  NASA's Kepler Mission promises to detect transiting Earth-sized planets in
the habitable zones of solar-like stars. In addition, it will be poised to
detect the reflected light component from close-in extrasolar giant planets
(CEGPs) similar to 51 Peg b. Here we use the DIARAD/SOHO time series along with
models for the reflected light signatures of CEGPs to evaluate Kepler's ability
to detect such planets. We examine the detectability as a function of stellar
brightness, stellar rotation period, planetary orbital inclination angle, and
planetary orbital period, and then estimate the total number of CEGPs that
Kepler will detect over its four year mission. The analysis shows that
intrinsic stellar variability of solar-like stars is a major obstacle to
detecting the reflected light from CEGPs. Monte Carlo trials are used to
estimate the detection threshold required to limit the total number of expected
false alarms to no more than one for a survey of 100,000 stellar light curves.
Kepler will likely detect 100-760 51 Peg b-like planets by reflected light with
orbital periods up to 7 days.
