Relatively new to the live poker scene, Mikalai Pobal has just one live cash on record to date – a 104th place finish at the EPT Berlin Main Event back in April (€7,500). Pobal plays on PokerStars under the name ‘leanod,’ and says his best result online is a third place finish in the Sunday Million, though he has won a handful of smaller re-buy events.
The young Belarusian studied International Economic Relations at Belarus State Economic University – a decision that seems to be paying early dividends. Already guaranteed to win at least €76,100, Pobal’s yet-to-be-determined result in the Main Event will no doubt be the largest cash of his young poker-playing career.
Joni Jouhkimainen, turned pro aged 18, playing events across Europe. Already he is turning heads in the Finnish poker community, impressing with a string of live results that many think will elevate him to the ranks of countrymen Patrik Antonius, Juha Helppi, Sami Kelopuro, Ville Wahlbeck and Ilari Sahamies. In 2012 he has begun to show signs of stepping up in stature.
In March he won the European Masters of Poker, before returning to his home town of Helsinki in June, going deep in two events at the Midnight Sun 2012. A month later he came second in the iGame Open in Prague, heading to Barcelona last week to bag third place in the Estrellas High Roller final for € 35,690. Now he’s poised to record the biggest live cash of his career.
John Juanda is far and away the most decorated player at the EPT9 Barcelona Main Event final table. Juanda has been playing poker professionally since 1996 and has amassed career earnings in excess of $12.4 million, which puts him eighth on the all-time money list - a far cry from his days as a door-to-door salesman selling bibles. The 41-year-old owns five WSOP bracelets, including one he picked up last summer for winning the $10,000 No Limit Deuce-to-Seven World Championship. Juanda will be looking to top his best finish on the EPT to date – a second place showing at the 2010 EPT London Main Event (£545,000).
Local 25-year-old student Samuel Rodriguez won his seat to EPT Barcelona online on PokerStars for just €100. He is now the only Spanish player left remaining and in line, not only to win a life-changing €1,007,550, but also become the first ever Spanish EPT champion. Rodriguez plays in local poker games, but as far as high stakes events are concerned, the EPT is a whole new world. This is his first major tournament and just happens to be the biggest ever held in Spain with a starting field of 1,082. Rodriguez has now outlasted 1,074 of them – including some of the biggest names in poker. Rodriguez, who also works in a hotel, was chip leader at the start of Day 5 and in good shape going into the final.
Describing himself as a "mid-stakes" chess player, who only began playing poker regularly one year ago, Antonin Duda from Jablonec, Czech Republic was the chip leader at the end of Day 3 in Barcelona and has navigated all the way to the final.
He is an economics student, who supplements his income by playing chess and online poker, specializing in multi-table tournaments of buy-ins from $200-$2,000. This is by far his biggest live score - his previous best result before now was a $723 min-cash in a tourney in Prague last year. He won his seat to EPT Barcelona in a €22 re-buy event on PokerStars in early June.
Ilari Sahamies is most commonly known as "Ziigmund," a high-stakes Finnish professional poker player known for frequenting the highest games in the world, especially online. Sahamies' specialty is both Pot-Limit Omaha and trash talking - often to be found in the chat boxes of an online poker room. Sahamies first got into poker at age 15 when he reportedly hopped in to the home game of another famous Finnish player, Patrik Antonius. From there, Sahamies began playing more and more live poker before transitioning into becoming an online phenom.
Online Ziigmund mainly plays cash games and is a fixture in the largest games running, regularly winning or losing six- or seven-figure sums. He also has $816,687 in live tournament earnings. In 2009, he recorded two big scores — the two largest of his live career at the time. The first was in January when he took second in the Helsinki Freezeout Main Event for €125,126. The other was a sixth-place finish in the £20,000 EPT London High Roller for £74,000. Thanks to a fourth-place finish just a few days ago in the EPT Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller for €291,900, this year is already Sahamies' best to date.
The 21-year-old Anaras Alekberovas is a full-time online poker player from Vilnius, Lithuania. He picked up the game back in 2008 and has been playing ever since. When he turned 18, Alekberovas started playing poker online. He scored his biggest win so far in an online tournament when he collected around $47,000 for finishing runner-up. The EPT9 Barcelona Main Event marks his first long run in a big live poker tournament as well as the biggest cash of his career to date. Alekberovas prefers playing online poker over live tournaments, mostly taking part in no-limit heads-up cash games.
For the past week, the 2012 PokerStars.comEuropean Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event has been playing out at the Casino Barcelona in Barcelona, Spain, the first stop on the EPT Season 9 schedule. What began with 1,082 is now down to the final eight.
Leading the pack is Ilari "Ilari FIN" Sahamies, better known for his online exploits than anything he's done in the live realm. Today the Fin looks to change that by using his 7,885,000 stack to make a run at his first major title.
Standing in his way is an eclectic mix of players that includes John Juanda, a five-time World Series of Poker Bracelet winner looking to add an EPT title to his already impressive résumé. If he's to accomplish the feat, he's going to have to do it from a short stack as he begins the day seventh in chips.
Likewise, the young Lithuanian Anaras Alekberovas played superbly on Day 6, oftentimes holding the chip lead. He begins the final table fourth in chips and will no doubt give the rest of the players a run for their money. Throw in two former chip leaders, Antonin Duda (Day 3) and Samuel Rodriguez (Day 4), and this final table is shaping up to be quite the affair.
Season 9 EPT Barcelona Final Table
Seat
Player
Count
1
Anaras Alekberovas
4,430,000
2
Ilari Sahamies
7,885,000
3
Antonin Duda
3,445,000
4
Samuel Rodriguez
6,450,000
5
John Juanda
1,890,000
6
Joni Jouhkimainen
1,510,000
7
Mikalai Pobal
4,410,000
8
Sinel Anton
2,355,000
The sixth and final day of the 2012 PokerStars.com EPT Barcelona Main Event will begin at 13:00 CET (07:00 EST) as the final table of eight will play down to a winner. Since it will be broadcast on a one-hour delay, our updates will begin at 14:00 CET (08:00 EST).
