September 04 2011, Cory Dowd

After almost 12 full levels of play on Day 1b of the Epic Poker League $1,500 Pro/Am #2, the second starting field of 53 players has been narrowed down to 11. Just because the field was on the small side, this did not mean that it was easy to prevail. A host of professionals turned out, many already a with an EPL membership card. Among these pros were David “Bakes” Baker, Layne Flack, Bryan Devonshire, Chau Giang, John Hennigan, David Singer, Dutch Boyd and Eric Buchman. There were also three World Series of Poker Main Event champions playing on Saturday: Huck Seed, Carlos Mortensen, and Jamie Gold, although, none of those world-class players were able to make it to Day 2.

In the end, it was Ryan Young, Tim West, Sean Getzwiller, Nam Le, Andreas Hoivold, Jeremiah DeGreef, JJ Liu, Brent Roberts and Michael Divita who are moving on to play on Sunday. Finishing on top, though, was Greg Mueller with 140,500 chips. He’ll be the overall chip leader going into Day 2.

Combined with the nine players from Day 1a, a star-studded field remains, few of whom would even consider themselves “amateurs.” Headlining the Day 1a players to make it through is Phil Hellmuth, ending his Day 1a conquest with 27,800. He’ll be joined by Rep Porter, Matt Marafioti, Brandon Meyers, Russell Rosenblum, Christian Harder, Jamie Kaplan, Orson Young and Jeremy Ausmus who bagged up a Day 1a high 96,500 in chips. Ausmus will start in third place when the fields combine.

On Sunday, these 20 competitors will play down to nine. Each member of the final table will win a $20,000 seat into the Main Event, which starts Tuesday. More importantly, those who are not already EPL card members will need this achievement in order to even be eligible to play the upcoming Main Event. For those “amateurs,” Sunday will be the key to poker’s most exclusive event and a chance to test their skills with the absolute best in the world. Plus they’ll have a shot as a large sum of money never hurts either.

Another story that developed Saturday is the overlay. Because 132 players are needed to reach the $180,000 guarantee, and drawing only 97 between both starting days, there is a significant amount of money that will have to be put up by the EPL, creating some great value for the players in the event.

Almost half of the remaining players will get their hands on $20,000, and with the field almost as good as the EPL Main Event itself, the action is sure to be intense. Day 2 begins at 1200 PDT (2000 BST) at the Palms Resort Casino in Las Vegas on Sunday. As usual, stay tuned to PokerNews for all the poker you can handle!

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Thu, 09/01/2011 – 06:42 – PokerPages Staff

The 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event advanced to Day 4 in the latest episodes aired by ESPN on Tuesday evening. Chip leader Patrick Poirier and Sam Barnhart were among those who sat down at the eight-handed secondary feature table.

However, it was Phil Hellmuth who got the action off to a fast start. The ‘Poker Brat’ flopped a nut flush to take down a sizable pot and chip up to 115,000. Humberto Brenes was the first player to depart. The veteran pro ran his pocket Kings into Mike Ellis’ A-A to end his hopes of a third WSOP bracelet win.

Sam Barnhart then made his mark on proceedings after extracting maximum value from Poirier with a premium hand before locking horns with John Wilson. The recent WSOPC National Championship winner called down a flopped shove from his opponent with two pair and neither the turned 2 nor the rivered 9 could improve Wilson’s top pair as Barnhart snared the 321,000 chips.

Hellmuth eventually saw his hugely successful WSOP come to a close. Hellmuth got his last 20 big blinds in the middle post flop with pocket threes but his modest pair was dominated and the final two streets changed nothing. “We’ll let history be the judge of the World Series. I mean three seconds, it hurts a lot. But I know, on some levels, I did phenomenally well,” Hellmuth said to Kara Scott in an interview.

The money bubble burst during the second episode only several hands after Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu found himself all in. Luckily for ‘Kid Poker,’ his top pair, top kicker prevailed but it was not such good news for Reza Kashani who departed when his pocket Kings failed to hold up against Joseph Cheong’s set of queens.

The PokerPages Tournament Database is a great resource for a reminder of the 2011 WSOP results.