If there is one player on the final table of the 2017 partypokerLIVE MILLIONS Dusk Till Dawn that needs little introduction, it is 27-year-old Stephen Chidwick. The Brit is one of the most-well known tournament players, both online and live, and holds the second place on England's all-time money list. Known online as "stevie444", Chidwick first came to fame when he famously won 100 seats on PokerStars for the 2008 World Series when he was only 19. He now has several WSOP final tables to his name.
The poker bio of Chidwick includes almost $5,000,000 in online tournament earnings and more than $7,000,000 in live scores over the past few years, and the best score came off a third-place finish in the EPT10 Prague Main Event for €378,000. The Brit also tasted victory in this year already after emerging victorious in a $25,500 High Roller at the PokerStars Championship Panama for $366,500.
Chidwick has had an amazing comeback on Day 4 after starting the penultimate day with less than three big blinds and right in the big blind, before tripling up twice and ultimately advanced to the final table with 45,500,000. He will be the short stack with just over 11 big blinds when play resumes.
Jon Spinks has already racked up more than $700,000 in live tournament cashes and the biggest score came in a victory in a €2,200 EPT9 Deauville Side Event where he defeated Jonathan Duhamel and Dany Parlafes among others to claim €141,200. Many other cashes have followed and Spinks will be supported on the rail by several well-known pros such as Max Silver and Dominik Nitsche.
28-year-old Spinks from Haxton in the UK is also an online beast with more than $2,700,000 in earnings and will bring 108,100,000 into the final table at the Dusk Till Dawn. If Spinks finishes 6th or better, he will rack up a new career-best live score and potentially cross the million mark, if not take home the stunning first-place prize of £1,000,000.
Jeremy Pantin may be one of the rather unknown players on the final table of the 2017 partypokerLIVE MILLIONS Dusk Till Dawn £5,300 Main Event, but the 24-year-old has shown some serious game and will kick off the mission to become a millionaire here in Nottingham with 157,100,000. Pantin was born in Trinidad and Tobago and moved over to the UK a few years ago.
His only two scores to date show cashes for a combined £1,200, with both results coming from tournaments in London, and Pantin has already pulverized that with a guaranteed payday of £72,395. Will he be the one to take home the astonishing first-place payout of £1,000,000 and lift the trophy when all is done and dusted today?
Maria Constanza "Connie" Lampropulos has been railing her boyfriend Ivan Luca during many deep runs in the last few years, but the 35-year-old Greece-born with a degree in business management, who also holds an Argentinian passport and currently resides in Leicester, UK, has racked up quite a few results herself as well. In fact, Lampropulos and Luca ended up heads-up during the €1,100 Eureka Rozvadov last year and that's where the career-best score of €95,404 so far comes from. Lampropulos also locked up another bug score earlier that year in the 2016 WPTN Brussels Main Event, claiming €68,200 for the second place finish.
Lampropulos bought into Day 2 of the event here at the Dusk Till Dawn for £5,300 and made it through to Day 3 only to find a very familiar face at her starting table when the action resumed: It was no other than her boyfriend. While Luca bowed out in 138th place for £10,000 and then cheered on his better half from the rail, Lampropulos claimed a stack of 194,700,000 for the final table and will return with the third-biggest stack.
The player with arguably the most support during the last few tables of the 2017 partypoker MILLIONS Dusk Till Dawn £5,300 Main Event was Jacob Mulhern. After dominating the late stages of Day 4, 24-year-old Doncaster-based Mulhern soared to the top of the chip counts before then getting short and winning a big flip to get back into contention. Mulhern is the second player still in the £100,000 Golden Chip last longer competition and holds the second-biggest stack with 221,000,000.
The Brit qualified for the Caribbean Poker Party in Punta Cana last November through a $700 online satellite on PartyPoker and will be crushing his biggest score to date. Mulhern has had three cashes, all of them coming from events in the Dusk Till Dawn and a 4th place in a £550 DeepStack Event for £ 13,750 is the best result to date. However, Mulhern has already £72,395 locked up for his efforts and his very vocal rail will be there to show their support when the final table kicks off.
Mateusz Rypulak is the chip leader heading into the final table here at the partypokerLIVE MILLIONS Dusk Till Dawn with a stack of 257,300,000, and he is also one of two players that are still in contention for the Golden Chip Last Longer competition that awards £100,000 to the last man standing. Rypulak qualified for the event in the Caribbean Poker Party in Punta Cana last November and is currently 27th in the all-time money list of Poland.
Back in 2012 when he had just turned 18 years old, Rypulak won the France Poker Series €1,100 Main Event in Paris for a cool €150,000 and has since amassed several smaller scores. Now, Deblin-based Rypulak is 23 years old and is looking to become a millionaire here in Nottingham and will just have to turn around to the left to see his sole remaining opponent for the last longer competition as well.
