January 28 2012, Kevin Taylor

The World Series of Poker Circuit kicked off its third Main Event of 2012 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Friday. The first of two Day 1s had exceptional turnout as 308 players bought into the $1,600 event. Only 58 players survived after 15 levels of play, with Joe Kuether ending the day as the chip leader with 380,500. Jonas Mackoff was close behind with 355,000.

Kuether amassed his lead in a massive pot against Giorgio Medici. Each held about 190,000 in chips when Kuether got his all in preflop against the of Medici. The board gave Kuether a sweat, but his pair held on to move him to the top of the leaderboard. Medici was crippled and busted a short while later.

There is something to be said for the less fortunate because many of the players that hit the rail Friday are considered among the best in the world. Eric Baldwin, Steve Gross, David Williams, Justin Smith, Sam Barnhart, Tom Marchese, Scott Clements, Joe Tehan, David “Bakes” Baker and Ted Lawson all went down before the day ended. However, it is worth noting that we may see one or all of the aforementioned players on Saturday for Day 1b as the Main Event is a one-time re-entry tournament.

Two well-known pros were fortunate to survive on Day 1a. Gavin Griffin lost about half his stack early on but rebounded nicely to finish with 133,500. James Carroll, meanwhile, had his misfortune come later in the day. He started out extremely well and was the chip leader for the early part of the afternoon, but he nearly got stacked when he flopped top two pair against middle set. With some luck and patience, he was able to bag up 56,500.

Other notables that we will see on Sunday include Chip Jett, William Reynolds, Dan O’Brien, Sean Getzwiller and Allen Carter. Each of them held a steady pace throughout the day and will have healthy stacks when the fields combine on Sunday.

We’ll do it all again from the beginning on Saturday. Day 1b will start with a brand new field and play another 15 levels to complete our Day 2 flight. If the action is as faced paced Saturday as it was on Friday, you won’t want to miss anything. The cards are back in the air at 12 p.m. PST so check back in to the PokerNews Live Reporting page for all the updates you can handle.

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December 16 2011, Donnie Peters

The Epic Poker League continued on with Day 3 of the third Main Event as 25 players returned for play. The plan for the day was to play down until the money bubble broke and 12 players were left. The end came just about five hours after the first cards were dealt and leading the way was Joe Tehan with 1.142 million in chips.

Tehan got his chips thanks to a big double knockout on the last hand of the day to burst the bubble. His closest competitor is Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi with 627,500 and then Scott Clements rounds out the top three with 496,000.

Matt Graham was the first to go on the day. According to the EPL Live Update Team, Graham moved his last 31,500 into the middle during Level 10 with the blinds at 1,200/2,400/400. He was called by Brock Parker holding the . Graham held the , but the ladies couldn’t hold up after the board ran out .

From there, Hasan Habib fell in 24th, Yevgeniy Timoshenko was eliminated in 23rd, Eric Froehlich headed out the door in 22nd and Dan O’Brien hit the rail in 21st.

Sam Stein fell in 20th place after his failed to fend of Amnon Filippi’s and Justin Smith’s couldn’t beat Tehan’s , which sent him out the door in 19th.

After the eliminations of Marco Johnson in 18th, Randal Flowers in 17th, Eric Baldwin in 16th and Parker in 15th, just 14 players remained. Now just two places away from the money and a $51,920 payday, the unthinkable happened.

Faraz Jaka was nursing the short stack of the tournament when he raised all-in from under the gun for 68,000 with the blinds at 2,000/4,000/500. Action moved to Vanessa Rousso and she reraised to 120,000 with around 180,000 behind. When play got over to Tehan, he requested a count on Rousso’s stack and then reraised all-in. After some thinking, Rousso called and put herself at risk along with Jaka.

Jaka was fortunate enough to pick up at this very key moment. He was looking for the triple up against Rousso’s and Tehan’s . Wait, what? That’s right, Tehan held the ol’ deuce-four offsuit. What happened from there, we can’t really put into words.

What we can tell you is that the flop, turn and river ran out and Tehan had spiked trip fours to miraculously win the hand and bust both Jaka and Rousso on the bubble to end the day. Stunned, both players headed to the rail while the other 12 remained to bag up their chips for the day.

Day 4 Chip Counts

The final 12 players will return on Saturday at 1200 PST (2100 CET) and continue with three four-handed tables of action. PokerNews will have the recap from play, so be sure to check right back here for it on Sunday.

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