Home / Poker News August 2011 / EPL Main Event – Chino Rheem Wins
EPL Main Event – Chino Rheem Wins
Posted by: Randy Williams - Mon, 2011-08-15 13:35
Having battled it out at one of the toughest final tables in the history of the EPL, Chino Rheem was the one who raised his hand in victory at the end of the final stretch of action, pocketing the EPL title together with the $1 million prize that came with it. Just to give you an idea of what sort of a hurdle the final table was for the eventual winner: Huck Seed, ex
Full Tilt Poker pro Erik Seidel, Hasan Habib,
PokerStars’ Jason Mercier and Gavin Smith were the other participants.
The first victim of this rather illustrious final table was Huck Seed. Seed was the short-stack at the final table and he had to get something going fast if he intended to make any sort of a run. He got his last 900k chips into the middle holding a pair of Js. Jason Mercier had A,K though and there was no way he would miss out on the opportunity. The flop fell K,6,7 and the deal was pretty much sealed. The 8 on the turn and the 2 on the river made it official: Seed was eliminated.
Gavin Smith was the one who got his tournament life onto the line next. He had pocket 9s and Mercier made the call with pocket Qs. To add insult to injury, the board landed another Q and Smith was out.
It was then start of the day chip leader, Hasan Habib’s turn to shove all-in holding pocket Js, running head-first into Rheem’s pocket rockets.
Jason Mercier was the next player to commit all his chips in hopes of taking the tournament into its heads-up stage. Short-stacked, he shoved all-in holding 9,8o and got called by Seidel, who had K,J. The board landed a bunch of bricks and the heads-up stage was indeed set, although not quite the way Mercier had intended.
The heads-up action between Rheem and Seidel lasted a mere 50 hands. The final hand of the tournament saw Rheem’s A,K best Seidel’s A,Q.
