Robin Ylitalo, an online regular, comes from a small town in Sweden up in Dalarna but now lives in Gothenburg with his girlfriend. This is his second deep run in an EPT Main Event. He came eighth in EPT8 Campione for �54,000. During this summer's World Series he came sixth in Event #49 ($1,500 NL) for $92,550. He also finished 141st in the Main Event.
His live tournaments winnings up until this event now total $364,494.
*Bio courtesy of PokerStars.
Stefan Vagner hails from Slovakia and has been playing poker for five years. He only plays live events and first competed on the European Poker Tour in Prague in Season 6. He cashed in Barcelona last month, his best live result to date. He has also played Italian Poker Tour events and cashed in the IPT Nova Gorica Main Event last year.
Whatever happens tomorrow, he is guaranteed ��60,640, already more than double his current lifetime tournament winnings.
*Bio courtesy of PokerStars.
Ludovic Geilich hit the limelight when he took down UKIPT Marbella in June for �130,000 after defeating a huge field of 763 players. He's been playing poker for ten years, five years full time. He has a German mother and Scottish father and has lived in Scotland all his life but has a lot of German family.
He mainly plays online MTTs with the occasional dabble into Limit Hold��em cash games. His biggest live result prior to Marbella was for ��7,830 in a ��300 GUKPT side event in Walsall.
Online he��s chopped The Bigger $22 on PokerStars for $14,000. Before turning to poker full time, Geilich was a proficient snooker player, but the difficulty of the game means that going back after a break is not possible in a serious manner; he now focuses mainly on the virtual felt.
*Bio courtesy of PokerStars.
Kully Sidhu is a professional poker player whose best live result to date was beating Chris Brammer heads-up to take down the GUKPT Manchester event in 2010 for ��54,850. It was a tough event with 192 runners and a final table that also featured the likes Sam Grafton and Joe Grech.
This EPT London final table is Sidhu��s first EPT cash but he has had several cashes at UKIPT events �C including winning a �150 NL Turbo Bounty in Galway in August, and ninth in a ��150 NL Turbo Deepstack in Edinburgh. Making today��s final means he��s guaranteed ��60,640, nearly doubling his total live tournament winnings to date.
*Bio courtesy of PokerStars.
Jan Olav Sjavik has been described as an ��old school�� Norwegian player whose best result was third at EPT3 London for ��168,600. His nickname (and online name) is "Balrog". Sjavik is considered one of the mainstays of Norwegian poker, the old guard that opened the doors for the younglings to come through.
After EPT3 London, Sjavik finished third in Amsterdam at the Master Classics, and had a ��close-to-the-business-end�� finish in Copenhagen a few weeks later. Total live tournament winnings to date: $1,910,364. In a bio on the Hendon Mob, they wrote ��Known as 'The Satellite King' after his record breaking 10 super-satellite wins in the 2002 WSOP.��
*Bio courtesy of PokerStars.
PokerStars qualifier Georgios Karakousis has been playing poker for around 30 years but started with the Greek version of poker which uses just 40 cards out of the deck. He first started playing EPTs when the tour visited EPT Loutraki in Season 8 and has competed at about ten events since then. Guaranteed at least ��60,640 for making the final, this is actually Karakousis�� first ever EPT Main Event cash but he has had several High Roller scores.
These include runner-up in the �10k High Roller at EPT Madrid for �74,100. He won his seat online on PokerStars in a ��215 Double Chance qualifier a month ago. Karakousis, who is married with three daughters, and two grand-children, runs his own plastics factory back home in Greece.
*Bio courtesy of PokerStars.
Jeff Rossiter, 23, has had a stonking year already this year and is currently lying third in the 2013 Money List thanks to a runner-up finish in the GuangDong Asia Millions tournament for $3,155,887. The buy in for the GuangDong event was one million Hong Kong dollars, which equates to about US $110,000. After a flurry of re-buys, the prize pool weighed in at more than $15m. Heineker, the German online cash-game wizard, was the only player Rossiter couldn't beat ("I guess Nik's not here?" Rossiter said when told he was the biggest winner at the Grand Connaught Rooms). He originally went to Asia in November 2011 and gradually developed an appetite for the nosebleed action, which kept him coming back.
"Because of visas, you can only be there for two months at a time and then you have to leave for a month so I've been coming and playing EPTs, and it's working pretty well," Rossiter said.
*Bio courtesy of PokerStars.
Leo McClean is a project manager in the retail industry who has now just made the final table of the biggest live event he��s ever competed in. He won his seat to EPT London for a total investment of just ��93 and, when it comes to live events, normally competes in ��500 buy-in tourneys in places like Luton and Dusk till Dawn in Nottingham. He played an ��11 satellite on PokerStars, didn't get anywhere in that so then he played a ��82 satellite which got him into the ��530 qualifier where he won one of three packages.
No matter what happens at tomorrow��s final, he has already achieved by far his biggest ever live cash, massively dwarfing his previous best - a third place finish in a tournament in Luton for ��1,900 earlier this year.
McClean has another reason to be happy, he was one of many players to enter the Skrill Last Longer competition and with the exit of Ryan Yu, McClean won his ��5,250 buy-in back to go on top of his winnings.
*Bio courtesy of PokerStars.
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It's final table time here in London as our remaining eight players are getting ready to fight tooth and nail in the hopes of becoming the next EPT champion. Jeff Rossiter is the chip leader with 5,205,000 in chips and while Australians have made four final tables previously, there has never actually been an Australian winner of an EPT despite a large number of incredibly talented players.
Two other players have previous EPT final experience, Jan Olav Sjavik came 3rd for ��168,600 at EPT London back in Season 3 when Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren caught a lucky river to eliminate the Norwegian. Robin Ylitalo made the final table of EPT Campione in Season 8, finishing 8th for �54,000 but the Swede will be hoping to make it a little further up the ladder this time.
Ludovic Geilich may not have finaled an EPT but the Scottish-German player won the UKIPT event in Marbella earlier this year for �130,000 so this setup will not be totally alien to him. Rounding off the final table are Georgios Karakousis, Stefan Vagner, Leo McClean and Kully Sidhu, all hoping to take down the title.
The final table will start at 1pm but will be shown on a one hour delay on the live feed, for that reason we'll will be reporting updates on the same delay. Therefore full updates will follow from here from 2pm local time.
| Seat | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leo McClean | UK | 980,000 |
| 2 | Jeff Rossiter | Australia | 5,205,000 |
| 3 | Georgios Karakousis | Greece | 4,390,000 |
| 4 | Jan Olav Sjavik | Norway | 870,000 |
| 5 | Kully Sidhu | UK | 560,000 |
| 6 | Ludovic Geilich | Germany | 805,000 |
| 7 | Stefan Vagner | Slovakia | 2,525,000 |
| 8 | Robin Ylitalo | Sweden | 2,795,000 |
��5,250 Main Event
Day 6 Started
