The first “official” Season 1 Event of the Epic Poker League has thinned down to just 29 of a 190 player starting field for it’s Day 2, with a $1,500 Pro/Am launching the end result of months of planning by a joint venture between Annie Duke and a bunch of huge industry names that include former WSOP Commissioner Jeffery Pollack.
Canada still has a chance to claim the bragging rights in a very tough field, with Peter Jetten still in contention on Sunday’s Day 2. Crowd favorites Dan Fleyshman, Brian Rast, Phil Laak, Mike Matusow, Andy Bloch, Eli Elezra and Greg Raymer are also still in contention, with Vanessa Selbst leading at the start of the day. The final 6 will also make up a star packed television final table, with the EPL already having inked deals for poker programing with the CBS and Velocity networks.
The top nine players will receive $20,000 seats into the “rake-free” 6 max Main Event, with the remainder of the prize-pool from the $1,500 being divided paced on finish to the top 18 spots
For those that haven’t been following it, the league is “invitation only”, for the most part, set-up in a way that many compare to professional golf; players must qualify for a “tour card”, with several durations and restrictions based on specific criteria. Those that didn’t make “the cut” can still participate in Main Events, provided they earn a temporary card in one of the preliminary Pro/Am events.
Daniel Negreanu, Sorel Mizzi, Gavin Smith, Shawn Buchanan, Nenad Medic, Michael “SirWatts” Watson, Mike “Timex” McDonald, WSOP bracelet holder Erik Cajelais, Greg “FBT” Mueller, Peter Jetten and Scott Montgomery make up the list of top Canadian players who have earned their pass. Nova Scotia’s Owen Crowe sits just over 20k shy of earning his card, but is a shoe in for the next qualifying deadline.
The much talked about “new force on the poker block” that makes up Federated Sports+Gaming now owns and operates the Epic Poker League, The Global Poker Index and The HeartLand Poker Tour, making up a powerful infrastructure of established televised poker event veterans; with the experience of the management team strengthened by the track-record of the HPT team, world renowned tournament director Matt Savage and Kat Kowal, one the original World Poker Tour as well as DeepStacks University executives also behind the EPL, the leagues motto of “Players First” certainly has the right people to satisfy the tall claim.
It seems so far, most of our top Canadian pros are indeed satisfied and onboard, with Gavin Smith and Sorel Mizzi amongst those turning out for the $1,500. Mike McDonald also tweeted his approval, saying; “Red carpet treatment from the @epicpokerleague. @PetterJetten and I land and are each given our own limo to the resort”, then following up with: “Getting ready for the $1500 @epicpokerleague pro/am. More excited for this than any similar buy-in tournament in the last 3ish years.”
Others like Greg Mueller have also been excitedly waiting, though it seems as though they won’t be present for every event; “In LA, chilling from the evil sin city of Las Vegas! Great sleep, and goin to the Angels game!” following up on a tweet from last week; “Got beat from the feet up today! Can’t wait to finish @epicpokerleague tourney and take a break from gambling #vegastakingitstollonthekid”
Shawn Buchanan announced that he was also headed down to Vegas to play in the EPL events, though it looks like he may have skipped the initial $1,500, tweeting “Haven’t been playing any poker, lil’ 20k 6 max should get the rust off fast though!” confirming that we should see the top Canadian pro competing in the high-roller stakes Main Event this week.
One of our own didn’t endorse the events however, with a long history of bad blood between himself and Annie Duke, it wasn’t a total shock that Daniel Negreanu tweeted “For anyone confused: I will not be playing in the Epic Poker League. My name/picture/bio appears on their site. All that means is that I qualified.” Given that the EPL had awarded Daniel with the highest level of pro card available, it’s a bit of a disappointment that he won’t be representing as one of our top players.
