David "Chino" Rheem Takes First Epic Poker League Title

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 13 August 2011 / Leave a Comment

David "Chino" Rheem, first-ever Epic Poker League Main Event champion (Photo credit: EpicPoker.com)

A wild, drama-filled week in poker culminated just a few hours ago with the crowning of the first-ever Epic Poker League Main Event winner, David "Chino" Rheem. For besting a field comprised of 137 of poker's toughest players -- including outlasting Erik Seidel heads-up -- Rheem earns $1,000,000 and the champion's ring.

Given the EPL's qualifying criteria, almost any final table for this $20,000 buy-in, six-handed no-limit hold'em event was likely to be especially stacked. In fact, eventual winner Rheem was the only player among the final six without a WSOP bracelet. Between Rheem, Seidel, Hasan Habib, Jason Mercier, Gavin Smith, and Huck Seed, the group together claimed 16 WSOP bracelets and nearly $45 million in tourney earnings.

When play resumed at the Palms Casino Hotel in Las Vegas yesterday, Habib (1.655 million), Mercier (1.495 million), and Rheem (1.432 million) began the final table with the three biggest stacks, with Seidel (1.109 million) just below average and Smith (766,000) and Seed (396,000) the table's short stacks.

Seed would battle for three hours and nearly 80 hands, working his stack up around 900,000 before getting all of his chips in the middle preflop with Js-Jh versus Mercier's As-Kc. A king flopped, Seed couldn't catch up, and they were down to five.

By the dinner break Rheem had pushed out into the lead while Habib had fallen back to below-average status. Soon after players returned Smith pushed his short stack of 600,000 in with 9c-9d but ran into Mercier's Qs-Qh. A queen appeared on the flop and by the turn Smith was drawing dead, out in fifth.

Habib was all in shortly after with pocket sixes against Rheem's pocket sevens, but the board improbably came Js-3c-3d-Jd-3h to earn Habib a saving chop. His good fortune only earned him an extra three hands, however, as he'd soon be all in again versus Rheem, once more with a lesser pocket pair. In that one, Habib had Jd-Js and Rheem Ah-Ac, and when no help came for Habib he hit the rail in fourth.

With three left, Seidel had the lead with almost 3 million, with Mercier next with just over 2.2 million and Rheem third with about 1.66 million. Rheem would soon take a couple of pots to improve his position while Seidel slid to third. Then Mercier became severely short-stacked after Seidel doubled through him. In that one Seidel had Ad-Kc and caught a king to outrace Mercier's pocket fives, leaving the latter with about 660,000.

Soon all of Mercier's chips would be put at risk when he shoved with 9c-8d and was called by Seidel holding Kc-Jc. The board came 6s-5c-4s-6h-10d, and Mercier was out in third.

Heads-up play began with Rheem enjoying a slight advantage with 3.73 million to Seidel's 3.125 million. The pair played mostly smallish pots for their first 19 hands. Then on the 20th came an interesting hand in which the pair built a decent-sized pot by the river, at which point Rheem was allowed to show Seidel a card while the latter thought about calling Rheem's river bet. Seidel did end up calling, and Rheem showed a straight to push out to about a 2-to-1 chip lead.

Soon after Seidel had slipped below the 1 million-chip mark. Then on the 46th hand of heads-up Seidel raised from the button, Rheem reraised all in, and Seidel called. Seidel had Ac-Qh, but would need help versus Rheem's As-Kd. The five community cards came 8c-4d-Ad-3d-10d, giving Rheem the title.

Final table payouts:

1st: David "Chino" Rheem -- $1,000,000
2nd: Erik Seidel -- $604,330
3rd: Jason Mercier -- $360,970
4th: Hasan Habib -- $237,560
5th: Gavin Smith -- $154,260
6th: Huck Seed -- $107,980

It was announced that for their finishes, Rheem and Seidel have also both secured themselves spots in next February's Season 1 EPL Championship, a $1 million freeroll reserved for the top 27 money finishers during the league's four "regular season" Main Events.

The EPL's next tournament series comes relatively quickly, with another Pro/Am and Main Event scheduled for the Palms from September 2-9.

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