Day 2 of the first Epic Poker League Main Event got under way on Wednesday and it looks like the recipe of mixing together top players, no rake with added money has cooked up just the right poker dish for both pros and fans of the game.
Attracting 137 players, the $20,000 buy-in 6-Max event will see it’s winner take home just a hair under $1,000,000, with 18 total spots paying. Those that qualified to enter the event by making the leagues poker grade through consistency and at least a million in eligible career live tournament cashes were joined by nine other players who had earned a temporary “card”, or “coin” in this case, by way of final table finish in the preceding $1,500 Pro/Am event.
Canada had a slough of our best turn-out; Greg Mueller, Sorel Mizzi, Mike “Timex” McDonald, Erik Cajelais, Mike “SirWatts” Watson, Peter Jetten, Matt Marafioti, Nenad Medic and Shawn Buchanan all turned up, but by mid-way through Day 2, only good ole’ Gavin Smith was still in contention.
The original Victory Poker Team has stolen the show so far however, as Antonio Esfandiari, Brian Rast and Dan Fleyshman have owned the top of the leader board early in the evening. Fleyshman was one of the nine players who earned both his seat and way in via the Pro/Am, and with his performance so far is more than proving that he knows more than just the industry side of the game.
League Commissioner Annie Duke commented that will looking over the field, one could pick any table and it would make for a great TV table. Looking over the list of entrants, it’s easy to see that it certainly is a stacked field of household names and fan favorites. The minimum pay-out for the top 18 looks to be around $40,000, but with 2 days of scheduled play remaining, chips are sure to move around quite a bit more before anybody makes bank.
Taking things down a notch and a little closer to home, the last couple weeks of tournament poker in Canada have seen some of our players cashing in around the country.
Most recently, the Great Blue Heron Charity Casino in Point Perry Ontario hosted another of it’s events, drawing 88 players from around Ontario. If you missed out on this one, another $300 is currently underway, with a $300 Fixed Limit Event scheduled for August 17th.
Here are the results from the August 3rd event, with a buy-in of $300+ $30 admin fee:
1 ALESSANDRO SERPE $8,578.50 Mississauga Ont.
2 BRETT LAYCOE $5,392.20 Port Perry Ont.
3 PETER MOTT $2,941.20 Oshawa Ont.
4 PETER DRYSDALE $2,205.90 Severn Bridge Ont.
5 RUOGANG WANG $1,960.80 Brampton Ont.
6 DANY BOUDIWAN. $1,470.60 Scarborough Ont.
7 VICTOR CHIN $980.40 Toronto Ont.
8 ABERDEEN PARRO $735.30 Ont.
9 RAY KAY. $245.10 Kingston Ont
**Update
Here are the results from The Great Blue Heron Charity Casino, August 10, 2011, No Limit Hold’em Freeze out Tournament. This event had 110 players participating for the prize pool of $31,350.00. The buy-in for the tournament was $300+ $30 admin. Here is a list of the top Ten money winning players.
Place | Players Name | Prize | Hometown |
1 | Rick Collins | $10,972.50 | Oshawa Ont. |
2 | Peter DeSantis | $5,643.00 | Grimsby Ont. |
3 | William Liang | $3,448.50 | Scarborough Ont. |
4 | John Lennox | $2,821.50 | Weston Ont. |
5 | Byron Doyle | $2,194.50 | Bowmanville Ont. |
6 | Allen Cvitkovic | $1,881.00 | Hamilton Ont. |
7 | Joseph Abenstein | $1,567.50 | Thornhill Ont. |
8 | Stefano Cassullo | $1,254.00 | Maple Ont. |
9 | Norm Sanford | $940.50 | Ponty Pool Ont. |
10 | Chris Sanford | $627.00 | Toronto Ont. |
Playground Poker Club hosted another of it’s sold-out Deep Stack events at the end of July, now ramping things up for a “Nlh Face Off” Team Tournament. A Day 1b has been added, now bringing the estimated prize-pool to $105,000 and making room for 10 teams instead of the original five. Erik Cajelais with Mike Bossy, Pascal Lefrancois with Carey Carey Price and Gavin Smith with Bobby Dollas are the pro poker and hockey player “Captains” that have been announced so far, with 2 more names being released on August 11th. Until then, here are the results of the $500:
Results/Les 19 finalistes
1st/1e Christopher “d0r1t0s” McClung 22,000$
2nd/2e Richard Hardy 15,000$
3rd/3e Jack Gong 10,000$
4th4e Jason Hallee 7,200$
5th/5e Jacques St-Amour 5,000$
6th/6e Gabriel Morin 3,500$
7th/7e Vlad Faubert 2,500$
8th/8e Peter Poon 2,000$
9th/9e Stephane Arbour 1,800$
10th/10e Constantine Psihigiosis 1,540$
11th/11e Dominic Benoit 1,200$
12th/12e Manny Walia 1,200$
13th/13e Luc Beauchemin 1,200$
14th/14e Joseph Abitbol 1,000$
15th/15e Sebastien Soares 1,000$
16th/16e Adam Coviensky 1,000$
17th/17e Philippe Gauvreau 800$
18th/18e Peter Kavouras 800$
19th/19e Yannick Ranzi 800$
Total Entries/Joueurs: 184 Total Prize-Pool: 79,540$
The Casino Yellowhead events seen a handful of our top www.pokerforum.ca members selling action in the “Buy A Piece” area, where full trip reports can be found. The series prize-pools rang in at under 1 percent of the estimated prize-pools, certainly delivering players what was expected. Over $298,000 in prize money was divided up of the events, with over 650 combined entries for the tournaments and more than 400 having taken a seat for the super sattelites. Here are the final results:
2nd ANNUAL KLONDIKE CLASSIC Event #1, BUY-IN $300
1st CLIFF GREEN $15,000.00
2nd FRANCIS FAN $8,500.00
3rd JOE HERLEIN $5,500.00
4th MICHAEL BARER $4,100.00
5th JONATHAN KOZEL $3,045.00
6th GEORGE BROUMAS $2,500.00
7th TONY NGUYEN $2,300.00
8th GARY BEST $2,100.00
9th JOHN WILSON $1,900.00
10th MIKE X $1,700.00
11th JOHN ALLAIN $1,500.00
12th TIM HAGUE $1,300.00
13th BOB PHILPOU $1,100.00
14th BRIAN IWANICKI $1,000.00
15th DAVID CHAU $1,000.00
16th BRIAN FLEMMING $900.00
17th BASHAR RAMAHI $900.00
18th GARVAN GILMOUR $800.00
19th AL THOME $800.00
20th JOSEPH WOODFIRE $800.00
TOTAL PRIZE POOL: $56,745.00 TOTAL ENTRANTS 194
2nd ANNUAL KLONDIKE CLASSIC Event #2, BUY-IN $500
1st Jordan Kelly $ 25,000
2nd Chase Olsen $ 15,000
3rd David VanDerTorre $ 8,200
4th Devin Verstraelen $ 6,163
5th Clyde Robinson $ 5,000
6th Iona Bliss $ 4,100
7th Shenhong Yang $ 3,500
8th Rick Potvin $ 3,000
9th Cliff Green $ 2,700
10th Steve Voyce $ 2,400
11th Tony Saysana $ 2,100
12th Steven Watchorn $ 1,900
13th Nelson Wong $ 1,700
14th Daniel Macnaughton $ 1,500
15th Norman Thistlethwaite $ 1,300
16th Claude Spelliscy $ 1,300
17th Russell Rimer $ 1,200
18th Brian Macnevin $ 1,200
Total Prize Pool: $87,263 Total Entrants: 179
2nd ANNUAL KLONDIKE CLASSIC Event #3, BUY-IN $1,000
1st ERIC ZHANG $34,000.00
2nd DEVIN VERSTRAELEN $20,000.00
3rd ROGER SIMPSON $14,000.00
4th JOSEPH HOSTYN $10,000.00
5th RONALD TOLEDO $7,600.00
6th PHILLIP SOUSA $6,000.00
7th FRANCIS FAN $4,600.00
8th JEFFREY WEISS $4,000.00
9th HAO WANG $3,500.00
10th DAVID VAN DER TORRE $3,000.00
11th BRUNO PORRECA $2,500.00
TOTAL PRIZE POOL:$109,200.00 TOTAL ENTRANTS: 112
2nd ANNUAL KLONDIKE CLASSIC Event #4, BUY-IN $300 (Sunday July 31, 2011)
1st CAL X $12,500.00
2nd CLIFF GREEN $7,300.00
3rd MARK STEWART $4,800.00
4th IAN ALVERADO $3,500.00
5th HOLLY BERRY $2,800.00
6th JOE HERLEIN $2,300.00
7th JOHNATHAN HANSMEYER $1,900.00
8th VINCENT LAM $1,650.00
9th ALAN MACNAUGHTON $1,450.00
10th TRACI HOPESTAD $1,200.00
11th KENNY ROBINSON $1,100.00
12th PATRICK GUNRAJ $1,000.00
13th MARK HOPESTAD $1,000.00
14th SCOTT KULLMAN $830.00
15th JONATHAN KOZEL $800.00
Congratulations to all our players!!!!!
TOTAL PRIZE POOL: $44,130.00 TOTAL ENTRANTS: 152
