Peter Siemund is the oldest player among the eight finalists in the Eureka 6 Rozvadov Main Event. The 45-year-old from Berlin is playing poker for five years, switching between both cash games and tournaments. Siemund has not much time to play as he's working as a CEO for a couple of companies.
When out of duty, he's watching a lot of poker videos, trying to learn from the pros. So far, his highlight of this tournament was a successful bluff against Ivan Luca on the feature table. Back in 2013, Siemund cashed the EPT10 Prague Main Event, earning €9,900 for 118th place.
It's hard to find a table where Ivan Luca wouldn't be considered a superstar as he's been thriving in nearly all events including the EPT High Rollers. Aged only 24, Luca is already #2 in the Argentinian all-time money list with more than $2.8 million in live tournament winnings. He's been crushing the events all over Europe since December 2014 when he arrived to the Czech Republic for EPT11 Prague and made three top three finishes there. After that festival, Luca shined in the FPS Deauville Main Event, finishing fourth for €68,500 at the end of January 2015. Then he added his first EPT High Roller notch when he took €397,000 for a runner-up finish in the EPT11 Malta €10k High Roller.
Luca also won his first WSOP bracelet last summer, banking $353,000. He's now one of the regular heavyweights on the live circuit, having made several deep runs in the High Rollers and Super High Rollers. Since the beginning of this year, Luca has already cashed for more than $700k. The Argentinian is also an online beast, using the moniker "Negriin" on PokerStars. His numerous online achievements include a Super Tuesday title as well as a Sunday 500 victory. Luca has made a lot of final tables in his career but this one will be a unique experience for him.
For the first time, he'll play against his girlfriend Maria on a final table. The couple tried to look back to remember if that had happened before but Maria said that they'd only played tournaments where they'd met on the last two tables. Luca is a huge favourite coming back for the Final Day. With 5,355,000 in his bag, he's entering the final as the dominating chip leader.
If anyone is regularly cheering for Ivan Luca in the tournaments, it's Maria Lampropoulos who's been railing her boyfriend during many deep runs over the last months. This time, she'll only need to look left to see Luca but might not be interested in supporting him that much. The couple made the Eureka 6 Rozvadov final table and they'll be sitting next to each other on the feature table.
While Luca is currently one of the hottest players in the world, Lampropoulos also had a brilliant February at the poker tables. She cashed the EPT12 Dublin Main Event and then marched to the heads-up in the WPTN Brussels Main Event. Lampropoulos earned €68,200 for the second place - the biggest payday of her career. Now she has a chance to better her largest cash twice in less than two weeks with another top two finish. The Argentinian couple is pretty much on the road all the time but they have plans to settle in London, trying to avoid flying overseas back and forth.
Mainly a cash game player, Stoyan Stefanov started playing poker with friends seven years ago. Now he's active both live and online. As for tournaments, his Hendon Mob profile reveals only one cash to date: last year's 98th place for €1,775 in the Estrellas/UKIPT Marbella Main Event. Stoyanov is now guaranteed to add a much bigger prize to his poker resume after making the final table here at Eureka Rozvadov.
Hannes Speiser comes to the final table with the shortest stack but will try to follow the footsteps of his fellow countryman Raphael Wimmer who won the Eureka Rozvadov Main Event last year.
Speiser, living in Vienna, is mostly focusing on the online multi-table tournaments, using the screenname "SuchADegen" on PokerStars. On the live scene, Speiser collected prizes worth $221,000 so far, cashing mainly in Austria.
Two seasons ago here in Rozvadov, Martin Meciar became the first Slovakian to win the Eureka Main Event. Now it's David Urban who'll try to succeed his fellow countryman, having made the final table. Urban lies in fifth place on his nation's all-time money list, just behind Meciar.
Urban's live tournament winnings exceed $300,000 and the list of his cashes includes a mix of various flags. Urban has cashed as far as in Australia (4th in the A$1k Six Max at last year's Aussie Millions) but for his biggest prize, he didn't have to travel those thousands of miles. Back in July 2014, he won the CAPT Velden Open in Vienna, bringing €50,000 back home from Austria.
Mick Heder collected his biggest prize here in the King's Casino just two months ago when he was fourth in the EPSC Main Event, taking €24,603. He returned to Rozvadov and is now among eight finalists in the Eureka 6 Rozvadov Main Event. With a sixth place or better, the Dane would reach his new best result.
He's already guaranteed to add at least €12,500 to his $87,000 in live tournament earnings. Heder said that he mainly plays cash game but didn't have any time to play it for the last three days, being busy with the Main Event.
