€50,000 Super High Roller | 2013 PokerStars.com EPT Barcelona

2013-09-01 12:01 UTC+3

Seat 6: Ole Schemion (2,835,000)

Ole Schemion is one of Germany's brightest up-and-coming stars; what's more, he's established that reputation all before the age of 21! The youngster has already amassed more than $3 million in career live tournament earnings, including wins in the 2012 Masters Classics of Poker in Amsterdam for $368,895 and the 2012 Partouche Poker Tour Main Event for $1,474,671. He has also won side events at EPT Berlin in both 2011 ($77,138) and 2012 ($90,075).

Schemion won a huge pot on Day 2 toward the start of the day when he woke up with pocket kings against Daniel Alaei's ace-king. From there, Schemion continued his dominance by consistently winning both small pots and big pots alike. Our Live Reporting team caught a particularly interesting hand involving Schemion and Steve O'Dwyer where Schemion three-barreled into O'Dwyer and showed one of his hole cards after a fold on the river. What Schemion held is still a mystery!

Schemion begins the final table with a big chip lead and barring a reversal of luck, he's primed to not the second-biggest score of his career. All he has to do is finish third or better and he'll do it.

Tags: Ole Schemion

2013-09-01 11:47 UTC+3

Seat 7: David Benefield (1,020,000)

In the realm of online poker, 27-year-old David Benefield is a legend known by the name “Raptor.” That’s the moniker Benefield used when he first ran $450 into $20,000. Years later, that sum would be in the millions. Now, the better part of a decade later, the man who bought a half-million-dollar house in Fort Worth with Tom “durrrr” Dwan when he was 20, is not only at this final table, but also at the final table of the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event as the short stack in this year's November Nine.

Credited with creating the quad monitor set-up – a grind station system used by hundreds of online players nowadays – Benefield once posted a “Raptor Challenge” on Two Plus Two stating that he wanted to make enough money to buy a $1.4-million vacation home in Costa Rica, and while that may have been a dream of days gone by, he’ll be at least halfway there as he’s guaranteed $733,224 as a member of the November Nine.

Prior to this year, Benefield’s largest score was for $150,035 after finishing eighth in the €50,000 Majestic Super High Roller at the 2012 WSOP Europe. He also took sixth in the 2010 Event #17 $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em for $135,718. Other notable live accomplishments include 73rd in the 2008 WSOP Main Event for $77,200, 13th in the 2008 WSOP Event #1 $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold’em for $41,360 and 10th in Event #50: $10,000 World Championship Pot Limit Omaha for $53,721 the same year.

While things are going great for Benefield now, that wasn’t always the case for the former CardRunners instructor and member of the famed Ship It Holla Ballas. “For some reason, I am just not all that happy with what I am doing,” Benefield admitted in a blog post back in 2008. “I have made a ton of money, have set myself up for life, but can’t seem to get any fulfillment out of poker. I am working on some lifestyle changes, and they are coming along nicely.”

Among those lifestyle changes were eating healthfully, practicing yoga and moving to New Mexico to study philosophy and literature at St. John’s College. Benefield proceeded to announce his “retirement” from poker and two years later and transferred to Colombia University, where he is currently a part-time student studying Chinese and political science. While Benefield left the life of an online poker pro behind, he still traveled to the WSOP every year and as you know, while Benefield may have been done with poker, the game wasn’t done with him.

Interestingly, Benefield is guaranteed $733,224 in this year's WSOP, but he can surpass that if he were to managed a victory here today!

For more on Benefield we recommend you check out Ship It Holla Ballas!: How a Bunch of 19-Year-Old College Dropouts Used the Internet to Become Poker's Loudest, Craziest, and Richest Crew by Jonathan Grotenstein and Storms Reback.

Tags: David Benefield

2013-09-01 11:42 UTC+3

Seat 8: Vitaly Lunkin (2,470,000)

Vitaly Lunkin is 42-years-old professional poker player from Russia and the proud winner of over $4 million in career tournament earnings. Lunkin got his first cash in a tournament in 2003 when he took down a pot-limit Omaha event at the Moscow Open in 2003. He earned almost $12,000 for that win.

It wouldn’t be until 2006 that Lunkin would get his first World Series of Poker cash. He finished in the money in the Main Event that year for about $5,000 profit. The following year in 2007, Lunkin hit a score worth $25,500 in the Moscow Millions Main Event.

Big things would happen to Vitaly come 2008. He traveled back to Las Vegas for the WSOP and placed first in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event. Lunkin earned $629,417 for the win, not to mention his first WSOP gold bracelet.

In 2009, Lunkin cashed in the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo before returning to his home of Moscow, Russia for the Russian Poker Tour’s Main Event. The event was a $7,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event and Lunkin walked away with the victory and over $440,000. That same month, Lunkin’s poker career would get a lot better back in Vegas.

That is where a special $40,000 buy-in anniversary event was being held at the WSOP. That event attracted 201 of the toughest players in the game. When all said and done, Lunkin bested Isaac Haxton in heads-up play to earn the nearly $1.9 million first-place prize. It was not only considered one of the greatest tournament victories of all time, but also marked Lunkin’s second WSOP gold bracelet.

2013-09-01 11:35 UTC+3

Day 3 Action Begins on the Money Bubble as we Look to Crown a Winner

Group shot of the final table of the €50k Super High Roller.

For the past two days, the Casino Barcelona has played host to the European Poker Tour Season 10 Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller, an event that drew 40 unique players that accounted for 11 re-entries to create a prize pool of €2,448,765. Eight of those player remain in contention for the €771,300 first-place prize, but only seven of them will finish in the money. That means someone will leave here empty handed and miss out on a minimum payday of €128,515.

The man best positioned to make a run at the title is Ole Schemion, who leads the final table with 2,835,000. On the flip side, Timothy Adams is in the most danger of finishing as the bubble boy as he sits on the short stack with 845,000. Other still in contention are Steve O'Dwyer, Mike McDonald, Erik Seidel, Fabian Quoss, David Benefield and Vitaly Lunkin.

Action will resume in Level 19 (30,000/60,000/5,000), so we don't expect it'll take too long for the bubble to bust.

EPT 10 Barcelona Super High Roller Final Table

Seat	Player	Chips
1	Timothy Adams	845,000
2	Steve O'Dwyer	1,015,000
3	Mike McDonald	2,300,000
4	Fabian Quoss	1,120,000
5	Erik Seidel	1,145,000
6	Ole Schemion	2,835,000
7	David Benefield	1,020,000
8	Vitaly Lunkin	2,470,000

Action will kick off at 1:00 CET, but we won't begin live reporting until an hour later to coincide with the EPT live stream. Be sure to join us then as we bring you all the action and eliminations from the €50,000 Super High Roller here in Barcelona!

You can also check out PokerNews' coverage of the Season 10 EPT Barcelona Main Event, which kicked off today.

While you wait, check out this interview with Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu from earlier this week when he talks about his new hair:

€50,000 Super High Roller

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