On Hand #8, chip leader Tom Middleton opened for 240,000 from early position holding the . Eduard Bhaggoe, who was the next player to act, then shoved his stack of 1.275 million with the .
Action folded back to Middleton and he requested a count. "You're so tight," Bhaggoe said before releasing his hand.
Tom Middleton opened from the cut off for 240,000 with and took down the blinds and antes. The next hand Middleton again opened, from the hi-jack this time, for 240,000 with and again got folds. Looks like the other players are giving the big stack Pro plenty of respect so far. Let’s see if he can use his image to his advantage as the day goes on.
Action folded to Pasi Sormunen in the cutoff and the Finn looked down at the . He thought for a few moments and then announced that he was all in for 2.81 million. He received no action.
Tom Middleton raised under the gun with and was called by Luca Fiorini with . The blinds folded and the two players saw a flop heads up of . Middleton checked and a bet from Fiorini of 335,000 took it down.
Andreas Christoforou has been a professional multi-table tournament player for the last four years. The Cypriot plays all the Sunday majors and made a Super Tuesday final table on PokerStars as recently as July playing under the name “daskalos20”. Christoforou also plays as “o daskalos” on Full Tilt and has cashed for more than $1.25m across the two sites. This is already his largest live cash but he had a couple of deep runs at the WSOP where small cashes could have been bigger.
“I will do my best but I know it’s tough ... I’m an experienced player, I know what to do, but I have to be lucky as well,” said Christoforou.
Kimmo Kurko is a fulltime poker player who turned pro in 2008 after a win in Helsinki. He followed this up a year later by winning an EPT5 Sanremo €2,000 event. It was enough to make him a regular on the European circuit, with earnings to date of more than $1.1 million. Pokeritieto.com reporter Juhani Tyriseva said: "He's a lot like Juha Helppi. He doesn't make many mistakes."
Pasi Sormunen, 41, is a businessman who considers himself a recreational player only, taking up the game three years ago. Like his fellow Finn Kimmo Kurko, Sormunen’s first major successes came at home where he finished third in the 2010 Midnight Sun event and then won the 2012 Helsinki Freezeout two years later. Pokeritieto.com reporter Juhani Tyriseva said: "He's not afraid to put his chips in. And that's his strength. No fear, it's just for fun." Proof of this swashbuckling approach was all too clear at EPT London in March, when he tried to bluff Ruben Visser with ace-high. Visser showed a full house and went to win the title, Sormunen finished 15th for £20,000.
Tom Middleton has put in a strong performance at EPT Barcelona and it is not really surprising that he has made the final – having been the overnight chip leader three days in a row. Middleton – known as "Middy" to his friends (who include Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody et al) - is a high-stakes online player with numerous big online scores to his name including second place in a multi-entry $1k event on Full Tilt Poker for $160,000, winning a Full Tilt Poker $1k for $97,000 and third in a WCOOP $500 rebuy for $84,000. He also has a string of live tournament results with winnings totaling nearly $1 million. He won his seat to EPT Barcelona on PokerStars in June.
Eduard Bhaggoe is a recreational player who doesn't play online but enjoys the live poker scene enormously. He has been playing poker for around seven years, mainly in Holland. This is his third EPT – he also competed at EPT Berlin and Dortmund. At last season’s EPT Barcelona, Bhaggoe’s wife Siema played the Main Event but was eliminated just short of the money on Day 3 by Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo. They also had their luggage stolen at the airport so not an ideal trip. He said this one is going a lot better! This time around, Siema is railing him, alongside his brother who also plays poker from time to time.
. Eduard Bhaggoe, who was the next player to act, then shoved his stack of 1.275 million with the 
.
and took down the blinds and antes. The next hand Middleton again opened, from the hi-jack this time, for 240,000 with 
and again got folds. Looks like the other players are giving the big stack Pro plenty of respect so far. Let’s see if he can use his image to his advantage as the day goes on.
. He thought for a few moments and then announced that he was all in for 2.81 million. He received no action.
and was called by Luca Fiorini with 
. Middleton checked and a bet from Fiorini of 335,000 took it down.
