Sotiropoulos first started playing poker in home games with friends when he was just 14. He’s now mainly an online player, competing in all the major MTT events on PokerStars. His online results include a Sunday Warm up cash for $148,000. He has played several EPTs and cashed twice – at EPT7 Sanremo, he finished 33rd for €20,000 and at EPT7 Copenhagen he was 43rd for DKr 65,000. He took a break from live events while he was studying Pharmacy at a university in Romania but has now graduated and returned home to the Greek island of Rhodes.
Julian is a mature student at university in Giessen, studying politics, media and sport. He plays online regularly in $1/$2 PLO cash games on PokerStars. He never used to like No Limit that much, but the big prize pools on offer have helped changed his mind! In September he started to play online satellites for live events and won his package for the EPT Prague Main Event as well as another one for the Aussie Millions in February. Despite his success here in Prague, he can’t imagine switching to live poker in future. He said: “There are too many really good players at the tables. And the other thing is that I don’t like when players think about a decision for five or six minutes. Maybe the Aussie Millions will be my last live event”, he said.
Lau is most famous for becoming the first Spanish player to hit Supernova Elite status in 2012 – that is, accumulating more than VIP 1,000,000 in a calendar year. The 27-year-old has a complicated geographical background – he was born in Hong Kong but when he was four, his family moved to Spain. Now, like so many Spanish poker professionals, he has relocated to Portugal so that he can continue playing on PokerStars. and currently lives in Faro. (Also, for good measure, he also has a UK passport). He mainly plays cash games online but has also competed numerous times on the European Poker Tour where his best result to date was 71st at EPT8 Barcelona for €12,000. He came fifth at the Estrellas/UKIPT High Roller event in Marbella in June for €11,500. Guaranteed at least € 84,600 for reaching the final, this is by far his best live result. He is being cheered on by a whole group of Spanish players hoping for the first Spanish EPT champion.
Zdravko Duvnjak was born in Croatia, emigated to Holland with his parents in 1993 and then moved back to Zagreb a year ago. He’s been playing poker for almost six years, mainly plays cash games – both live and online. He decided to come to Prague very last minute; his last big live event was the Season 3 Eureka tourney in Dubrovnik , Croatia. He’s being supported here in Prague by friends from all over Europe including Sweden, Bulgaria, Croatia and Holland.
Max Silver cut his teeth on the PokerStars UK and Ireland Poker Tour where his record is quite extraordinary; one UKIPT Main Event title, four final tables, and a first and second in UKIPT High Rollers. Silver has stepped up successfully on the bigger stage, too; he’s made two final WSOPE final tables and cashed in this year’s PCA High Roller. Former Full Tilt employee Silver now lives in Dublin with his fiancée – the couple are getting married next September. Tomorrow’s winnings will take Silver’s career cashes through the million-dollar mark
