Seat 4: Aleksejs Ponakovs, 32, Latvia (10,050,000)
Aleksejs Ponakovs is arguably the sharpest player at the final table. That alone tells a lot, considering one of online poker's most decorated players Ami Barer was also there, finishing seventh. But Ponakovs is a bona fide superstar who has thrived in the toughest and highest buy-in events in the world.
Ponakovs has a stellar online background – in fact, he has an even higher tally of winnings than Barer. Among two dozen reported six-figure online scores is a victory in the PokerStars Sunday Million from October 2017, and it felt inevitable that Ponakovs would eventually join the ranks of the high-stakes crushers on the live circuit.
His first entries on The Hendon Mob date from 2011, but his live career truly took off after the Covid hiatus. Ponakovs has become a staple in Super High Roller events, competing in the best-versus-best tournaments nearly every week. Last year, he accumulated $8.3 million in live tournament earnings, and there seems no way to slow him down.
The undisputed number one ranked player in Latvia with over $14 million in documented earnings, Ponakovs is currently in 79th place on the all-time money list, where he continues to leapfrog some of the most famous names in poker history. An elite player by all metrics, Latvian fans couldn't hope for a stronger contender to get a shot at the first EPT title for the nation.