2009 PokerStars.com EPT Vilamoura

Vilamoura Championship Main Event
Day: 5
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Event Info

2009 PokerStars.com EPT Vilamoura

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
7♦8♣
Prize
€404,793
Event Info
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€1,561,700
Entries
322
Level Info
Level
28
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
5,000
Sort
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Seat 5: Andrei Vlasenko, 45, Moscow, Russia - 371,000 chips

[user46392]
[user46392]
Andrei has only been playing poker for a year and says this is by far his best result so far. The 45-year-old businessman originally hails from Moscow in Russia but has been living in Marbella on Spain's Costa del Sol for the last 11 years where he works in real estate. He said he is thrilled to have made the EPT Vilamoura final table but reckons his wife Olga will be even more excited than him - "She taught me everything I know," he laughed. Olga has been supporting Andrei at the tournament and also caring for the couple's two-year-old daughter Daria.

Seat 4: Antonio Matias, 54, Setubal, near Lisbon, Portugal - 3,003,000 chips

[user46392]
[user46392]
António Matias couldn't have hoped for a better experience at his very first EPT. The 54-year-old Portuguese businessman usually plays cash games but didn't want to miss the first EPT in his home country. He is thrilled to have reached his first final table in a live tournament, even though he admits that he almost never plays live. He said: "I'm an economist and the General Director of a travelling agency. Poker is really just a hobby for me as my work means I spend a lot of time abroad - in Luanda, Angola - or I'm at home in Setúbal with my wife and two daughters. "No Limit Hold'em is my beach", says Matias, who also likes watching football in his free time and is a keen supporter of Benfica, one of the top three teams in Portugal.

Seat 3; Jeff Sarwer, 31, Kingston, Ontario, Canada - 1,983,000 chips

[user46392]
[user46392]
Sarwer has gone deep in two EPTs back to back. He was disappointed to bubble the final table at EPT Warsaw last month, finishing tenth for PLN 85,870 (approx €30,705) and was determined not to make the same mistake this time around. However he played steadily throughout Day 4 and goes into tomorrow's final in second place with 1,983,000 in chips. Like Team PokerStars Pro Ylon Schwartz, Sarwer is one of several players who have made the successful switch from chess to poker. Now 31, he learned chess at the age of four and one of his matches was the inspiration for the climax in the film Searching for Bobby Fischer. He has been playing poker seriously for around a year and cashed at EPT Prague last year. For the last three years, he has been living in Gdansk, Poland, and is a fluent Polish speaker.

Seat 2: Jan Skampa, 23, Prague, Czech Republic - 926,000 chips

[user46392]
[user46392]
Jan Skampa is an Economics Student at Charles's University in his home town of Prague but spends most of his time as a poker player. The 23-year-old has been playing poker for five years, now having learned the game from friends, but he's been playing seriously for just three years, scoring his first big result in August at the WPT in Slovakia, $24,508 for eighth place. He followed that with a win a month later, $24,881 at a WPT side event in Cyprus. His progress this week hasn't always been straight forward. He finished well on day one but ended day two as one of the short stacks. But on day three he was able to turn things around with some good cards and good situations, and by making the final table in Vilamoura he's already guaranteed the biggest pay day of his career.

Seat 1: Ryan Franklin, 18, Lake Tahoe, USA - PokerStars player - 1,047,000 chips

[user46392]
[user46392]
Despite living in the one of the best casino destinations in the world, Ryan is still way too young to play in his home town and has had to come all the way to Portugal to play in his first live tournament. Since turning 18, Ryan has been playing a lot online, and has had some outstanding results including $94k for second place in a $750k guaranteed event, and $71k for winning a $200k rebuy event last month. Ryan, who just graduated from high school, is now taking a year off to focus on poker before going to university next year. He said he was "super-excited" to have made a final table in his very first live event.

The Last and Final Table

[user66118]
[user66118]
We're down to just eight players at the inaugural PokerStars.com EPT Vilamoura, and we're almost set for the final table! Sometime this evening, one of the remaining men will walk away with more than €400,000 and their first EPT title. Here's how the table is set up:

1) Ryan Franklin - 1,047,000
2) Jan Skampa - 926,000
3) Jeff Sarwer - 1,983,000
4) Antonio Matias - 3,003,000
5) Andrei Vlasenko - 371,000
6) Joao Silva - 780,000
7) Michel Abecassis - 488,000
8) Pierre Neuville - 1,027,000

We're scheduled for a noon kickoff -- just about a half hour from now. Sit tight; we'll be back soon with the action!
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