After spending a couple of weeks in sunny Las Vegas for the 2015 World Series of Poker, Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov took his girlfriend, Anna, on a holiday to cooler latitudes. To be more precise, a helicopter ride to the top of a volcano in Iceland. Little did Anna know what her poker pro boyfriend had planned...
A big congratulations to Sotirios Koutoupas, the winner of the European Poker Tour Deauville Main Event! Koutoupas, 31, bested a field of 671 players, incudling Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov heads-up - who had the chance to complete poker's triple crown (EPT, WPT and WSOP titles), to lay hands on the €614,000 first place prize, an exclusive Slyde watch, a large trophy, and (possibly best of all) he became the first ever Greek champion after almost 10 full season of the EPT!
"It was my time now, it was my time to win," Koutoupas said. "I was very lucky today in some situations, but that's poker. Everything went well for me."
Only 16 players remain after 4 days of intensive play at the EPT Deauville Main Event. The remaining players have already outlasted 96% of the field, but only 50% of the remaining players will make it to the final table. Sotirios Koutiupas holds the lead heading into Day 5 with 2.6 million in chips. The Greek poker professional had a runner-up finish at EPT9 Prague. Will he get his first EPT title now?
Now, the biggest name among the remaining 16 is, of course, Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov from Ukraine. Katchalov will enter the 5th day of play 10th in chips with a below average 1 million. However, he is by far the most experienced of the remaining players, so don't be surprised if he's among the finalists tomorrow, fighting for the first prize of €614,00, a Slyde watch, the trophy and not to forget Poker's Triple Crown! (EPT, WPT and WSOP titles).
144 players of 671 entries remain after 3 action-packed days (1A, 1B and 2) of poker in Casino Barriere in France. There's a sweet €3.22 million prize pool up for grabs and the money bubble will burst when 95 players remain. A minimum cash is worth €9,500 and the eventual winner will take home €614,000, a Slyde watch, and a huge trophy!
The 2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event is underway and the two starting days are already in the books. 184 of 295 players (Dylan Hortin topped leader board with 160k) survived Day 1A and 475 of 710 players (Shankar Pillai came out on top with 173k) made it through Day 1B, which means that 659 players will return to play today! The overall chip leader is Shankar Pillai (picture) with 173,900 chips and there are lots of big names left in the competition, including PokerStars Pros Vanessa Selbst, Eugene Katchalov, Marcel Luske and Liv Boeree.
We will be back with another report tomorrow morning. The prize pool and payout structure should be announced by then. Stay tuned!
The second starting day of World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star kicked off yesterday and saw a massive field that matched the size of this entire tournament last season. The total number of participants stands at 635, but the number is still unofficial according to WPT's website.
The High Roller (buy-in €10,000+€300) kicked off yesterday with 71 players (plus 14 €10k rebuys). There were a lot of familiar faces in the field: Eugene Katchalov, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (picture), Michael Tureniec, Steve O'Dwyer, Kevin MacPhee etc.
A big congratulations to the winner of the EPT Barcelona main event, Martin Schleich. Schleich, from Germany, came to the final table 5th in chips, and he battled his way all the way through. When play was down heads up, Schleich had a 2-1 chip lead and it didn't take long before he had defeated his final opponent, Dragan Kostic. For the win Schleich took home the first prize of €850,000 and also the biggest live poker tournament Spain has ever seen. Below are the final table results.
1 Martin Schleich €850,000 2 Dragan Kostic €532,000 3 Eugene Katchalov €315,000 4 Raul Mestre €244,000 5 Tomeu Gomila €185,000 6 Saar Wilf €145,000 7 Juan Manuel Perez €105,000 8 Isabel Baltazar €73,000
The EPT Barcelona main event has now been narrowed down to a final table with 8 players. Tomeu Gomila, from Spain, is still in the chip leader, however, his lead is even greater now than when Day 4 started. In total, he will 6,985,000 chips to the final table today - the 2 closest competitors have about 4.5 million each. So, Gomila is definitely the big favorite to take home the €850,000 first prize and the biggest poker tournament ever held in Spain.
The only big name who made it to the final table is the Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov. But things are not looking very good for him at the moment since he only has 690k left and the blinds will be 25,000 - 50,000 with a 5k ante. Well, anything is possible in the game of poker so we will just have to wait and see what happens.
The third day of the EPT Barcelona main event is over and there are now only 24 players left. The first two days of the tournament were dominated by 2 French poker players, Guillaume Darcourt and Xavier Caruggi, but Day 3 was all about 2 Spanish poker players, Tomeu Gomilla and Raul Mestre, and they will return to the tables today with the biggest stacks.
Apart from Team PokerStars Pros Eugene Katchalov and Matthias De Meulder there aren't many known players left in the tournament, but this doesn't necessary mean that the rest of the tournament will be boring to follow. A first place prize of €850,000 is up for grabs and it comes along with a trophy (picture) and the honor to have won Spain's biggest poker tournament ever.
PokerStars announced a few days ago that Eugene Katchalov has joined its team. Eugene Katchalov is a 30-year-old american with routs in Ukraine. He has won over $6 million dollars in different live tournaments in the past few years, and thanks to his fantastic results he has made a name for himself in the poker world and got a legendary status in his native Ukraine.
Katchalov is best known for his results in the WSOP, a WPT event win and the 2011 PCA $100,000 high roller win. However, he is also a well-known face online under the alias "MyRabbiFoo". He's a specialist in mixed games and, for example, he has a WCOOP title. From now on, he will be playing as "E.Katchalov" at PokerStars tables.
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After spending a couple of weeks in sunny Las Vegas for the 2015 World Series of Poker, Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov took his girlfriend, Anna, on a holiday to cooler latitudes. To be more precise, a helicopter ride to the top of a volcano in Iceland. Little did Anna know what her poker pro boyfriend had planned...
