot is currently held by Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, but that is set to change when this event crowns a winner. Both Seidel and Mercier have already locked up enough points to move ahead of Grospellier and the two are now fighting for the number one spot overall, depending on how they finish up on Friday.
Leading the way into the final table on Friday will be Hasan Habib with 1.655 million in chips. He’s followed by Mercier in second and Rheem right behind him. Seed rounds out the final six with the shortest stack of 396,000.
All six remaining players have locked up a minimum of $107,980 for their work so far. There’s still plenty of poker to be played and tons of work to be done if one of these six want to become the very first EPL champion and take home that $1,000,000 first-place prize.
When they return tomorrow, here’s how they’ll stack up around the table.
Final Table Lineup
| 1 | Hasan Habib | 1,655,000 |
| 2 | Erik Seidel | 1,109,000 |
| 3 | Chino Rheem | 1,432,000 |
| 4 | Gavin Smith | 766,000 |
| 5 | Jason Mercier | 1,495,000 |
| 6 | Huck Seed | 396,000 |
Play will resume Friday at 1400 PDT (2200 BST) in Las Vegas at the Palms Resort Casino. PokerNews will be right back in the building providing all the live updates from the final table and it’s one that you surely won’t want to miss.
Be sure to follow PokerNews on Twitter for all of your up-to-the-minute poker news.
Thu, 02/24/2011 – 03:21 – PokerPages Staff
#5 – Peter Traply
This 23-year-old from Budapest became the first Hungarian ever to win a coveted WSOP gold bracelet on June 21st 2009 at the WSOP Shootout No-Limit Hold’em event. His bravura performance put an extra $348,755 into his bank account and his total winnings currently stand at $776,414.
#4 – Valdemar Kwaysser
Another resident of Budapest, Valdemar Kwaysser showed the world his mastery of the game in 2010, when he, too, won a gold bracelet at the WSOP Pot Limit Hold’em Championship. The victory brought the biggest of his 14 cashes to date, with a prize of $617,214. His winnings now total $1,345,089.
#3 – Richard Toth
He began his working life with a degree in political science and a job in an IT company, but it wasn’t long before Richard Toth, who lives in Miskolc, discovered he was a wasting his poker talents. He’s now proud of his status as a Team PokerStars Sponsored Pro and he’s won a total of $1,133,278; we’ll see a lot more of him in 2011.
#2 – Andras Koroknai
The guy from Drebecen, Hungary, seemed to come out of nowhere to take down the first prize at the World Poker Tour’s LA Poker Classic in February 2010. His win instantly made him a millionaire, and although his subsequent performances haven’t been as spectacular, he’s got real potential. His total winnings now stand at $1,827,411.
#1 – Denes Kalo
Top of the Hungarian poker talent poll, however, has to be this former Head of Trading at a Budapest brokerage firm. Denes discovered his formidable poker mettle at the 2006 Austrian Classics, but had his most stunning win came in 2008, when he finished second at the EPT Grand Final PokerStars EPT. This made him $1,545,221 at a stroke, and his total winnings now exceed $2 million.
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