Phil Ivey recently dropped off ESPN’s admittedly subjective player rankings, The Nuts. ESPN’s was the last of such lists to still include the self-exiled Full Tilt Pro in their Top 10. (Homers.)

I found this out via PartTime Poker, which seems to be doing a pretty cool monthly bit over there — breaking down player standings across four different ranking systems, each with their own calculation biases and level of subjectivity in determining the best poker players in the world.

Perhaps surprisingly, I still recognize most at least half of the 21 names comprising the four different Top 10s … but I’ll bet the rest of the world surely doesn’t. There’s a reason, after all, Jason Mercier doesn’t even have a Q-score.

So with subjectivity in mind … best player, winningest player, field strength, skill measurement, tournament luck, run-good ratios, late position likability, backer’s credit score …

So earlier in the day … I’m in the media room for the Epic Poker League final table. (Stop LOLing.) One of the PR ladies running the room asked me if I had any predictions. LOL. “I think you’re asking the wrong guy,” I said.

But I decided to look at who was left, what the chipstacks were (in relation to the blinds), position at the table … damn, this is a tough FT … and indeed, offered up a prediction, based on the above factors and a little bit of karmic guesstimating. We already knew Huck Seed was out in 6th, so that one was a freebie. But with that could I accurately call the bust-out order for the remaining five? I bet I could …

And that got me thinking about what kinda impact Epic might have on or with sports-betting, as recent changes to Nevada law have allowed casinos to offer betting lines on non-athletic events, such as the WSOP .

So with imaginary money on the line, I made my predictions:

EPL Pick Six
1. Erik Seidel Jason Mercier
2. Jason Mercier Erik Seidel
3. Chino Rheem
4. Gavin Smith
5. Hasan Habib
6. Huck Seed

UPDATE: Game over: Seidel out, Chino wins, creditors rejoice.
UPDATE: Jason Mercier 3rd.
UPDATE: Hasan Habib 4th.
UPDATE: Gavin Smith out in 5th.

Hmmm, now I remember why I stopped betting horses.

The first Epic Poker League tournament of their first season ended with Chino Rheem overcoming the rungood of Jason Mercier, Erik Seidel and The Micros to win the first Main Event, earning a cool $1,000,000 defeating the Seiborg heads-up. The final table last over 200 hands, recap the blow-by-blow action starting here or just read @AlCantHang’s recap.

According to Ben Lamb, he was paid in full for money he was owed by Chino. Others, not so much. The forums were no different “congratulating” Rheem on his win.

Final table results:

1st: Chino Rheem – $1,000,000
2nd: Erik Seidel – $604,430
3rd: Jason Mercier – 360,970
4th: Hasan Habib – $237,560
5th: Gavin Smith – $154,260
6th: Huck Seed – $107,980

The final table of the first Epic Poker League Main Event resumes with Hasan Habib leading an impressive final six with $1,000,000 going to the winner when play resumes Friday afternoon. He’ll be joined by WSOP bracelet winners Erik Seidel, Huck Seed, Jason Mercier and Gavin Smith. Chino Rheem is the only player without a bracelet, but he’ll have several interested players sweating him as he starts the final table second in chips.

Play started with the remaining 18 players in the money, guaranteed over $43,000 and an early advantage in the EPL standings for the February 2012 $1,000,000 Epic Poker League Championship freeroll. Day 3 was a short day for Justin Bonomo and Hoyt Corkins, the first two to collect their EPL winnings. Pro/Am qualifiers Brandon Meyers (9th) and Dan Fleyshman (15th) will have another chance to qualify for the Main Event in the September Pro/Am. Day 2 chip leader Sam Trickett had a disappointing Day 3, finishing 11th.

The elimination of Eugene Katchalov in 8th place meant the remaining players gathered at one table to play down to the televised final table, airing on CBS and Velocity later this year. The final hand involved Adam “Roothlus” Levy going all-in with pocket queens against Chino Rheem’s pocket kings. The A-A-Q flop moved the DeepStacks-sponsored pro into the lead, but an ace on the river meant it was a ruthless end for Levy. Rheem knocked out another DeepStacks pro, Matt Graham, on the money bubble to end Day 2.

All players at the final table earns a six-figure payday, a boon to those players Chino owes money. Here’s how the final table will be seated when play resumes around 2pm with blinds at 8,000/16,000 with an ante of 2,000.

Seat 1: Hasan Habib – 1,655,000
Seat 2: Erik Seidel – 1,109,000
Seat 3: Chino Rheem – 1,432,000
Seat 4: Gavin Smith – 766,000
Seat 5: Jason Mercier – 1,495,000
Seat 6: Huck Seed – 396,000

What they’re playing for:

1st: $1,000,000
2nd: $604,330
3rd: $360,970
4th: $237,560
5th: $154,260
6th: $107,980

Hand-for-hand updates of the final table, videos and photos and more available at www.epicpoker.com

Day 2 of the $20,000 Epic Poker League Main Event concluded with Sam Trickett leading the remaining 18 players, all guaranteed $43,190. Trickett is the only player with a seven-figure chip stack as the field will now be playing for a $1,000,000 first prize as the players agreed to move money from 2nd place to the winner.

Day 2 started with 63 players as Eugene Katchalov, Ben Lamb and Brian Rast held the top three spots. Only Katchalov survived the day with chips as the early action was dominated with several eliminations as Vanessa Selbst, Dwyte Pilgrim, and Phil Laak were among the familiar faces hitting the felt.

Some players complained about the fast structure; leading Commissioner Annie Duke and Tournament Director Matt Savage agreeing to review the structure, among other aspects of the EPL, before their second tournament in September.

The remaining 29 players reached the dinner break with an average stack of about 80 big blinds, with the objective of finishing the day after bursting the money bubble. Antonio Esfandiari, Brandon Cantu, Nam Le, Tom Marchese and Frank Kassela all fell short of earning their first EPL cash when 19 players remained, one from the money. A prolonged bubble period gave Trickett the opportunity to add to his stack, becoming the first EPL player to hold over 1,000,000 in chips.

Two hours into hand-for-hand play, Matt Graham added his name to the long list of EPL firsts as his pocket jacks were cracked by Chino Rheem when he turned a flush to become the EPL’s first bubble boy.

The remaining 18 players return Thursday at 12pm to play down to the final table of six. The field consists of 20 WSOP bracelets, 3 WPT titles and almost $80,000,000 in tournament winnings. Two players who qualified through the Pro/Am over the weekend, Brandon Meyers and Dan Fleyshman, become EPL-eligible for the rest of the season if either player wins the tournament on Friday. Here’s how the Day 3 field will be seated with play resuming with blinds at 2,500/5,000 with a 500 ante (the average stack having ~76 big blinds):

Table 1:

Seat 1: Adam Levy – 587,000
Seat 2: Dan Fleyshman – 82,500
Seat 3: Hafiz Khan – 144,000
Seat 4: Hoyt Corkins – 252,500
Seat 5: Brandon Meyers – 109,500
Seat 6: Isaac Baron – 637,500

Table 2:

Seat 1: Noah Schwartz – 259,500
Seat 2: Matt Glantz – 453,000
Seat 3: Ted Lawson – 210,000
Seat 4: Huck Seed – 93,500
Seat 5: Chino Rheem – 408,000
Seat 6: Gavin Smith – 357,500

Table 3:

Seat 1: Hasan Habib – 646,000
Seat 2: Eugene Katchalov – 418,000
Seat 3: Sam Trickett – 1,032,000
Seat 4: Jason Mercier – 535,500
Seat 5: Justin Bonomo – 42,000
Seat 6: Erik Seidel – 609,000

Live updates and more available at www.epicpoker.com

NAPT :: Day 3 brought us down to 19 players and there are still a lot of known dangerous players in the field heading into Day 4. Jason Mercier, Matt Affleck, Michael Binger, and Anh Van Nguyen are all still in the running to become the first (and maybe only?) NAPT LA champion. A detailed chip count is available as well as a seat draw for the 4th day of competition. There is more going on today than in the past few for the NAPT as well. The $5000 Bounty Shootout is going to take place at the Crystal Casino in Compton (yes, you read that right). Turns out if you want to televise anything, you can’t do it at the Bike because the WPT has a lock on that sort of thing. Which makes the next bit of information all the more interesting. It was revealed (or at least people finally noticed) that the final table will be filmed for ESPN from the Crystal Casino as well. Oh, and these televised events will be airing in December, 3 hours for the bounty shootout and 1 hour for the main event final table.
At first glance, Stars appears to be dropping the ball consistently with the NAPT, is it birth pangs or a resignation that they just wont be getting very far with this tour? Time will tell, but for now action in this event will restart, once again, at 1PM PST.

NAPT :: 256 players will not be coming back as Day 2 saw more people eliminated from play than on either day 1 day. They played about 6 levels today (down from 10 levels on day 1) and the blinds are now 3000/6000 with a 750 ante. Jimmie Guinther is the new chipleader, with 894,000 chips, but Travis Pearson (835,000) is not very far behind. A familar face from the Day 1B chip counts, Anh Van Nguyen, is also sitting pretty with 614,000, good enough for 3rd on the chip counts. With 81 players left going into day 3 and 22 of those players teetering in the dreaded ~20BB and below range, the action is sure to come fast and furious tomorrow.

Here’s a look at the top 10 chip counts as well as some notables:

• Jimmie Guinther: 894,000
• Travis Pearson: 835,000
• Anh Van Nguyen: 614,000
• Bryn Kenney: 586,000
• Thomas Middleton: 519,000
• Micah Raskin: 515,500
• Tom Lee: 509,000
• Nicholas Verkaik 495,500
• James Sowers: 481,000
• Michael Binger: 474,000
• Phil Laak (whom Pokerstars has listed as from Ireland because birthplace is all that matters): 377,000
• Jason Mercier: 158,000
• Gavin Griffin 143,500

If anyone was missed from the notables, well, we can only fit so many in one go. Play resumes at 1PM PST.

Disclaimer: I will not be able to do this column justice, hence I have changed the title somewhat to reflect that. Well…that and I’m probably much closer to 90% of the tournaments than Kevmath was.

NAPT :: Day 1a is in the books of the NAPT Los Angeles Main Event, taking place at the Bicycle Club in Bell Gardens, CA, which is a stones throw from Compton beautiful place to put a Casino. 330 players entered the first of two day 1s, and 162 players emerged after 10 levels of play with a day off and, in most cases, more chips. Nick Grippo leads the way so far with 235k, but there are plenty of notables still in the field:

• Scott Fischman – 224, 600
• John Phan – 101,400
• Jason Mercier – 95,000
• William Reynolds (or, that blond guy that was on The Big Game recently) – 93,000
• Issac Haxton – 75,000
• Justin Bonomo – 65,000

For every big stacked pro, there seemed to be a busted pro, and a lot of them were from the LA area: Adam Levy, Antonio Esfandiari, Soi Nguyen (yea he’s an amateur but he was in the November Nine so he’s a familiar name), and even Barry Greenstein found themselves felted by the end of the day. There is another day 1 to play though, so we’ll see who shows up and either scores big or goes home early.

There are just 12 players left heading into Day 5 of the WPT World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, with a short but exciting play down to the final table looming for Monday.

The 28 players that started the day quickly became 27, but after the redraw for the final three tables it would be over two hours before there would be another elimination, with the money bubble looming at 25. After another half hour or so of hand-for-hand play the bubble finally burst.

One of the early eliminations in the money was Gavin Smith, who lost a monster pot to end the previous day and never seemed to get traction on Day 4. Upon his exit, Gavin took quite a bit of the early afternoon rail with him. Josh Arieh, who had a lot of chips entering the day as well, fell victim to some unfortunate luck and was not long for the tournament today either.

Ronnie Bardah, who enjoyed a deep run in this year’s Main Event, got into the Halloween spirit by donning a wig for several hours during play today, which you can see here. He survived on the short stack for quite some time, earning a few double-ups before ultimately succumbing to the blinds.

There are still some big names in contention for this title. The chip leader heading into Day 5 is Tom Marchese with 1,832,000 but there are some heavy hitters chasing him including Jason Mercier, Sorel Mizzi, Hoyt Corkins, Kevin Stammen, and Mohsin Charania.

Play will resume at 12 pm Monday.

Chip Counts:

1. Tom Marchese 1,832,000
2. Jeff Forrest 979,000
3. Sorel Mizzi 789,000
4. Nikolai Yakovenko 690,000
5. Chris Bonita 610,000
6. Besnik Ziba 500,000
7. Keven Stammen 400,000
8. Hoyt Corkins 335,000
9. David Inselberg 331,000
10. Jason Mercier 322,000
11. Mohsin Charania 283,000
12. Ben Klier 269,000

Average Stack: 605,000

For more information on today’s action as well as live updates throughout the rest of the tournament visit foxwoodslive.com and worldpokertour.com.

It’s getting down to the wire at Foxwoods as just 28 players made it to the end of Day 3 at the WPTs World Poker Finals.

With 25 spots paid, it’s likely to be a short trip into the money Sunday. Players will redraw after one more elimination as they get down to three tables.

Then the issue of time becomes the biggest factor, as the tournament is scheduled to finish on Tuesday. Depending on the pace of play on Sunday, there will either be a day off (if they get down to six) or a short play down to the final table.

The chip leader going into Sunday is Chris Hunichen with 714,000. Josh Arieh, Jason Mercier and Gavin Smith are all in the top ten heading into Day 4. Other notables remaining include Tom Marchese (249,000), Hoyt Corkins (239,000), Mike Beasley (120,000), Ronnie Bardah (112,000) and Kyle Bowker (70,000). The average chip count is 259,285

Play will resume at 12 pm.

Top Ten:

1. Chris Hunichen – 714,000
2. Nikolai Yakovenko – 580,000
3. Josh Arieh – 548,500
4. Ben Klier – 465,500
5. Keven Stammen – 387,000
6. Mohsin Charania – 349,000
7. Jeff Forrest – 342,500
8. Jason Mercier – 342,000
9. Gavin Smith – 307,500
10. Bryon Springer – 293,000

You can find the remainder of the chip counts and live updates during the action at foxwoodslive.com or worldpokertour.com

Reviewing the start of week 4 at the WSOP:

Seniors’ event sets record

The $1,000 Seniors’ No-Limit Holdem event drew a record 3,248 entries this afternoon when play started shortly after 12pm today. Not only was this a record field for a Seniors’ event, it was the largest field to start a tournament on a single day in poker history. The current leader is Team Pokerati and Loudmouth Poker’s own Tom Schneider with 29,000 in chips. Other notables include: “Minneapolis Jim” Meehan (16,000), Lon McEachern (14,500), Alan Boston (13,000) and TJ Cloutier (11,000). The field is currently on their dinner break with four levels remaining for the field to play. Follow the occasional updates over at PokerNews.

10k Heads-Up sells out again

The $10,000 No-Limit Heads-Up Championship drew a sold-out field of 256 entries, with two rounds scheduled for today. Winners of round 1 matches include Gavin Smith, Tom Dwan, Jason Mercier, Annette Obrestad, Josh Arieh, Phil Gordon, Blair Hinkle and Phil Ivey. The 128 winners will return at 10pm for round 2 action. See who moves on and who moves out at PokerNews.

Barbieri leading HORSE final table

The final table of the $1,500 HORSE has returned from their dinner break with eight players remaining. Here’s the chip counts when play resumed:

Al Barbieri 635,000
Konstantin Puchkov 605,000
Blake Cahail 540,000
Hani Awad 520,000
Andrew Revesz 475,000
Dustin Leary 420,000
Robert Mizrachi 250,000
Ken Lennaard 250,000

Follow the updates over at wsop.com.

Gonzales leads 1500 NL day 3

Christopher Gonzales (2,700,000) holds a large chip lead in the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem final day with 11 remaining. The field will be returning from dinner break shortly, see if anyone can run him down at wsop.com.

Brady leads bunch at 5k 6-max day 2

Dinner break ends shortly for the 56 players remaining in the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem 6-max event, with 54 making the money. Matt Brady (465,000) holds a slight chip lead over McLean Karr (460,000) when play resumes. Other notables include David Ulliott (265,000), Christian Harder (255,000), Isaac Haxton (185,000) and Eric Baldwin (157,000). PokerNews will be there to follow the action when play resumes.

Tieman leads during day 2 of PLO/PLH

The $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha/Pot-Limit Holdem field is on dinner break with 54 players remaining, but only 45 make the money. Joshua Tieman is looking for his 2nd WSOP bracelet this year as he leads the field with 209,500 in chips. Victor Ramdin (155,000), John Kabbaj (98,000), David Chiu (87,600) and Burt Boutin (67,000) are among the notables looking to get a return on their investment when play resumes. The fine reporting team at PokerNews will be there to see who bubbles and who bounds into the lead.

It looks to be a long night for some of these events to get finished, but for those who don’t want to stay up that late, another report will be forthcoming in the morning.

Recapping the sextet of tournaments underway Thursday afternoon:

Klein leads PLO final table

Loren Klein (850,000) leads the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha final table, which has 8 players remaining as they take their dinner break. Play will resume around 8:30pm, follow the hands as they’re played out at PokerNews.

Idema idolizing limit holdem bracelet

Seven players remain at the $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship final table, with Daniel Idema holding the chip lead with 1,163,000 with seven players remaining. Michael Mizrachi finished in 8th place to move into a tie with James Dempsey for the WSOP Player of the Year lead, but Jameson Painter (3rd in chips with 953,000), moves past both of them with a win. Updates of the action on the table and at the rail is at wsop.com.

Gonzales leads 1500 NL

Christopher Gonzales (260,000) leads the field of 130 players remaining as they return from dinner break in the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event. Six more levels of play are on tap for the field, see who goes deep and who goes home over at PokerNews.

Leary tall in the saddle in $1,500 HORSE

The $1,500 HORSE event has 100 remaining, with 80 making the money later this afternoon. Dustin Leary (132,000) holds the chip lead, followed by Jeff Shulman (125,000), Tom Dwan (66,000), Jason Mercier (61,000) and Robert Mizrachi (50,000). Wsop.com has all the mixed-game updates.

Benyamine leading 5k NL 6-max field

Day 1 of the $5,000 No-Limit Holdem 6-max event drew a smaller than expected field of 568, with a $2,100 tournament at the Venetian held at the same time. David Benyamine (80,000) holds the chip lead, followed by Dave Ulliot (65,000), Hevad Khan (62,000), Andrew Lichtenberger (55,000) and Isaac Haxton (53,000) among the early leaders. PokerNews will be following the action during the evening.

PLO/PLH event underway

The last tournament to start this afternoon was the $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha/Pot-Limit Holdem event. The early chip leader is Matt Vengrin with 26,000, followed by Chris Reslock (24,000), Daniel Negreanu (19,500), Layne Flack (17,000) and Vitaly Lunkin (16,200) among the notables. Follow wsop.com for more updates and chip counts.

UPDATE: Jason Mercier FTW! [dm]

The final table of the $25,000 High Roller Bounty Shootout concludes the NAPT series at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut this afternoon. If you knock out a player at your table, you collect your opponent’s $5,000 bounty. The last player standing earns $60,000, or $50,000 for Luis Vasquez, seated at the only five-player table. The six shootout winners returning at 12 noon today with live streaming available at www.napt.com/tv (with bounties won so far):

Shawn Buchanan – 4 bounties
Luis Vazquez – 4 bounties
Jason Mercier – 3 bounties
Sam Stein – 3 bounties
Matt Glantz – 2 bounties
Faraz Jaka – 2 bounties

The remaining prize pool, $350,000, will go to the winner, and whomever ends up with the most bounties earns a free entry to the next NAPT High Roller event. The date and location hasn’t been announced, but it will take place after the WSOP concludes in mid-July.

The LAPC main event is fixin’ to get underway … Friday at noon, and Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Jason Mercier, and a few others got together to hold a $5,000 fantasy draft for the main event of California’s version of the WSOP.

More to come as the field takes shape tomorrow/today Friday. Last stretch of satellites going on now.

I’ve been following this event multimedially via the 147 emails a day they send me and via the official LAPC blog.

For those Pokerati readers who missed out on what’s going on, here’s some stuff that’s happened over the past few days:

The first PokerStars.net NAPT event in the US got off to a roaring start on Saturday, with 872 players putting up $5,000 at the Venetian as part of their Deep Stack Extravaganza. 149 players started day 3 a few minutes ago, with 128 making the money. Hand for hand play has just begun, and the tournament staff is hoping to play down to 24. You can follow the action over at PokerNews, PokerStarsblog.com, or PokerListings. The winner when play ends on Thursday will collect $827,648.

Reality show star Trishelle Canatella made the final table of the WPT Celebrity Invitational, part of the LA Poker Classic currently running at the Commerce Casino. The final table will resume on March 3rd with this lineup:

Seat 1: Steve Elliott – 1,520,000
Seat 2: Thor Hansen – 1,480,000
Seat 3: Trishelle Cannatella – 1,540,000
Seat 4: Sean Urban – 2,090,000
Seat 5: Neev Baram – 1,900,000
Seat 6: LeRon Washington – 1,790,000

In other LAPC news, Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri took down his 3rd preliminary event of this year’s LAPC, winning the $2,100 Ironman event, a tournament with no scheduled breaks. Barbieri pocketed almost $60,000 for the win, plus a seat to the $10,000 Main Event, which starts February 26th.

The NBC National Heads-Up Championship is just a few days away, with the draw party on March 4th at Pure at Caesars’ Palace, followed by the tournament from March 5-7. The full list of 64 participants hasn’t been announced yet, but over 20 players already received their invite through a series of criteria, including last year’s winner, Huck Seed. Other automatic invites include: Phil Ivey, Joe Cada, Vanessa Rousso, Darvin Moon, Jason Mercier, Eric Baldwin, Sammy Farha, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, and Barry Shulman. One invitee who had to decline: Jeff Lisandro, who has a prior commitment in Australia which prevents him from attending.

The EPT Copenhagen event, which drew 423 entries, concluded Sunday evening with Sweden’s Anton Wigg outlasting Italy’s Francesco de Vivo in a four-hour heads-up duel to win 3,675,000 Danish kroner ($6782,918). Other notables who cashed: Roberto Romanello, Peter Eastgate, Juha Helppi, and Bertrand Grospellier.