Chino takes first prize

It was a massive million dollar prize for the winner of the first EPL tournament

The inaugural Epic Poker League tournament is finished with David “Chino” Rheem now a million dollars richer after fighting his way through a pool of professional poker pros to take the prize money and the title. The tournament took place at the Palms Resort in Las Vegas and featured a final table composed of some of the best poker players around. The top three consisted of Rheem along with the legendary Eric Seidel and the player ESPN rank top in the world, Jason Mercier. Rheem is no stranger to tough competition, he won well over one and a half million dollars for seventh place at the Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and $1.7 million for winning the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond Classic in 2009.
None of these experienced pros put a foot wrong during the final table and it was an incredible 80 hands before the first player was knocked out. At the start of the day, Huck Seed was looking good after doubling his stack but was taken down by Mercier’s AK. Once Mercier took the lead it was almost impossible to stop him and he went on to eliminate Gavin Smith soon after. It was a coin toss as he went all in pre-flop with 99 only to be called by Mercier’s pocket Queens which held to see Seed off with a prize of a little over $150,000.
It was then that Rheem decided to get into the action and knocked out Hasan Habib. At the start of play Habib had put himself at the top of the tournament but had been steadily bleeding chips on the final table until pushing all in with pocket sixes only to be bested by Rheem’s pocket sevens. Once down to the final three it was Mercier and Seidel who really went to war, with Rheem largely sitting to one side and letting them get on with it. It was the consummate professional, Seidel who managed to win the battle when he pushed all in with KJ and was called by Mercier’s 9 8. When the players saw a king on the flop they knew it was all over for Mercier and the last two were heads up. Eventually Rheem took Seidel out with A K against A Q once all the cards were on the board Rheem had a flush, the prize money and the title of champion.