Mike “Timex” McDonald , one of the ten members of the Epic Poker League´s Standards and Conduct Committee, has won the second EPL Main Event after a colossal final day – most of which he spent short-stacked.
Mike “Timex” McDonald , one of the ten members of the Epic Poker League´s Standards and Conduct Committee, has won the second EPL Main Event after a colossal final day – most of which he spent short-stacked.
Mike “Timex” McDonald , one of the ten members of the Epic Poker League´s Standards and Conduct Committee, has won the second EPL Main Event after a colossal final day – most of which he spent short-stacked.
In a truly remarkable day, Mike McDonald showed great perseverance and skill to first remain in the event and to then claim the EPL 2 title, Champion´s ring and a first place prize of $782,410.
Having started the day in seventh position of the remaining eight players, McDonald had to endure a 5½ hour session when the table was four-handed with the threat of elimination always hanging over him, and a further three hours of fighting for survival when the table was down to just three players. It was only when McDonald eliminated Fabrice Soulier in third place that he had a sufficiently adequate chip stack to take on day long chip leader, David Steicke – a position which he used to his advantage to wrap up the heads-up within 30 minutes.
When the day started, there was no indication that it was going to result in an eleven hour marathon, as the two chip leaders flip-flopped position through the early exchanges. Erik “FTP shareholder” Seidel (A♣ A♦ – again!) opened up a gap at the head of the field when eliminating Dutch “Pokerspot” Boyd (J♥ J♠) and nobody really noticed when McDonald (K♦ K♥) took out Sean Getzwiller (A♥ K♣) in the battle of the short stacks. David Steicke got back on level terms with Seidel when the 4♥ on the river gave Steicke a set of fours over Isaac Baron´s flopped set of threes, and Baron was the next player to depart when his Q♠ 10♠ only found two suited cards on the board and ran second to Fabrice Soulier´s A♥ 10♣.
After only 46 hands of the final table, the field was reduced to half its original size when Nam Le (A♠ K♥) moved all-in on Fabrice Soulier (J♠ J♥). The J♦ on the flop gave Soulier the hand, and the final qualifier to be knocked out walked away with $126,570 for his $1,500 buy-in into the Pro/Am. Soulier´s two eliminations left him in a far more comfortable position with the two chip leaders and McDonald still the short-stack
After more than an hour of tentative raising and folding between the four players, Mike McDonald put his tournament life on the line for the first time. 4-betting Fabrice Soulier to put himself all-in pre-flop, McDonald turned over 4♦ 4♠ and looked in big trouble against Soulier´s 10♦ 10♣. Fortunately the 4♥ was dealt on the flop and McDonald could breathe again. An hour later, and with a dwindling chip stack, McDonald did it again with fours. This time he was ahead against Soulier´s A♦ 8♥, and stayed there when the 4♣ completed his set on the flop.
David Steicke got a piece or two out of Fabrice Soulier´s stack when following up a 126,000 pre-flop raise (called by Soulier) with a 212,000 post-flop bet, and ten hands later repeating the feat with a 152,000 raise pre-flop and a 252,000 post-flop raise. However, Soulier got his chips back with interest when busting out Erik Seidel´s 5♦ 5♥ with his 9♦ 9♥ – Seidel´s prize for fourth place being a paltry $184,100 in comparison to the $6.26 million he has already won in live poker tournaments in 2011.
Three-handed play started in much the same way as the four-handed – tentative. With blinds of 15,000/30,000 (ante 5,000) most of the pots went to the player raising on the button, and the pre-flop action meant that only two hands went to showdown in the next one hundred. In both of these Michael Steicke was the beneficiary – taking 250,000 chips from Fabrice Soulier when his 8♥ 7♠ paired with the 7♦ on the river, and a further 120,000 from Mike McDonald when he managed to claim the pot with K♣ high.
Eventually something had to give, and four days of tournament poker were resolved in just 30 minutes. First McDonald (A♣ Q♦) overcame Soulier´s (A♥ 10♥) shove to eliminate the Frenchman and move within 800,000 of David Steicke. Then McDonald doubled up with 6♦ 6♠ against Steicke´s A♣ Q♥, and it was all over eleven hands later when Steicke moved all-in with K♠ 2♣ and could not connect with the board, enabling McDonald (A♦ 4♥) to win with an ace-high and start his 22nd birthday celebrations a day early.
Place | Name | Prize |
1 | Mike McDonald | $782,410 |
2 | David Steicke | $506,260 |
3 | Fabrice Soulier | $299,160 |
4 | Erik Seidel | $184,100 |
5 | Nam Thien Le | $126,570 |
6 | Isaac Baron | $92,050 |
7 | Sean Getzwiller | $69,040 |
8 | Dutch Boyd | $57,530 |
9 | Adam levy | $46,020 |
10 | Amit Makhija | $46,020 |
11 | Timothy West | $46,020 |
12 | Matthew Glantz | $46,020 |