Three hands in we're yet to see a flop, the second and third hands were both won by Eli Heath with simple raise and takes.
2014 PokerStars.fr EPT Deauville
Eugene Katchalov raised from middle position with and took the blinds and antes.
The final tables of the High Roller and the Main Event are taking place opposite one another at Casino Barrière today. You need eyes in the back of your head to keep up with all the action, or a neck that swivels 180 degrees. Alternatively, there's the PokerStars blog.
Level: 26
Blinds: 20,000/40,000
Ante: 5,000
Rustem Muratov qualified for EPT Deauville on PokerStars for €82 and is already in massive profit. Not only is he guaranteed €63,900 for making the final table, being the last man standing with a Skrill patch he also assured himself of €5,300 in his Skrill account for winning the Skrill Last Longer.
Muratov, who works as a distributor for the electrical equipment company Schneider, is playing his first ever EPT, only his fourth live tournament and the biggest buy-in event he’s competed in. He has only two recorded live cashes to date, the biggest being $2,356 for 18th place at a tourney in Cyprus.
He said: “I’m already very happy. My best result before now was winning the seat for this event! I like Deauville, it looks like a fairytale place (apart from the rain).” Muratov and his wife Svetlana are soon to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary and have two older daughters and a nine-month old son. Svetlana couldn’t come to Deauville but is following all the action on EPTLive back home. Muratov is being supported here by his friend Ilyas who came along to play the cash games.
As the cards will be face up for this EPT Live Streamed final table, tournament reporting will start in an hour. The following eight players will battle it out for that coveted €614,000 first place prize.
Seat | Player | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Oliver Price | 1,735,000 | 43 |
2 | Harry Law | 3,130,000 | 78 |
3 | Carlo De Benedittis | 685,000 | 17 |
4 | Eugene Katchalov | 3,280,000 | 82 |
5 | Anthony Lerust | 1,295,000 | 32 |
6 | Eli Heath | 2,475,000 | 62 |
7 | Rustem Muratov | 1,070,000 | 27 |
8 | Sotirios Koutoupas | 6,400,000 | 160 |
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Sotirios Koutoupas | 6,400,000 | |
|
||
Eugene Katchalov | 3,280,000 | |
Harry Law | 3,130,000 | |
Eli Heath | 2,475,000 | |
Oliver Price | 1,735,000 | |
Anthony Lerust | 1,295,000 | |
Rustem Muratov | 1,070,000 | |
Carlo De Benedittis | 685,000 |
By making the final table in the EPT10 Deauville Main Event, Oliver Price is looking to add another career highlight to his deep run in last summer's World Series Main Event where he made it to Day 6 before falling in 49th place. His $151,063 cash for that finish was nearly ten times his career live winnings up to that point after collecting various small scores in Las Vegas and the UK. Meanwhile Price has had significant success online, including chopping the Sunday Million early last year for an even bigger prize of $184,688. After first learning the game in his early teens, the southeast Londoner now prefers cash games (both online and live) to tournaments. This marks only his second EPT after playing EPT London last October.
Harry Law is a live cash game player who touts his talent at the £2/£5 and £5/£10 cash tables in casinos around London. Law, who says that he’s not a tournament player, has only notched up a few small cashes before, yet is on the verge of claiming one of poker’s most prestigious titles. Perhaps it’s time to reconsider that specialisation.
Carlo De Benedittis won his package to EPT Deauville on PokerStars.fr for a total investment of €20. Winning the package was already his biggest result ever so making it to the final is, in his words, astonishing. He said: “Honestly, when I won the package, I looked at it and it said, ‘Hotel for eight nights’ and I was thinking to myself: ’What on earth am I doing to do for eight nights?’”. The 35-year-old is from the town of Campobasso in southern Italy but now lives in Paris where he’s a purchaser for the Smurfit Kappe paper company. He’s been playing poker in home games with friends since he was 15 and online for around ten years. His only other big score was making the live televised final of PokerStars.it’s All Stars of Poker contest in 2010. He bust in the first round. He’s here in Deauville on his own but his mother, twin brother Andrea and older brother Luca are following the action on EPTLive - and teasing him relentlessly on whatsapp. He’s was all in fairly early on Day 5 but survived a one-outer against chip leader Koutoupas for a crucial double-up. Every day since he got to Deauville, he’s made it a mission to get nearer and nearer the sea; today he dipped his toe in. It was freezing but he’s now thinking that he might have to go for a swim tomorrow to keep up his good luck.
Born in Kiev, Ukraine, Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov spent much of his childhood in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated in Finance and International Business and was then a stock market trader before becoming a poker pro in 2003. He has already come close to an EPT title before – third at EPT8 Barcelona for $453,812 – and is thrilled to make another final table. He said: “I am just so happy to get another chance at an EPT title, considering I didn’t get one in Barcelona two years ago.”
His live tournament record is one of the most impressive of any player in recent years, with huge cash finishes at most of the world’s biggest tournaments. He already has a WPT victory and WSOP bracelet so an EPT victory would award him the coveted Triple Crown. He already has several cashes on the European Poker Tour including third EPT6 London High Roller for $307,247 and third at EPT8 Barcelona for $453,812. He also scored a huge win at the first-ever $100,000 Super High Roller event at the 2011 PCA, beating fellow Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu heads-up for $1,500,000.
In 2011, Katchalov won the WSOP $1,500 Seven Card Stud event for $122,909 and but his biggest cash was third in the 2010 $10,000 HORSE event for $248,831. He won the 2007 WPT’s Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $2,482,605, one of the biggest payouts in WPT history, and the biggest prize of his career so far. His total live earnings already total more than $7 million and in 2011 he was Bluff Player of the Year. Eugene also has two WCOOP titles - the Heads-Up event in 2009 for $170,000 and Stud Hi/Lo in 2012 for $24,588.