Constantly pushing the envelope and setting the bar higher and higher, PokerStars is used to breaking records. They've done it time and time again with their famed Sunday Million tournament, and one week ago the Macau Millions at PokerStars LIVE Macau at the City of Dreams shattered the record for largest poker tournament field in Asia.
The latest record-breaking achievement from PokerStars has just come in the Eureka Poker Tour Vienna Main Event. The second starting flight of that event attracted 975 players and became the largest single starting flight in the tour's history, dating back to March of 2011. That number also pushed the total number of entries in the event up to 1,432 and broke the record for largest Eureka Poker Tour Main Event by 117 players.
Amongst those who played in the event were Team PokerStars Pros Marcel Luske, Eugene Katchalov, Luca Pagano, Maxim Lykov, Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, Martin Hruby, Luca Pagano, and Michael Keiner.
According to the EPT: "the massive field of 1,432 contained players from 58 different countries which is exactly the same count as in Prague at the previous Eureka stop back in December. Germany had most players here in Vienna with 279 starters (almost 20% of total) while 195 players represented the home country and Romania is in the third place with 84 players, overcoming Russia by three."
That event is now down to the final table. Here's a look at the finalist courtesy of the EPT:
Seat 1: Andreas Freund, 25, Vienna, Austria – 4,515,000
Andreas Freund studies Spanish and Journalism but is a professional Omaha and Hold’em cash game player as well. He started playing poker in 2007 and began playing full time a year later. He bought in directly for the Eureka Poker Tour Main Event and has already beaten his biggest tournament cash from November 2013 when he won a €1,000 event in Seefeld for €17,630.
Seat 2: Robert Malinowski, 49, Poland, PokerStars qualifier - 3,305,000
The oldest player at the final table Robert Malinowski has poker as a hobby, running a business for a job. He enjoys his biggest poker achievement and so does his wife who supports him here in the Hofburg. Robert also likes to read a lot. He made quite impressive come back on day 2 starting the last level with only 12 big blinds and finished with ten times bigger stack.
Seat 3: Markus Stöger, 44, Vienna, Austria – 5,495,000
Markus is a self-employed gastronome and a recreational poker player. He started playing poker in cash games but these days mainly focuses on tournaments. His best result was back in 2010 when won a €250 event in Vienna for €30,600.
Seat 4: Stavros Kalfos, 32, Thessaloniki, Greece, PokerStars Player – 1,050,000
Hailing from Thessaloniki, Stavros Kalfos is a 32 year-old professional poker player. Previously he was one of PokerStars' “Greek Challengers”. Kalfos mostly plays tournaments, both online and live. He has finalled the Sunday Warm-Up four times, winning it twice while live he has cashed in the EPT three times and also chopped the €2,000 side event at EPT San Remo for €90,000 back in 2010.
Seat 5: Bryan Paris, 28, Huntington Beach, USA, PokerStars player - 5,430,000
He still waits for a first 6-figure score in live event but his online results prove that he is very experienced player. Bryan Paris has scored more than $6.6 million online with more than half of it on PokerStars. He needs to finish at least 6th to lock the record live cashout, which came in the WSOP; he has cashed 12 times in the World Series so far. Though tommorow will be his first final table experience in a live tournament.
Seat 6: Erik Scheidt, 26, Rostock, Germany, PokerStars Player - 950,000
Erik Scheidt is a computer specialist and plays poker recreationally. Last year he finished 5th place in the Berlin Cup at EPT Berlin taking home €31,000 – his biggest cash so far. Outside of poker, Scheidt enjoys playing football.
Seat 7: Blazej Przygorzewski, 22, Poznan, Poland, PokerStars qualifier - 5,430,000
Playing only his third live event in a career but the the 22-year old Blazej Przygorzewski knows very well how the glory feels. He is a three time Polish champion in sailing and now he can break through even in poker. Blazej plays poker for three years online with a biggest cash of about $17,000.
Seat 8: Zoltan Gal, 27, Hungary, PokerStars qualifier - 2,245,000
Another great deep run for Zoltan Gal who finished 19th in the Eureka Prague Main Event three months ago. He's playing poker for 5 years, mostly the online high stakes cash game. He calls himself a semi-pro, trying to succeed in live tournaments for two years. This final table appearance is his best so far, surpassing a $27k hit in Las Vegas. He would celebrate the victory with a steak, his favourite meal.
The final table will start at 12.30 p.m. local time, and for the first time the Eureka final table will be live streamed including all players hole cards. It means the broadcast will run with a 45-minute delay. You can also follow the coverage of the Eureka Poker Tour Vienna on the PokerStars blog.
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Eureka Poker Tour
