Anthony ‘Laplume’ Lerust was born in the north of France but moved to the south to “live my dreams and share my passion for rap music, hip hop and poker with my friends there”. Living in Albi, he became a member of the ‘Skarkuteur’ team of players, also including the French pro Anthony Cierco. Success eluded him however so last September he moved with his best friend Pierre Morin to the Algarve in Portugal. Lerust plays regularly on PokerStars.com and PokerStars.fr, enjoying deep runs in lots of the regular tourneys such as the Sunday Special, Le Classico, Night On Stars and The Big€50. He recently final-tabled a €1K FCOOP side event and finished fourth in the PokerStars Quarter Million. Lerust is a talented online grinder who, according to media, has been able to adapt to swings of live poker. His family are following him back home in Picardy “especially my mother” and his friends sent him the following message: ‘Anthony, il est temps d’envoyer des bassines’ (‘Anthony it's time to turn on the power!’)
In November 2013, Lerust finished 45th in the FPS Paris Main Event for €2,800 but today’s final table at EPT Deauville is his best result so far. His agent and a couple of friends from the Toulouse area have come to Deauville to play the FPS and will be railing at the final. He said: “I’m very happy to be in Normandy. Deauville is a stunning little town and the atmosphere is fantastic. With this prize money, you will definitely see me again, as I intend to play all EPTs in 2014.’
A graduate in business and finance from Cardiff University, Eli Heath has never actually had a job other than poker and has been a pro for five years. Heath mainly plays online but has been travelling the EPT circuit for a couple of years and won his first title in Deauville earlier this week in the €1,000 "NL Turbo Random Bounty" tournament for €28,000. He has already recorded in-the-money finishes across the globe, from Australia to Las Vegas and back to Europe, but is now guaranteed the biggest live cash of his career at the final table of an EPT stop he has rechristened Dough-ville.
Rustem Muratov qualified for EPT Deauville on PokerStars for €82 and is already in massive profit after winning Skrill’s Last Longer (the €5,300 Deauville buy-in is credited to his Skrill account). Now the 41-year-old from Kazan in Tatarstan, Russia, is headed for the biggest live cash of his life. Muratov, who works as a distributor for the electrical equipment company Schneider, is guaranteed at least €63,900 for making the EPT Deauville final and whatever happens, is already up at least €69,118. This is his first ever EPT, only his fourth live tournament and the biggest buy-in event he’s competed in. He has only two recorded live cashes to date, the biggest being $2,356 for 18th place at a tourney in Cyprus.
He said: “I’m already very happy. My best result before now was winning the seat for this event! I like Deauville, it looks like a fairytale place (apart from the rain).” Muratov and his wife Svetlana are soon to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary and have two older daughters and a nine-month old son. Svetlana couldn’t come to Deauville but is following all the action on EPTLive back home. Muratov is being supported here by his friend Ilyas who came along to play the cash games.
Sotirios Koutoupas, 31, already has nearly $750,000 in lifetime tournament winnings – a large chunk of which he earned with his €510,000 runner-up finish to Ramzi Jelassi at EPT Prague in Season 9. Yesterday, Koutoupas told the PokerStars Blog: “"I want to be the first Greek player who wins the EPT. I'll do my best.” Koutoupas, currently ranked third on the Greece all time money list, is one of a troop of Greek players who are clocking up big cashes on the tour: Georgios Karakousis was runner-up at EPT London in October and and George Manousos Sotiropoulos snagged €700,000 for his runner-up finish at EPT Prague. Koutoupas is not a pro or a full-time player – he helps run his family’s wholesale business - but has started picking up results and stacks that some tour pros would be pretty jealous of, including 56th at EPT9 Berlin for €15,000 and 25th at the recent EPT Prague for €24,900.
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