Danish grinder Jannick Wrang recently finished ninth on the PokerStars MicroMillions leaderboard so you might be forgiven that he's a low stakes player come good. That could not be further from the truth. Wrang, a regular $25-$50 Pot-Limit Omaha player, had lost $150,000 in a brutal two days of cash games and challenged himself to focus on the micro-stakes series. That ninth place gifted him a $1,050 SCOOP ticket, which he’ll no doubt use to good effect as he pushes through the $1,000,000 mark in online tournament winnings at PokerStars. The Dane has been playing the EPT since Season 3 and this will be his fourth main event cash. A 16th place finish at EPT London (£25,000) was his deepest result before Campione.
Soulier is ranked fourth in France’s all time money list with over $3.6 million in live tournament winnings. He’s been well known in Europe for many years but it was taking down the 2011 WSOP $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship for more than $600,000 that gave him worldwide renown. Other notable cashes include third at the Partouche Main Event in September 2010 for €500,000 (the event won by Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst), third in the Epic Poker League last September and 49th in the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $138,568. He has a total of 18 WSOP cashes as well as deep runs in several EPTs. Last season he finished 11th at EPT Berlin, 48th at EPT San Remo, 19th at EPT Deauville and 64th at EPT Prague – but Campione is his first EPT final table. Soulier was originally a film and TV director but, after winning a couple of large poker tournaments in France, abandoned that career to grind live cash games in the States. He was the top earning French player from 2001-2006 and, according to Cardplayer, one of the top five players in the world in 2006. He has appeared on numerous TV poker shows and was the main character featured in the 2006 PokerStars-sponsored documentary “That's Poker.” Soulier is co-founder of the “Madeinpoker” online poker community.
Technology graduate Balazs “birs320” Botond has been playing EPTs since Season 6 and finished 13th at EPT Vienna last season for €26,000. He has made more than $200,000 in live tournament winnings but this sum is totally dwarfed by his online cashes which total more than $1.3m. On PokerStars alone, Botond has won more than $900,000 including a fifth place finish in a $1,500 2011 WCOOP event last year for $30,000. Last month the 27-year-old from Budapest won a $162 buy-in 6-max tourney on PokerStars for $27,100. In online rankings, Botond is currently 128th in the world, and second in Hungary. He took up poker three years ago and turned pro just six months later, eventually ditching his job in a Budapest department store. He is being supported here in Campione by his girlfriend Zsofi.
Ylitalo has been playing poker around five years, four years as a pro. He mainly plays high-stakes online MTTs with his biggest cash being $100,000 in a $600 buy-in event in January. He’s been playing EPTs for a couple of seasons but his best result before today was 13th at EPT Berlin last season for €28,000. This is his third EPT in Season 8.
Welcome back ladies and gentlemen to the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Campione main event where in a few hours time the fifth and final day will get underway and will continue until only one man remains seated. Whoever that is will be crowned the inaugural EPT Campione champion and be awarded a cheque for a cool €640,000 along with a custom made Shamballa bracelet worth more than €10,000.
This particular final table has all the hallmarks of being one of the best in the eight season the EPT has been running and we are extremely looking forward to it. Each of the eight final table members have got to this stage on merit and any one of them would be a worthy champion.
Starting the day as chip leader is highly decorated French pro Fabrice Soulier who has more than $3,600,000 in live tournament winnings to his name. Soulier has a World Series of Poker bracelet having won the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. event at last year's WSOP and is now a favourite to add an EPT title to his already impressive poker CV.
Standing between Soulier's victory and what will be a career-best score are seven very talented and experienced poker players including Oliver Busquet, Koen De Visscher, Jannick Wrang and Balzs Botond, the latter being a bit of a dark horse in our opinion.
Join us from 14:00 for all the action from the final table, which is also being streamed on PokerStars.TV.
