€5,000 EPT Kyiv Main Event | 2009 PokerStars.net EPT Kyiv

08-23-2009 11:22 UTC+2

Seat 7: Alexander Dovzhenko (1,590,000)

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Alexander Dovzhenko will be the crowd favorite today as the last Ukrainian standing. A 45-year-old resident of Kyiv, Dovzhenko has a strong record of tournament success over the past 15 years. Earlier in 2009, he followed up a 56th-place finish at the EPT San Remo with three more cashes in the WSOP.

Dovzhenko's first love was chess, but he soon grow to love playing Seven-card Stud and enjoyed a good bit of success playing online as "berserk64". Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko is a close personal friend of Dovzhenko's, and he can't say enough good about his game. "He is a very good player, one of the best in Ukraine," said Kravchenko. "I would say he was a favorite to win this event."

Dovzhenko has a good shot at fulfilling that goal, coming into play with a big stack of 1,590,000.

Tags: Alexander Dovzhenko

08-23-2009 11:21 UTC+2

Seat 6: Maxim Lykov (2,597,000)

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Shamus

Maxim Lykov, just 21 years old, went home with the chip lead each of the last three days. The poker pro specializes in multi-table no-limit hold'em tourneys, both live and online where he plays under the moniker of "Decay." In addition to several big scores online, the Moscow native made his first significant live cash at this summer's WSOP when he took third in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout event ($145,062).

Tags: Maxim Lykov

08-23-2009 11:20 UTC+2

Seat 5: Torsten Tent (264,000)

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[user66118]

Meet your short stack, Torsten Tent. Yesterday was quite a carnival ride for the German amateur player, finding him self as both the chip leader and the short stack at varying times throughout the course of the day.

Tent resides in Korbach where he is a production manager for a large tire manufacturer, playing poker as a hobby on the side. He's pretty good at his hobby though, earning himself a 2009 WSOP package on PokerStars. He also qualified for this EPT event in an $11+r satellite, though he says he usually plays Omaha. "When I'm at home surfing the internet," he said, "I'm usually playing poker online at the same time. There is always space for a table on my desktop."

After that up-and-down day yesterday, Tent has been forced to play the short stack today, coming in with 264,000 chips which won't let him sit around in idle for too long.

Tags: Torsten Tent

08-23-2009 11:19 UTC+2

Seat 4: Arthur Simonyan (531,000)

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Shamus

After a career in business, the 43-year-old Simonyan became a full-time professional poker player in 2006, focusing primarily on mostly no-limit hold'em multi-table tourneys. Today's final table marks a best-ever finish for Simonyan, whose previous best finish was a $10,000 cash in an event in his native Moscow. Simonyan is one of three Russians at our final table (along with Lykov and Tolokonnikov), all of whom are from Moscow.

Tags: Arthur Simonyan

08-23-2009 11:19 UTC+2

Seat 3: Ad Schaap (520,000)

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The previous two EPT events were both won by Dutch players, and if Ad Schaap has anything to say about it, it'll be a three-peat by the time Day 5 is done.

Schaap is a 45-year-old native of Rotterdam, Holland where he owns a chain of American-style grill restaurants, and he greatly enjoys when he has the opportunity to travel to play major tournament poker. This marks his third EPT cash in the last three years, including an in-the-money finish at the Grand Final in Monte Carlo last season.

Schaap has two daughters that may make the trip here to sweat him today; regardless, he'll have a few fellow-Dutch supporters on his side, including Raoul Refos and Menno Mulder.

The Dutchman has some work to do today. He'll begin play with the second-shortest stack of 520,000. Short, but still firmly in contention.

Tags: Ad Schaap

08-23-2009 11:18 UTC+2

Seat 2: Lucasz Plichta (731,000)

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Lucasz Plichta is also 22 years old, a resident of Gdansk, Poland. Plichta took 2,500 FPP from his account and entered a satellite for this event just about two weeks ago. A victory there sent him freerolling all the way to this final table, the best live result of his young poker career.

When he's not grinding up FPP on PokerStars, Plichta studies Economics at Gdansk University. As the lone Pole to enter the EPT Kyiv, the hopes of his native country are still resting squarely on his young shoulders. He'll begin play in the middle of the pack with 731,000 in chips.

Tags: Lucasz Plichta

08-23-2009 11:14 UTC+2

Seat 1: Vadim Markushevski (1,662,000)

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Vadim Markushevski is a 22-year-old semi-professional poker player from Minsk, Belarus. 2008 saw Markushevski break into the spotlight when he took fourth place in a WCOOP event for close to $1,000,000. He would prove his mettle on the live felt a few months later when he headed to St. Petersburg for the inaugural Russian Poker Tour event. That January 2009 tournament drew the largest field to date in this region, and Markushevski would work his way to a second-place finish out of the 201 runners who entered.

Markushevski comes into the final table second in chips, and maybe a win here for the Belarusian will be just what he needs to drop that pesky "semi-" in front of his job title.

Tags: Vadim Markushevski

08-23-2009 11:13 UTC+2

Almost There

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Shamus

A bit of a delay here as final preparations are being made for the start of today's final table. Stay tuned!

08-23-2009 10:34 UTC+2

Eight Players, One Trophy

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We are about a half-hour away from the start of today's final table at the EPT Kyiv Main Event. Players have arrived and are giving interviews to be shown over on EPT Live, where you can tune in to follow all of the action. Coverage begins there at noon local time (GMT+2).

Be back in a few with player profiles and the start of play.

08-23-2009 01:24 UTC+2

Final Table Seat Assignments and Chip Counts

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Seat 1: Vadim Markushevski (1,662,000)
Seat 2: Lucasz Plichta (731,000)
Seat 3: Adrian Schaap (520,000)
Seat 4: Arthur Simonyan (531,000)
Seat 5: Torsten Tent (264,000)
Seat 6: Maxim Lykov (2,597,000)
Seat 7: Alexander Dovzhenko (1,590,000)
Seat 8: Vitaly Tolokonnikov (1,019,000)