[Removed:284] has been playing poker since 2007 and initially started playing multi-table tournaments until he decided he was too old for multi-tabling. From there, he started focusing on playing online satellites to qualify for live events like the EPT.
[Removed:287]'s largest scores to date are seventh in the €4,000 European Championship in Baden in 2009 for €25,140 and 84th at EPT Berlin last season for €10,000. [Removed:287] thinks of himself as a recreational player. Outside of poker, his main job is as a field sales manager.
He qualified for this event in his third satellite for EPT Berlin and has already won his trip to the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final next week. He's also already booked his flight to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker this summer, so we could be seeing a lot more of [Removed:287] in the coming months. He enters the final table fifth in chips.
PokerStars player Andrew Chen is a well-known Canadian online pro from Ontario, who has been a regular on the European Poker Tour for several seasons. He has made numerous live final tables, including the PokerStars.net LAPT San Jose and EPT Prague in 2008 along with a runner-up finish in a 2009 $1,500 World Series of Poker event.
The largest score of Chen's career came in the Season 6 EPT Grand Final when he took fifth in the Main Event for €400,000. The following January, he snagged his first major title when he won the $5,000 Bounty Shootout at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $263,100. At this year’s PCA, he was runner-up in the $10,000 6-Max High Roller for $191,984.
His live tournament winnings total more than $2 million and Chen could earn his first EPT title today. He'll enter with 3.6 million in chips and sits in third place overall.
Davidi Kitai is already top of the Belgium all-time money list, having accrued nearly $1.8 million in live tournament winnings. Nearly half of that on those earnings have come from the EPT and Kitai has a chance here today to make it even more.
Despite his casual looks, Davidi Kitai is known as a fearsome player. He has numerous tournament accolades, including a World Series of Poker gold bracelet won in 2008. He conquered the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em event to etch his name in the WSOP record books and score $244,583. On top of that, this is Kitai’s second EPT final. He came third at EPT Barcelona in Season 5 for €455,000, which is his best live result to date. Kitai also won the World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational in 2011 for $100,000.
According to his professional profile, Kitai has all the qualities of a good tournament player: "cool, confidence and a touch of madness." As well as tournaments, Kitai is also an online cash game specialist, mainly playing pot-limit Omaha.
Kitai perfected his poker skills during a trip to Los Angeles in 2003. He had ventured to the United States to learn English, but it was Texas Hold’em that he mastered. Kitai goes into the final table as the chip leader with nearly 5.7 million in chips. He's the only play over five million and has over 25% of the chips in play.
Bahadir Kilickeser, a 33-year-old who works in wholesale and export trades, won his seat to Berlin in a €550 live satellite at the Spielbank Casino on Monday.
Kilickeser got his start in poker by taking up the game five years ago in the Weser Poker Lounge in his home city of Bremen. The Lounge now plans a big EPT final table party tomorrow in his honor — complete with a giant screen showing the EPTLive webcast so that all Kilickeser’s friends can support him from there.
This is his Kilickeser’s first-ever EPT and by far his biggest result he's posted in any tournament, ever. His only result on record is winning a €200 tournament at Spielbank Bremen for €6,000 in March.
Kilickeser, who is married, is also a successful amateur football player and now plays now for FC Union 60 Bremen in the sixth highest league in Germany. He enters the day second in chips behind Davidi KItai.
Marc Wright, 25, has been a professional player for more than four years after quitting his job as a Retail Manager after nine months to concentrate on the game. Formerly from London, he now lives in Liskeard, Cornwall with his girlfriend and step-daughter. Earlier this month, Wright went deep in the Irish Poker Open and finished in 13th place for €15,400.
On the urging of his girlfriend, Wright travelled to Berlin this week to play his first European Poker Tour event, deciding even before he took his seat that he would begin to play more live events from now on.
With his recent IPO result being the largest of his live creer, his result today will be the biggest of his career. He'll begin the day sixth in chips.
