Leave it to Full Tilt Poker to steal thunder from all the attention going to the One Drop million-dollar buy-in tourney … after all, it’s gotta sting the creators of the Onyx Cup to see such a realization of their vision done bigger and better and with no Full Tilt patches anywhere near the TV cameras.

According to Forbes, Ray Bitar, the stubbornly semi-apologetic CEO of Full Tilt, has been arrested in New York after turning himself in to federal authorities. The Feds have added criminal charges to those levied against him April 15, 2011, based on false statements made to players about their funds as he and others continued to deplete Full Tilt accounts for personal gain … allegedly.

The superseding indictment said, “In effect, Full Tilt Poker operated what was, by then, nothing more than a Ponzi scheme.” So they have softened their language to say not that FTP was a Ponzi scheme … but it was like one. That actually, seems kinda true … when you think of all the poker benefits afforded certain Team Full Tilt pros by using player funds unbeknownst to them.

You can only imagine, too, that while Full Tilt got kinda pissed when PokerStars paid back all their players, Stars has to be kinda pissed as they face another reminder that DOJ settlements don’t come when wanted criminals — their words, not mine — are on the lam and running multinational companies that compete with the Caesars Empire.

The highly anticipated debut of the Epic Poker League held their first $20,000 Main Event Tuesday afternoon at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. The first day of the “rake-free” tournament ($400 of each buy-in went to the dealers) with $400,000 added ended with three of the hottest players in poker, Eugene Katchalov, Ben Lamb and Brian Rast the top three in chips.

The first EPL event featured plenty of notable names absent as Daniel Negreanu, most of Team Full Tilt, and Doyle Brunson deciding not to participate. Card-holding members need to enter at least one Main Event, Pro/Am and charity event each season to maintain their card.

In a radio interview last week, Phil Hellmuth wasn’t sure if he’d play in the first event. After making his “announcement” on Twitter Monday, he made his traditional late appearance, but was eliminated shortly after the dinner break.

The EPL will hold tournaments in a variety of no-limit hold’em formats, with the inaugural event played six-handed. Registration closed at the start of level 5, nearly 8 hours after play started. The tournament clock showed 137 players entered to create a $3,085,200 prize pool. The winner at the conclusion of play Friday will earn as the top 18 places make the money. The top 27 EPL money earners return February for the $1,000,000 League Championship freeroll.

Jason Mercier and Sean Getzwiller (a Pro/Am qualifier) are the other bracelet winners from this year’s WSOP among the 63 players returning Wednesday afternoon at 12pm PST to play another six levels.

Top ten chip counts:

Eugene Katchalov – 356,300
Ben Lamb – 287,200
Brian Rast – 260,500
Antonio Esfandiari – 248,100
Noah Schwartz – 220,200
McLean Karr – 191,800
Hoyt Corkins – 187,400
Isaac Baron – 167,700
Dan O’Brien – 163,300
Erik Seidel – 161,200

The full list of chip counts along with live updates, table draws, videos and more can be found at www.epicpoker.com

Pre-M.E. Festivities

Before the Main Event, the EPL kicked off over the weekend with The $1,500 Pro/Am tournament, offering nine Main Event seats, drew a combined field of 190 entrants as the final table was filmed for the Heartland Poker Tour. Steve O’Dwyer was the winner, earning $23,810 plus his EPL Main Event Seat. The only EPL-eligible player to snag a seat on the cheap was Andy Bloch, eventually finishing 3rd. Michael Craig recaps the final table.

While the Pro/Am final table was in action, 81 players put up $240 (plus a ton of $100 rebuys and add-ons) to raise over $50,000 for Operation USA, with the money earmarked for the victims of tornadoes in Joplin, Missouri. Plenty of goodies were given to all players with Zappos contributing $2,500 to the winner. Reigning World Poker Tour Player of the Year Andy Frankenberger won the title, donating the winnings to the charity.

The big tournament going on right now is the Mohegan Sun $5k main event … make the the NAPT-Mohegan Sun main event … make that the PokerStars.net NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event.

To some extent, this was a proof-in-the-pudding tournament for the fledgling-but-promising North American Poker Tour. They pulled off a total hit a couple months ago in Las Vegas at the Venetian … but that was in Las Vegas, where most of the pros live and tourists love to travel to — this is Uncasville, Connecticut! But still … turned out Mohegan Sun has proved that NAPT events can indeed draw enough top-rank talent across the country for a $5k event worthy of televising on ESPN2.

Even Full Tilt showed up — and not just the red pros, but team pro, too, including Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan.

The event set Mohegan Sun records for both attendance and prizepool. They got 716 players … more than 100 of whom will chop up nearly $3.3 million … and top prize is a handsome $750k.

Follow the live updates and chip counts here.

Pauly’s there, too … holy fugk, the event even drew Tao coverage — surely it’s gonna stick!

Click below to see what really does look to be a great payout structure.

P.S. David Williams is winning.

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Even Superman eventually gave birth to Superboy (or somehow existed in a parallel universe with him) and likewise, Full Tilt is welcoming their newest Team Pro, Tom Dwan, with a soon-to-be-released poker-noir TV commercial all about the self-discovery of Durrrr.

The new advert came up in our Poker Beat pre-game discussion, and @GaryWise1 offered a solid explanation of its significance:

it’s really the first time any post-2003 face has appeared in a commercial for any of the big brands. It may be a topic for a different show, but dwan has proved it’s possible to take one’s place beside the old guard

Here’s the ad itself:

You can find a more thorough and detailed analysis of the business behind this pre-release sneak preview at Wicked Chops here.

In a press release dated for Monday, Full Tilt Poker announces the signing of their youngest member to Team Full Tilt, Tom “Durrr” Dwan. Chances of an awkward press conference like the one held for Patrik Antonius?

From the press release:

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