In the second hand of the final table, Ivan Luca min-raised from the button to 120,000 with and Peter Siemund called from one seat over with the . Robert Kokoska in the big blind then moved all in and Luca as well as Siemund both mucked their cards.
Siemund got his chips back one hand later by raising the button for 125,000 with the . Mick Heder defended the big blind with but quickly check-folded a flop of .
In the first hand of the final table, Hannes Speiser moved all in for 435,000 and Ivan Luca called out of the small blind to put the Austrian at risk.
Speiser:
Luca:
The flop saw both players hit, but Luca had also the diamonds covered to reduce Speiser's outs. Neither the turn nor the river changed anything and Speiser was eliminated in 8th place for �12,500.
In one hour from now at 2 p.m. local time, the final eight players will return to the feature table of the PokerStars.net Eureka 6 Rozvadov �1,100 Main Event and Ivan "Negriin" Luca leads with 5,355,000 in chips. The Argentinian sensation propelled into the top position early on Day 3 and never fell out of the top three anymore, busting Domenico Gala at the end to secure a commanding lead.
Players with seven different nationalities out of a 682-entry strong field have made it to the final table and the only country to be represented by two players is Argentina, as Luca's girlfriend Maria Lampropoulos follows in third place with a stack of 2,455,000. In fact, they are even sitting next to each other to create an even more intense scenario.
In second place is Germany's Peter Siemund with 2,845,000 while David Urban (2,005,000) attempts to become the second Slovakian to emerge victorious in a Eureka Main Event in Rozvadov, as Martin Meciar triumphed two years ago. Bulgaria's Stoyan Stefanov (1,505,000) and Denmark's Mick Heder (1,370,000) are in the middle of the pack whereas the bottom two stacks belong to the last remaining Czech in the field, Robert Kokoska (895,000), as well as Austria's Hannes Speiser (445,000).
All finalists have �12,500 locked up thus far, but all eyes are set on the Eureka title and first-place payout of �124,890 that comes with it. The tournament recommences with 43:43 minutes left in level 27 and blinds of 30,000-60,000 and a running ante of 10,000. There is a live stream of the action with hole cards being shown on a security delay of one hour and it can be followed on the King's Casino website or right here on PokerNews. As usual, the live reporting team will be on hand until the last river card is dealt, so make sure to tune back in regularly to find out who emerges victorious.
One of the top poker players from the Czech Republic was originally planning another career, playing football for Sparta Prague. But when Robert Kokoska injured his knee several years ago, he started taking poker seriously and turned professional soon. Kokoska has been successful both live and online, playing since 2008. On the live circuit, he's amassed over $230,000 in live tournament winnings with the biggest prize of $52,430 earned for a first place in the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza $1k Event back in 2012.
Recently, he cashed in the PCA 2016 Main Event (93rd for $10,840). The 27-year-old from the small town Neratovice is still playing football. He's a midfielder for his hometown team which lies in the Czech fourth tier. Although seventh in chips, Kokoska can still hope to become the first Czech player to win the Eureka Main Event.
Peter Siemund is the oldest player among the eight finalists in the Eureka 6 Rozvadov Main Event. The 45-year-old from Berlin is playing poker for five years, switching between both cash games and tournaments. Siemund has not much time to play as he's working as a CEO for a couple of companies.
When out of duty, he's watching a lot of poker videos, trying to learn from the pros. So far, his highlight of this tournament was a successful bluff against Ivan Luca on the feature table. Back in 2013, Siemund cashed the EPT10 Prague Main Event, earning �9,900 for 118th place.
It's hard to find a table where Ivan Luca wouldn't be considered a superstar as he's been thriving in nearly all events including the EPT High Rollers. Aged only 24, Luca is already #2 in the Argentinian all-time money list with more than $2.8 million in live tournament winnings. He's been crushing the events all over Europe since December 2014 when he arrived to the Czech Republic for EPT11 Prague and made three top three finishes there. After that festival, Luca shined in the FPS Deauville Main Event, finishing fourth for �68,500 at the end of January 2015. Then he added his first EPT High Roller notch when he took �397,000 for a runner-up finish in the EPT11 Malta �10k High Roller.
Luca also won his first WSOP bracelet last summer, banking $353,000. He's now one of the regular heavyweights on the live circuit, having made several deep runs in the High Rollers and Super High Rollers. Since the beginning of this year, Luca has already cashed for more than $700k. The Argentinian is also an online beast, using the moniker "Negriin" on PokerStars. His numerous online achievements include a Super Tuesday title as well as a Sunday 500 victory. Luca has made a lot of final tables in his career but this one will be a unique experience for him.
For the first time, he'll play against his girlfriend Maria on a final table. The couple tried to look back to remember if that had happened before but Maria said that they'd only played tournaments where they'd met on the last two tables. Luca is a huge favourite coming back for the Final Day. With 5,355,000 in his bag, he's entering the final as the dominating chip leader.
If anyone is regularly cheering for Ivan Luca in the tournaments, it's Maria Lampropoulos who's been railing her boyfriend during many deep runs over the last months. This time, she'll only need to look left to see Luca but might not be interested in supporting him that much. The couple made the Eureka 6 Rozvadov final table and they'll be sitting next to each other on the feature table.
While Luca is currently one of the hottest players in the world, Lampropoulos also had a brilliant February at the poker tables. She cashed the EPT12 Dublin Main Event and then marched to the heads-up in the WPTN Brussels Main Event. Lampropoulos earned �68,200 for the second place - the biggest payday of her career. Now she has a chance to better her largest cash twice in less than two weeks with another top two finish. The Argentinian couple is pretty much on the road all the time but they have plans to settle in London, trying to avoid flying overseas back and forth.
Mainly a cash game player, Stoyan Stefanov started playing poker with friends seven years ago. Now he's active both live and online. As for tournaments, his Hendon Mob profile reveals only one cash to date: last year's 98th place for �1,775 in the Estrellas/UKIPT Marbella Main Event. Stoyanov is now guaranteed to add a much bigger prize to his poker resume after making the final table here at Eureka Rozvadov.
Hannes Speiser comes to the final table with the shortest stack but will try to follow the footsteps of his fellow countryman Raphael Wimmer who won the Eureka Rozvadov Main Event last year.
Speiser, living in Vienna, is mostly focusing on the online multi-table tournaments, using the screenname "SuchADegen" on PokerStars. On the live scene, Speiser collected prizes worth $221,000 so far, cashing mainly in Austria.