By the end of late registration, 137 qualified pro were entered into the field. Many of the up and coming, but possibly less recognizable names in poker who had qualified for tour cards were enthusiastically playing the no rake event with $400,000 in added money to the purse.
There is some concern as to why some of the bigger names haven't embraced the event yet when the tournament schedule isn't particularly crowded. 129 of the 242 eligible pros played. The long established mainstream poker pros were iffy in their interest citing prior commitments, a wait-and-see approach, or opposition to a Annie Duke led league, etc.
Those concerns didn't bother current WSOP Player of the Year leader Ben Lamb and bracelet winners Eugene Katchalov and Brian Rast who dominated play on the day.
Katchalov shared "So far, I have really good impressions of it [EPL]. They’re doing a great job, everything’s handled very professionally and everyone is really nice and super supportive. It seems like finally we are getting our money’s worth and I don’t feel like I am getting ripped off anymore (laughs).”
There were 63 players who moved on to Day 2 on Wednesday at the Palms.Top 10 chip stacks leading into Day 2:
1. Eugene Katchalov — 356,300
2. Ben “Benba” Lamb — 287,200
3. Brian Rast — 260,500
4. Antonio Esfandiari — 244,100
5. Noah Schwartz — 220,200
6. Vanessa Selbst — 205,000
7. Sorel Mizzi — 192,000
8. McLean Karr — 190,000
9. Gavin Smith — 178,000
10. Eric Seidel — 178,000
First place will win $982,660 while 18th will take home a respectable $43k. Players had implored commissioner Annie Duke to consider restructuring the payouts to make a more flashy $1 million first place prize, but to no avail.
All positions are valued as the top 27 EPL money earners from the four main event series will return February for the $1,000,000 League Championship freeroll.
