De la part de pokerstars.com:
EPT WARSAW - FINAL TABLE PLAYER PROFILES
– NOTE: posted 18 November, final table 19 November
Seat 1: Arnaud Mattern, 29, Paris, France – 238,000 chips
Before taking up poker in 2004, Arnaud's main game was backgammon: in
his own words, he ''crushed the tournament circuit and cash-games all
around the world''. The switch to poker has been very successful, both
live and online. He is known for his mathematical approach to the game
and has been described as “disciplined, cold and calculating”. He first
came to international attention when he took down the inaugural EPT
Prague event last season for a massive € 708,400. Now playing in his
14th EPT, he is hoping to make history - as the first ever player to
win two EPT titles.
Seat 2: Ludovic Lacay, 23, Toulouse, France –
296,500 chips
Ludovic has played 13 EPTs to date, and has cashed twice before – his
best result being 11th place at EPT Dublin last season. Like many other
players, the 23-year-old got into online poker after enjoying success
in the video game world where he played for one of the best French
“Counter Strike” teams. Known as an aggressive poker player, Ludovic
now finds himself on a final table with his great friend and fellow
Frenchman Arnaud Mattern. His best result to date was 2nd place at the
WPT Spanish Championship in October last year for €295,200.
Seat 3: Andrea Benelli, 27, Prato, Italy – 100,000 chips
Former computer sales rep Andrea has been a professional poker player
for over a year. He has competed in several EPTs – in Warsaw, San Remo
and the Monte Carlo Grand Final last season – and cashed at EPT London
in October, making 36th for £11,419. However reaching the Warsaw final
table this season is his biggest result to date. He is being supported
here in Warsaw by his Estonian girlfriend Astrika but is also being
cheered on by his great friend Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri, who
is also on the final table. Dario said: “He’s a very good player and
one of my best friends. It’s great we are both on the final table.”
Seat 4: Michael Muheim, 21, Zurich, Switzerland – PokerStars qualifier
89,000 chips
Currently studying medicine in Zurich, Michael won his seat to EPT
Warsaw on PokerStars. It’s his first major live event as he normally
plays heads-up online cash games at $1/$2 limit – plus the odd online
multi-table tournament. He believes he has been playing well, making
good decisions, and is enjoying the tournament. Although the short
stack at the start of tomorrow’s final table, the guaranteed €21,114
payday makes EPT Warsaw his best result so far.
Seat 5: Joao Barbosa,
Porto, Portugal – 123,000 chips
Only two weeks ago, Gino Alacqua celebrated his 47th birthday with an
appearance on the EPT Budapest final table. Now it’s Joao Barbosa’s
turn… the Portuguese pro turns 26 tomorrow. The former computer
engineering student is enjoying great success on the EPTs – he has
played four so far and cashed in three of them including here, 48th
place in Barcelona and 26th place in London. Joao mainly plays cash
games online but loves tournaments for the competitive element. Back
home in Portugal, Joao splits his time between his family home in Porto
and his girlfriend in Lisbon.
Seat 6: Dario Minieri, 23, Rome, Italy – Team PokerStars Pro – 359,500
chips
Dario Minieri is one of Italy’s best known poker players following a
lightning-quick rise to the top. Aged 16, he started playing the card
game Magic: The Gathering and swiftly discovered a talent for online
gaming… then a Magic friend introduced him to PokerStars and online
poker. He started with low-stakes heads-up games but before long had
become an online legend – the first player to earn a Porsche with his
PokerStars Frequent Player Points. His online success has also
translated to live tournaments. In 2006, Minieri came 3rd at EPT Baden
and made the top 100 at the 2007 World Series. Things got even better
in 2008 when he came 3rd in EPT San Remo and won his first WSOP
bracelet in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed
event in the summer.
Seat 7: Nico Behling, 23, Jena, Germany – 343,500
chips
Nico is one of the most successful German “Young Guns” and a good
friend of PokerStars.de’s ShootingStars player Sebastian Ruthenberg,
who won EPT Barcelona in September. Nico has a lot of live poker
experience and cashed over $130.000 in January, when he finished 8th in
the Aussie Millions. EPT Warsaw is his ninth EPT but his first cash. He
also played LAPT Rio de Janeiro and APPT Macau. Online, Nico is
grinding the short-handed cash games but he also sometimes plays
multi-table tournaments on PokerStars. His biggest online cash was
$43.000 as runner-up in the PokerStars Super Tuesday tourney in July.
The only important thing for Nico on tomorrow’s final table is “to play
my best poker. Then everything is fine.”
Seat 8: Sergey Shcherbatskiy, 24, Russia – PokerStars qualifier -
349,000 chips All the way from the city of Ufa in the Ural Mountains of
Russia, Sergey Shcherbatskiy will carry 349,000 chips to the final
table, a mere 10,000 fewer than the chip-leader Dario Minieri. "I don't
believe it," he said. "I'm surrounded by all these professional
players!" It's already a remarkable story for Shcherbatskiy: he
qualified via the PokerStars "steps" tournaments, buying in at level
one for only $7.50, and is playing in his first major live tournament
having taken up the game a little less than two years ago. Married to
Antonina, who is hearing his progress in regular phone-calls home,
Shcherbatskiy will also find some support from the punters in the two
sports bars he owns in his hometown.
Seat 9: Atanas Gueorguiev, 38,
Sofia, Bulgaria – PokerStars qualifier - 186,500 chips
Former cab driver Atanas has been playing poker professionally for over
three years and has qualified for several EPTs enjoying reasonable
success. He came 42nd in the EPT Season 3 Monte Carlo Grand Final for
€19,000, came 17th in the EPT Prague £2k side event last season for
€4,500. His best result to date – aside from reaching the final table
here in Warsaw was last May when he final tabled at the WPT Spanish
Championship, coming eighth for €37,897. Married with an 18-month-old
son, Atanas says he has been gambling all his adult life and, like many
players, came into poker via backgammon. He said: “I prefer playing
live cash games but I have to admit I’m a better tournament player than
cash player.”
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