Seat 6: Ivan Freitez, 46, Caracas, Venezuela – 5,995,000
Freitez has played numerous EPTs and already cashed twice this season – 16th at EPT Copenhagen in February, for Danish Kroner 105,000 (nearly $20,000) and 55th at EPT Snowfest, for €6,400. His best result to date was winning a $1,000 no-limit tournament at the Venetian last July, for $108,170. Although the father-of-three describes himself as a professional poker player, Freitez runs his own transport business. Today is a double celebration for Freitez – today is his youngest son Ivan’s fifth birthday and it’s his wedding anniversary tomorrow for the final table.
Seat 5: Andrew Li, 25, Arlington, Virginia, USA – PokerStars SuperNova Elite – 1,120,000
Li has been playing poker since 2004 and professionally since 2008, after he graduated from the University of Virginia where he studied Biology and Psychology. Li primarily plays sit and goes on PokerStars under the handle "azntracker" and plays between 30 and 40 tables at once. This year he broke the record for reaching SuperNova Elite in the quickest time. It took him just two months, breaking the previous speed record by nearly three weeks. He only decided to come and play Madrid the day before the tournament started as his room mate (Pariesh "Dana Gordon" Jain) was making the trip.
He’s now banking his biggest win by far - wherever he finishes in the final. After this year's WSOP he is planning to relocate to Sydney, Australia so he can carry on his online career. Away from the tables Li likes to travel and participate in many outdoor action-adventure pursuits.
Danilyuk has played numerous EPTs (he thinks around 20) but making the final table of this season’s Grand Final is his best result to date. Last year Danilyuk played in Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko’s World Cup of Poker team and he is being railed in Madrid by a large group of Russian players.
Danilyuk, who also runs an online food-and-drink retail business, has been playing poker around six years, both live and online. Online his biggest cash has been for around €20,000.
He says he steers clear of big buy-in events. He came 51st at last season’s EPT Grand Final, for €31,000, but his biggest live cash to date was 201st at last summer’s World Series Main Event, where he earned $48,847.
Seat 3: Juan Maceiras, 26, La Coruña, Galicia, Spain– Team PokerStars Pro – 3,150,000
Former law student Maceiras took up poker while studying international business in St Louis, Missouri. After building his bankroll in local tournaments in Spain, he started to compete in bigger buy-in events and in 2007 got his first break when he came ninth at EPT Barcelona, earning €64,800. Just a few months later, he bettered that finish with a sixth place at EPT Warsaw, worth 344,641 Polish zloty (approx $148,000).
In addition to those big scores, Macerias has also cashed at EPT San Remo and EPT Prague; came third in the €2,000 event at last season’s EPT Grand Final, and was runner-up in the Estrellas Poker Tour inaugural event in Alicante, for €44,000.
He has also clocked up impressive results online, including PokerStars’ Wednesday Quarter Million in January 2009, and the Main Event of the first-ever Iberian Championship of Online Poker in February 2011.
When Maceiras turned pro, he was following in the footsteps of his sister Maria - a former Spanish poker champion - and his father Juan Antonio “Vietcong01” Barros, who has won both the PokerStars Sunday Million and the PokerStars Warm-up.
Seat 2: Tamas Lendvai, 39, Budapest, Hungary – 1,655,000
Last July Tamas Lendvai beat a 505-player field at IPT Venice to win €235,000, propelling him well on his way to topping the Italian Poker Tour tournament leader board. That victory was one of five cashes the Hungarian has made on the IPT. His achievements last year, live and online, also convinced Lendvai to become “three-quarters pro,” as he puts it, spending much of his other time running his own security company.
Lendvai started playing five years ago, dabbling in small live tournaments in Hungary after becoming enthralled with the game on TV. It’s become a profitable passion as he’s since racked up $566,464 in live winnings and another quarter-million at PokerStars under the screen name ‘tomicars’.
On the chance of winning the EPT Grand Final title and €1,500,000, Lendvai said: “It’s the most prestigious event in the world, more so than the World Series now, it’s packed with the best players. My first goal was to make the final table, we’ll see what happens after that.”
The Hungarian, a regular feature at PokerStars tournaments around the world, has achieved his first goal. Live TV will reveal how much further he can go – he’s a very real threat at this final table.
Seat 1: Eugene “oogee” Yanayt, 27, Santa Monica, California, USA – PokerStars SuperNova Elite – 2,420,000
Yanayt is one of the top Triple Draw cash games players in the world, regularly competing against high-stakes players such as Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey and Matt “hoss_tbf” Hawrilenko. Yanayt’s family hail from Russia and he grew up in Moscow until he was nine when he moved to Boston with his mother.
Yanayt majored in Computer Science at University in Los Angeles (where he now lives) but has been playing poker for around nine years. As a SuperNova Elite, Yanayt was given a package to this year’s PCA and bought his way in to the 2010 PCA with FPPs, but he doesn’t play many tournaments and still has virtually no live tournament results apart from a 414th place cash in the WSOP Main Event in 2006 for £30,000.
On Day 3, Yanayt, who is a FIDE ranked chess master, went from 64,000 to a 2,374,000 chip lead, thanks to three big hands against Allen Bari, EPT Berlin champion Ben Wilinofsky and [Removed:330] [Removed:332].
So here we are, it's the culmination of EPT Season 7 which will finish tonight (or more likely early tomorrow morning) and we'll discover who will take over from Lebanon's Nicolas Chouity as the reigning EPT Grand Final Champion.
For people who followed the events of the PCA final table back in January, today will be handled very similarly. The tournament will begin at 2pm and carry on until 6.30pm or once we are down to four players - whichever occurs first.
At this point there will be a break until 11pm (for the EPT Awards party) and will resume with a two hour delay on a closed set though this will mean viewers will be allowed to see the player's hole cards.
Ivan Freitez is the big chip leader and the man in the most dominant position though Team PokerStars Pro Juan Maceiras is looking to become the first ever Spanish EPT winner on home soil while teammate Alex Gomes is going for the fabled Triple Crown. Who will win?
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