Mattern Looking Good for 2nd EPT Title as He Leads the Field into the Final
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An awful lot of previous EPT winners played this tournament, but Team PokerStars Pro Arnaud Mattern was the only one to make it as far as the final 25. Mattern started the day off well, eliminating two players in quick succession in the first level of play, and when the dust settled on Day 4 Mattern had worked his way right to the top of the chip counts. He is the man to beat going into tomorrow's final. If he wins, he will be the first man in EPT history to have two EPT titles to his name - and the �400,000 first prize is nothing to sneer at either.
A fair few familiar faces made it to the penultimate day, among them Mattern's fellow Team PokerStars Pro Ivan Demidov. Demidov was among the very earliest casualties when his 
could not hold against young Russian live qualifier Konstantin Bilyauer's 
, and Demidov took home 22nd place money.
Konstantin Bilyauer in fact spent much of the day in the chip leader spot after calling a massive bluff from Day 1 chip leader Perica Bukara to eliminate the Serbian in 14th place. Bukara went all in with just a gutshot draw but Bilyauer called with trip sevens which improved to a full house to give him the chip lead and a quarter of the chips in play. Bilyauer is playing only his second ever live tournament this week, and whatever happens at tomorrow's final table, it will be a most impressive first cash. After Mattern and online qualifier Kevin Stani (who enjoyed an impressive finish in this year's WSOP Main Event), Bilyauer is in possession of the next-biggest stack going into the final table, and he has already shown that he knows what to do with it.
Mattern, Stani and Bilyauer have three quarters of the chips in play between them, but the blinds are getting big and this is by no means a done deal for anyone. Among the shorter stacks progressing to the final are Steven van Zadelhoff, a popular Dutch pro with almost $700,000 in tournament winnings to his name, and Italian veteran Nicolo Calia, who cashed four times in EPT Season 6 and went deep into the money in this year's WSOP Main Event.
Whichever way this goes, it promises to be a treat of a final table. We'll be back here from noon EEST when we'll be playing right down to a winner; join us back here then.
Final Table Seat Assignments & Chip Counts
Seat 1: Konstantin Bilyauer - 2,498,000
Seat 2: Steven van Zadelhoff - 805,000
Seat 3: Kevin Stani - 2,586,000
Seat 4: Nicolo Calia - 637,000
Seat 5: Bassam Elnajjar - 744,000
Seat 6: Dmitry Vitkind - 502,000
Seat 7: Arnaud Mattern - 3,720,000
Seat 8: Mikko Jaatinen - 1,166,000