EPT Vienna Final Table Players

The 2010 PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Vienna final table takes place today and is headlined by chip leader and Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu. Negreanu will begin the final table with quite a big chip lead and all expectations are for him to dominate the final table and claim the win for the first-prize of €700,000. As well as the cash, Negreanu would jump to the top of the all-time live poker tournament money list ahead of Phil Ivey, and he would also become a Triple Crown winner (player who has won an EPT, WPT and WSOP title) which is something only Roland de Wolfe and Gavin Griffin have managed to do.

However even though he is chip leader the rest of the field won’t roll over and give him the win, he will have to play very well to take down the win. Here is a look at all of the players taking their seats at the EPT Vienna final table today:

Seat 1: Luca Cainelli

Luca Cainelli is an Italian who has been playing poker since he was 20-years old. However at that time it was only 5-card poker he was playing and incredibly he only began playing Texas Hold’em six years ago. Since then he has become a top high-stakes live cash game player and earlier this year he picked up a poker sponsorship deal with Europk.com and represents them as a Team Pro. This is his first EPT final table after coming very close twice earlier in the year. He finished 11th at EPT Berlin and just weeks later finished 14th at EPT Snowfest. No matter where he finishes this will be his largest live poker tournament cash and he will begin the final table with 1,935,000 chips.

Seat 2: Daniel Negreanu

Daniel ‘KidPoker’ Negreanu will need no introduction to most poker enthusiasts and today could prove to be a very special day for him if he manages to claim victory. He enters the final table with 5,070,000 chips which means he has a comfortable chip lead and with his experience there is absolutely no reason he can’t take down the win – with a little luck needed along the way of course. As we mentioned earlier, if Negreanu manages to win the event the €700,000 prize will mean he goes to the top of the all-time live poker tournament money list ahead taking the lead from Phil Ivey, and he can join an elite club by becoming only the third player to win the poker Triple Crown (winner of an EPT, WPT and WSOP title) with Roland de Wolfe and Gavin Griffin the only other players who have did it.

Seat 3: Matthias Lotze

Matthias is a 35-year old from Germany and managed to qulify for the event via satellites on PokerStars. He is a former web designer and now full-time poker player who specialises in poker tournaments. He has had great success online and this is his fourth European Poker Tour event and incredibly he never managed to make it out of Day 1 in the previous events he played, but now finds himself at the final table today with a shot at winning the EPT title and €700,000 first-place prize. He enters todays final table with a stack of 1,210,000 which is the third smallest.

Seat 4: Andreas Wiese

Andreas Wiese is a 34-year old German who has been playing poker for five years mainly focusing on live games and only began participating in poker tournaments a year ago. He mainly plays cash-games in his local casino and comsiders himself a ‘semi-professional’ player because he also works as an anesthetist at Hannover Hospital. EPT Vienna is his first major event and by far his biggest cash thanks to making the final table however he will have a tough task ahead of him if he wants to win as he enters the final table as the shortest stack, holding just 730,000 chips.

Seat 5: Martin Hrugby

Czech Republican Martin Hrugby joins Daniel Negreanu as the only two Team PokerStars Pro’s at the final table and he will have a tough task ahead of him as he enters the final table with the second smallest stack, holding 975,000 chips. Hrugby has been playing at PokerStars for around ten years and turned professional three years ago, enjoying great success – especially online where he has made the final table of some major PokerStars tournaments. Offline his previous best finish was 22nd in last seasons EPT Grand Final Main Event but todays final table will be his best finish in a live tournament.

Seat 6: Konstantinos Nanos

35-year old Konstantinos Nanos is from Greece but now lives in Germany and worked as an eye doctor until six months ago when he decided to turn professional after racking up over $200k in winnings playing on PokerStars. He plays online under the alias ‘arxigos’ and actually qualified for this event from a $22 re-buy tournament on PokerStars. He also qualified to EPT Tallinn earlier in the year and despite not cashing in the Main Event he managed to win a €400 buy-in side event for a €7,240 payday and most recently he finished 4th in a side event at EPT London for £2,300. Nanos enters today second in chips with 3,635,000 chips.

Seat 7: Micheal Eiler

20-year old Micheal Eiler is another player who qualified for the event through a satellite tournament on PokerStars. He is an economics student and plays online under the alias ‘mae9690’ with a Sunday Million victory under his belt for a payday of $260,000 after overcoming a tough field of over 10,000 players. Eiler mainly plays online but enjoys participating in EPT events and having qualified cheaply it has turned out to be quite an investment. Eiler enters the final table with 2,160,000 however in the last hour of yesterdays action he lost around 2million chips so would have been in a much greater position today if he hadn’t.

Seat 8: Bruno Launais

Bruno Launais is a 24-year old French player who has been playing poker for six years, being a professional for three of them. Launais is a high-stakes short-handed online cash-game player and has enjoyed great success thanks to having a super aggressive style of play. He is considered one of the top prospects for the future and in his very first live poker tournament at last years EPT Deauville he finished 7th for €108,300. He also cashed twice at this years WSOP and has various other cashes. He enters the final table with 1,785,000 chips and with his aggressive nature it could be a ‘go big, or go home’ attitude we see from him.