Final Table Bios
Seat 1: Jonathan Duhamel (842,000) �� Duhamel is the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion and a member of Team PokerStars Pro. The Canadian has $11,891,086 in live tournament earnings coming into this event, with $8,944,310 of that coming from his WSOP Main Event win. In 2011, Duhamel won the 2011 EPT Deauville �10,000 High Roller for �200,000, and today he'll be looking to add a second EPT High Roller title to his trophy case.
Seat 2: Thomas Muhlocker (1,224,000) �� Austria's Muhlocker is one of the lesser-known players at the final table. With $315,381 in live tournament earnings, Muhlocker could more than double that with a win here in this event. This summer, Muhlocker earned the largest score of his career when he took sixth in Event #57: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em at the WSOP, earning $129,447.
Seat 3: Jean-Noel Thorel (1,260,000) �� Thorel is a regular on the European poker circuit, especially in high roller events. He has $783,368 in live tournament earnings, but only one six-figure score on record. That result was from a second-place finish in the 2009 EPT Deauville �20,000 High Roller event where he won �115,200. He also took fourth in the EPT Deauville that Duhamel won in 2011, earning �53,000. Last year, Thorel finished sixth in this very event for �54,390.
Seat 4: Richard Yong (1,208,000) �� When you look up Yong's tournament results, you're only going to find a short list of four cashes, but all of them have been final tables and for no less than �400,000. In 2012, he took eighth in the WSOP's $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop for $1,237,333, second in the Aspers ��100,000 High Roller for ��570,000, and third in the WSOP Europe �50,000 Majestic High Roller for �400,000. Earlier this year in April, Yong took second in the HK$1,000,000 Manila Millions for HK$6,548,000.
Seat 5: Joni Jouhkimainen (1,945,000) �� For being so young, start-of-the-day chip leader Jouhkimainen has quite a long list of poker achievements. His largest result by far �� and his only six-figure score �� was last year, right here in Barcelona. Jouhkimainen took third place in the EPT Barcelona Main Event for �404,050. Jouhkimainen hails from Finland and has $1,475,356 in live tournament earnings.
Seat 6: Ole Schemion (530,000) �� Germany's Schemion is the baby of the group when you look at everyone's age, but he has a laundry list of impressive results that would depict otherwise. Schemion has several EPT side event wins under his belt, a massive Partouche Poker Tour Main Event win for �1,172,850, a Master Classics of Poker victory for �286,200, and a first-place finish in the Lebanese Poker Tour Kyrenia Championship Event for $201,206. Also of note is that Schemion has now cashed in the three most marquee events here at EPT Barcelona �� the other two being the �50,000 Super High Roller and the Main Event. In the Super High Roller, he took sixth place for �159,200. Schemion has $3,303,030 in live tournament earnings.
Seat 7: Raoul Refos (462,000) �� Refos only has five results on record, with his largest coming a few years ago in 2008 when he took sixth place in the Master Classics of Poker for �84,420. His other four results all come from EPT events, including a fifth-place finish in a �5,000 side event at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo? Casino EPT Grand Final last year for �50,900. In total, Refos has $227,036 in live tournament earnings.
Seat 8: David Benefield (229,000) �� Like Schemion, Benefield is also making a deep appearance in his third marquee event here in Barcelona. Benefield took fifth in the �50,000 Super High Roller for �208,150 and also cashed in the Main Event. Benefield is the short stack at the final table, but it's a position he's going to have to welcome because come November, Benefield will be taking his spot at the WSOP Main Event final table last in chips. With similar chip position here against tough competition, this event will surely serve as a practice round for the 2013 WSOP November Niner. Benefield has $1,656,541 in live tournament earnings.
Seat 9: Daniel Negreanu (1,225,000) �� Negreanu is the other member of Team PokerStars Pro at this final table and needs no introduction. The Canadian, who now calls Las Vegas his home, has an astounding $18,186,975 in live tournament earnings, five WSOP gold bracelets, and two World Poker Tour titles. In 2013, Negreanu has been having himself quite the year, already earning $1,846,396. The bulk of this year's earnings came from Negreanu's fifth WSOP bracelet win when he won the inaugural WSOP Asia-Pacific Main Event for AU$1,038,825.