Internet Texas Holdem

The very first Epic Poker League Main Event is in the books. The tournament took place in Vegas, started on August 9th and finished up on August 12th. 137 people ponied up $20k each to buy-in, and $400,000 was donated to the prize pool by the league itself. This meant that first place was $1 million with the total prize pool $3,140,000. That’s an awful lot of money for some extracurricular online casino gambling.

It’s no surprise that the final table was extremely tough, with over $45 million in total tournament earnings and 16 bracelets at the table. Both Jason Mercier (a PokerStars download pro) and Erik Seidel were at this final table, two of live poker’s hottest pros in this day and age. Mercier has gone deep in countless huge events the last few years. It can be argued, though, that Seidel is having one of the most impressive years of tournaments the poker world has ever seen. Before the final table Seidel had cashed for $5 million in 2011 so far, including an impressive four outright wins.

Joining Mercier and Seidel at the final table were Hasan Habib, Gavin Smith, David “Chino” Rheem, and Huck…

Recently the Epic Poker League saw its first event take place in the Palms Resort Casino in Las Vegas, one of the most popular casinos for USA players. Prior to the Main Event was a $1,500 Pro/Amateur tourney that got 190 participants. Those that finished in the top 9 received seats in the Main Event.

128 pros paid the $20k buy-in in addition to the 9 qualifiers, which meant a total field of 137 players. Thanks to the $400k that was added to the prize pool, the total prize pool ended up at $3,085,200.

It comes as no surprise that the field held a huge number of tough pros since that is the goal of the Epic Poker League in the first place. There were the online poker best and also many live specialists. It was expected that there would be an absurd amount of action to look forward to due to the 6-max structure of the event.

At the start of the tourney, everyone had a 250bb stack. Levels were scheduled to last 90 minutes. There was a lot to play for since 1st place awarded an astounding $1,000,000.

The event was not without…

In spite of the recent issues with US poker sites, Americans are still very interested in poker. This is clearly shown in the interest generated by the Epic Poker League, which was recently created by Annie Duke and former World Series of Poker commissioner Jeffrey Pollack.

Epic Poker League was designed to provide tournaments that will be comprised of established professional poker players. They have measured the top tournament players in the world using their new Global Poker Index. With the help of the Index, they picked out the best 200 players in the world (according to them). And now a platform has been locked up so that Epic Poker League can start showcasing its talent.

The League was able to strike up a deal with two TV networks: CBS and Velocity (a new network created by Discovery). 7 hours will be shown on CBS and 13 hours will be shown on Velocity for a total of 20 TV hours.

The TV episodes will be hosted by Pat O’Brien and Ali Nejad. O’Brien spent 16 years handling various events for CBS Sports including the Super Bowl, World Series, and the NBA Finals.

If you are a fan…

Federated Sports + Gaming have gone out of their way to make a splash since unveiling grand plans earlier this year. Via the recently named Epic Poker League, they hope to create a game-defining series that will separate poker’s very best players from the chasing pack.

Part of this scheme is the Global Poker Index (GPI). A ranking system which uses complex calculations to order players according to their performances in high stakes tournaments. The leaderboard has been active for a few weeks and updates every 7 days. It does not include results from money poker sites.

Some players will gain entry to the Epic Poker League via nods for lifetime achievement. Which is to say you’d be a madman to launch your high profile tournament event without Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson. As well as the big cash game players on the former best us poker sites.

However, most players will need to qualify via Pro-Am tournaments or seeded entry. The GPI is useful for ordering the seeding, as well as keeping a beady eye on the best performers of recent years.

Toping the table last week was Eugene Katchalov, who won his first WSOP bracelet last…