The eagerly-awaited final table of the €4,250 LIDO Main Event of the 2015 Master Classics of Poker gets underway in one hour from now at 15:00 local time and poker enthusiasts can look forward to an interesting line-up as well as the unique walk in with a personalized song and light show in the Holland Casino in Amsterdam.
Donald Rae was leading the remaining hopefuls of the 291-entry strong field into the money at the end of Day 2 and he also bagged up the most chips on Day 3 when the field was whittled down to its last nine participants. The Brit, mainly an online cash game player with just one entry in the Hendon Mob, claimed 25% of the chips in play thus far with 2,265,000. He is followed by Georgios Zisimopoulos (1,611,000) and Jussi Nevanlinna (1,388,000) with the latter knowing exactly what it means to be in the spotlight at the MCOP after finishing 4th last year and 2nd to David Boyaciyan in 2011.
Kees van Brugge is 4th in chips with 1,003,000 and also already made MCOP history after winning the initial €1,500 Side Event in 2014. Clyde Tjauw Foe (904,000) is trying to improve his result of last year after coming 4th for a payday of €83,786. The final table line-up is completed by Dutch poker pro Joep van den Bijgaart (617,000), World Series of Poker Circuit Rozvadov 3rd place finisher Johnny Hansen (393,000), [Removed:172] (371,000) and Makarios Avramidis (222,000).
Kramer has been enjoying a stellar year at the poker tables already after finishing 18th in the WSOP Main Event and 5th in it's European pendant in Berlin one month ago. The Spielbank Berlin also brought moments of glory for Avramidis, who took down the €2,200 No Limit Hold'em - Six Max #1 and claimed the first-ever golden bracelet for his home country Greece. Avramidis also finished 8th in this very event in 2011 as well.
There are 47:06 minutes left in Level 23 at blinds of 10,000/20,000 and a running ante of 3,000. A live stream with hole cards and Dutch commentary on a security delay of half an hour will be available, and all the finalists have €23,047 locked up for their efforts. Make sure to tune into the PokerNews live reporting to find out who is crowned champion and takes home the €300,000 first-place payout.