Thu, 09/22/2011 – 07:48 – PokerPages Staff

Fans of the Epic Poker League will soon be able to watch action from the inaugural season after the broadcast schedule was released earlier this week. Twenty hours of programming will air from October, 7.

Seven of those one hour episodes will air on CBS with the remainder taking center stage on the Velocity Network. Velocity will broadcast the premiere episode at 10pm (EDT) on October 7 with CBS picking up the action a day later from 8pm (EDT).

Epic Poker League and Federated Sports + Gaming Chairman, Jeffrey Pollack, spoke of his excitement at the pending episodes which feature the finest live tournament players in the world.

“Players and fans have been asking when they can tune in to watch the Epic Poker League, so we’re pleased to share our national telecast schedule for CBS and Velocity. Epic Poker offers an innovative take on America’s favorite card game and our telecasts put an entirely new spotlight on many of the world’s finest players.”

The broadcasts, which will be hosted by Pat O’Brien alongside co-host Ali Nejad, are set to run through May, 2012. Only two of the scheduled EPL tournaments have been completed this far.

Chino Rheem won the inaugural EPL Main Event in August when he outlasted a final table featuring Jason Mercier and Erik Seidel to take down the $1 million first prize. Mike McDonald triumphed in the second EPL Main Event earlier this month after besting a 97 runner field in Las Vegas for a $782,410 jackpot.

To catch up with the results from the two opening EPL Main Events take a look at the PokerPages Tournament Database.

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.