Chino Rheem Wins Inaugural Epic Poker League Main Event

The first ever Epic Poker League main event is officially in the books and the title belongs to none other than Chino Rheem.

Rheem defeated two of the hottest players on the tournament circuit three handed in Jason Mercier and Erik Seidel and was rewarded with a cool $1 million for his efforts. He now has $5.6 million in career earnings, though Rheem himself has admitted that his bankroll is closer to zero.

Rheem has been the subject of some controversy the past few weeks for his failure to pay back debts and for welching on various prop bets. Though he has always been a talented poker pro, winning a World Poker Tour title and making the WSOP November Nine, Rheem has had trouble holding on to his money over the past few years.

Perhaps good friend Robert Mizrachi summed it up best when he tweeted the following during the final table. “GL @ChinoRheem show the world ur skills and turn ur Life around bro.”

Before play began, Rheem expressed his desire to win and get back to even with the poker world on Twitter. “Final table of the 1st @EpicPokerLeague main event! All I wanna do is win & do the right thing! I’m so close and it feels good knowing that!”

It took Rheem 212 hands at the final table to secure the victory against one of the toughest lineups in recent memory. Huck Seed battled on the short stack for quite some time before finally busting in sixth place and Gavin Smith followed him out the door in fifth a short while later.

Hasan Habib entered the final table in first place but struggled with Mercier, Seidel and Rheem all night long before being eliminated in fourth. Mercier lost a flip to bust in third and Seidel could not overcome his large chip deficit to rack up his third seven-figure score of the year.

Here is a look at the final results.

1. Chino Rheem — $1,000,000
2. Erik Seidel — $604,330
3. Jason Mercier — $360,970
4. Hasan Habib — $237,560
5. Gavin Smith — $154,260
6. Huck Seed — $107,980

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