Ben Lamb, Eugene Katchalov Still Hot at Epic Poker League Day 1

Two of the World Series of Poker 2011 hottest players, Ben Lamb and Eugene Katchalov, have continued their winning ways at the inaugural Epic Poker League, finishing as the chip leaders after Day 1.

Lamb will play in the WSOP Final in November.  Katchalov also managed a deep run at the WSOP and is vying for Bluff Player of the Year.

A number of big name players including Phil Hellmuth and Eric Seidel will be taking part in the first ever Epic Poker League tournament.  Others won’t be.

Most notably absent was Daniel Negreanu, who has a long standing feud with Epic Commissioner Annie Duke.

Tom Dwan was also nowhere to be found, though he qualified for the “pro-only” event.  Dwan has come under fire for guaranteeing to pay out millions of dollars to those owed by Full Tilt Poker, the now defunct online poker room Dwan represented.  He has since pushed the deadline date for these payouts to later next year.

Here are the top ten chip counts from the end of Day 1:

1. Eugene Katchalov - 356,300
2. Ben Lamb - 287,200
3. Brian Rast - 260,500
4. Antonio Esfandiari - 248,100
5. Noah Schwartz - 220,200
6. McLean Karr - 191,800
7. Hoyt Corkins - 187,400
8. Isaac Baron - 167,700
9. Dan O’Brien - 163,300
10. Erik Seidel - 161,200

- Ace King, Gambling911.com

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