$5,300 EPT Main Event
Dia 6 Iniciado
2023 PokerStars EPT Cyprus
$5,300 EPT Main Event
Dias: 6
Event Info
Resultado Final
Event Info
Informações sobre o nível
Informações sobre o torneio - Dia 6
2023 PokerStars EPT Cyprus
Buy-in
$5,300
Prize Pool
$6,402,000
Entradas
1,320
Nível
36
Blinds
250,000 / 500,000
Ante
500,000
Entradas
7
Jogadores em jogo
1
Final Day Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Halil Tasyurek | Turkey | 7,825,000 | 39 |
| 1 | 2 | Yannick Schumacher | Austria | 6,050,000 | 30 |
| 1 | 3 | Bjorn Kozenkai | Hungary | 2,575,000 | 13 |
| 1 | 4 | Nikita Kuznetsov | Russia | 7,475,000 | 37 |
| 1 | 5 | Gilles Simon | Netherlands | 8,075,000 | 40 |
| 1 | 6 | Jose Gonzalez Sanchez | Spain | 4,700,000 | 24 |
| 1 | 7 | Andrea Dato | Italy | 2,875,000 | 14 |
Seat 7: Andrea Dato, 44, Italy - 2,875,000
Andrea Dato has a long history with PokerStars events, from the Italian Poker Tour to the European Poker Tour. He cashed his first in 2010 on the IPT and was in the money in the last EPT Barcelona Main Event in August, finishing 60th. He has set a new mark with his final table appearance here in Cyprus.
Dato came to poker via Magic: The Gathering and gave up a career as an engineer to focus on poker more than 15 years ago. Since then, he has become one of the best-known Italian players, earning more than $1.8 million in live tournament earnings.
Having formerly played mostly cash games, Dato, a poker coach, says, “Nowadays, I consider myself a live tournament specialist. He was the tournament chip leader at the beginning of Day 5 and sits in sixth place heading into the final day. He aims to outperform his previous best, a fourth place at EPT Barcelona in 2014, earning him €362,000.
“I've gained a lot of experience since that EPT final table,” he says, stating that he has played at almost every EPT stop since then. “But the game has changed so much in 10 years, particularly with solvers. Before, poker was played with instinct and ego; that's less the case today – but live events are still beatable. I've been here before and like Cyprus, the location and the field.”
Seat 6: Jose Gonzalez Sanchez, 36, Spain - 4,700,000
Jose Gonzalez Sanchez was born in Santander in the north of Spain, but he grew up in the Canary Islands and still calls Adego, located in Tenerife, his home. Now an EPT Main Event finalist, the last 19 months unfolded much differently than he'd expected.
Always a passionate but not professional player, Gonzalez Sanchez was ready to take a break from the game in March 2022. He travelled to the EPT Prague spring edition with that on his mind, thinking it would be his last poker trip for a while. Gonzalez Sanchez was planning to open a bar after that. "I have two daughters. I need to be responsible with money," he explained.
But he'd become a Eureka High Roller champion and bank a whopping €343,750. Gonzalez Sanchez's poker career only took off from there. He surrounded himself with some of the smartest brains in the Spanish poker community, who helped him improve. He singled out Gerard Rubiralta as the most important figure in his development — Rubiralta provided valuable advice via WhatsApp calls during breaks in the EPT Cyprus Main Event.
He is confident he's a much better player now than he was a year and a half ago. Since then, he has won numerous other tournaments, including CEP Barcelona for €90,000 and last month's Estrelas Malaga Main Event for another €91,960.
"It's surreal, I'm just enjoying this," the Spaniard said about his incredible run. But he still realizes how different his story could have been. "It's amazing to be in these venues, seeing these places, and thinking that this is your life," he said. "I'm never going to open the bar!"
Now a full-time poker pro, the game occupies most of his time. But Gonzalez Sanchez is also very much into music. With his crew, he makes rap. They're known as the Latin Hydro.
Seat 5: Gilles Simon, 24, Netherlands - 8,075,000
As the winner of PokerStars’ first Dare to Stream competition, we were all able to witness Gilles Simon’s first foray into professional poker back in 2019. Back then, when he was predominantly known by his Twitch handle, “Ghilley”, Simon’s average buy-in (ABI) was a modest $10 – a far cry from the $25,000 buy-in PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) he’d just won entry to.
Fast forward to 2023, and Simon (“TaxationIsTheft” on PokerStars) has enjoyed a breakout year in online poker, first cashing a $215 online event for a staggering $257k, then taking down his first World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) title with a $109 Phase win for $115k.
But what about those years in between? We don’t know as much about that period in Simon’s career by design. “I was like, OK, I’m young, and with this Platinum Pass, I have an opportunity to keep on growing and building myself as a poker player,” he says.
So Simon left Twitch behind and threw himself into studying and playing poker. He was taken in by a group of experienced players who coached him and backed him, rocketing his ABI up to $200. He moved to the poker hotbed of Vienna. And for the next two-and-a-half years, he put in the reps until the big scores arrived (and arrive they did).
But Simon has yet to capture a breakout live score, something he hopes to change here at EPT Cyprus. He says it would be “an insane win” to have on his poker resume.
Seat 4: Nikita Kuznetsov, 28, Russia – 7,475,000
The 28-year-old professional player Nikita Kuznetsov is known as “Ebaaa11” on PokerStars – and it’s under that screen name that he has won two SCOOP and two WCOOP titles, in addition to landing a seven-figure score in another online
tournament.
Kuznetsov started playing when he was 18 and gradually improved to become one of the best tournament players from Russia. "I play only MTTs, no cash games," Kuznetsov said.
He has amassed more than $1.4 million in cashes in the live arena and is now at his second EPT Main Event final table. He made the final eight in Sochi in October 2020 but bowed out in seventh place. He's already topped that result here in Cyprus.
Kuznetsov claims he doesn't have any hobbies; it's all about poker for him. "No poker, no life," he says.
His next focus will be on the Winter Series, which he says he will probably play from Bosnia & Herzegovina.
Seat 3: Bjorn Kozenkai, 25, Hungary - 2,575,000
Formerly a football referee, Bjorn Kozenkai picked up poker in high school and played for fun. When he was 18, he started playing for real money. Now, the 25-year-old from Budapest is a coach and shareholder at BitB, one of the most renowned poker stables. Kozenkai used to compete in multi-table tournaments until two years ago when he felt he needed a change. He opted for Spin & Gos, but now he's ready to dive deep into the tournament fields again.
With just less than $70,000 in cashes, Kozenkai's live resume may seem modest. But he claimed he's only fired about 70 or 80 entries to live events so far, with an impressive one-in-four ratio for cashing. Here at EPT Cyprus, he's guaranteed his first six-figure prize.
Kozenkai says he is enjoying live poker. "These trips feel more like a recreation or holiday,” he says. “I'm a professional player, so it's, of course, serious, but it doesn't feel like work.”
And when he can, he combines work with a hobby - Kozenkai likes fishing not only at poker tables but also in lakes, rivers, and seas. "I caught a swordfish in Mexico for SCOOP," he says.
Seat 2: Yannick Schumacher, 26, Germany - 6,050,000
Yannick Schumacher discovered poker when he was a student in Sheffield, in the United Kingdom, in 2017. Then, he used the long layoff due to the COVID-19 pandemic to improve his skills further, gradually moving up the online stakes. By November 2021, he was ready to explore the tables of Las Vegas and picked up a few small scores during his first World Series.
Before this trip to Cyprus, Schumacher had only modest results in Europe, but he has truly come out of the shadows with this Main Event performance. Despite being a short stack for a long time on Day 5, he took the lead during seven-handed play and consolidated the position with some tricky big-stack play, including a huge bluff with 3♥2♥ on an all-club board. Only a cooler against Tasyurek pegged him back again later on.
Schumacher has already secured his biggest live score, comfortably surpassing the $70,700 he earned for finishing 53rd at the PokerStars Players Championship (PSPC) in the Bahamas in January. In common with many German poker pros, Schumacher now lives in Vienna, Austria, only leaving his computer to attend some poker live events occasionally.
Seat 1: Halil Tasyurek, 42, Turkey - 7,825,000
Every night for the past 13 years, Halil Tasyurek has dreamed of something like this - an opportunity to play on one of poker's biggest stages for staggering sums.
It's fitting that opportunity has come at a PokerStars event because that's where the 42-year-old from Ankara, Turkey, first started playing back in 2010. Turkish laws, unfortunately, now prohibit him from the virtual felt, but he enjoys live poker just as
much and is a regular here in Cyprus. "You can count me as a local," he says. "But this is not a biased comment. In my opinion, this is by far the best EPT I have ever attended. The tournaments, the food, everything is great."
For years, Tasyurek only played poker for fun while working in finance. Over time it led him to play semi-professionally, and two years ago, he left work entirely to pursue poker full-time. He's been travelling the poker circuit ever since, including visits to the EPT in Prague and Barcelona and a stint at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas.
So far, the biggest score of his poker career happened in Cyprus, a fifth-place finish in a Merit Poker Main Event. But he's never had an opportunity quite like this one. "I am in the dream spot," he says.
Simon, Tasyurek Lead Into Final Day Of EPT Cyprus Main Event
The final day of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Cyprus $5,300 Main Event is upon as the seven remaining players return at 12:30 p.m. local time to battle for the $1,042,000 top prize.
Leading the seven hopefuls is Gilles Simon, a 24-year-old former streamer who has already locked up his biggest career cash. The same is true for Yannick Schumacher and Bjorn Kozenkai.
Jose Gonzalez Sanchez, who received a lease on life last night when he doubled with ace-jack to crack the queens of Halil Tasyurek, needs to finish fourth or better to best his victory in the 2022 Eureka High Roller in Prague for €343,750.
Tasyurek, a Turkish native who started playing poker in 2010, has also locked up his biggest score in what he calls a "dream spot" at the "best EPT I have ever attended."
Nikita Kuznetsov, meanwhile, will need to finish third or better to best his $445,892 score from 2021, while Italy's Andrea Dato will need to finish second or better to beat out his $481,299 score from a fourth-place finish in the 2014 EPT Barcelona Main Event.
EPT Cyprus Main Event Final Table Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Halil Tasyurek | Turkey | 7,825,000 | 39 |
| 1 | 2 | Yannick Schumacher | Austria | 6,050,000 | 30 |
| 1 | 3 | Bjorn Kozenkai | Hungary | 2,575,000 | 13 |
| 1 | 4 | Nikita Kuznetsov | Russia | 7,475,000 | 37 |
| 1 | 5 | Gilles Simon | Netherlands | 8,075,000 | 40 |
| 1 | 6 | Jose Gonzalez Sanchez | Spain | 4,700,000 | 24 |
| 1 | 7 | Andrea Dato | Italy | 2,875,000 | 14 |
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $1,042,000 | ||
| 2 | $652,200 | ||
| 3 | $465,425 | ||
| 4 | $358,075 | ||
| 5 | $275,425 | ||
| 6 | $211,850 | ||
| 7 | $162,925 | ||
| 8 | Victor Yugay | Uzbekistan | $125,350 |
| 9 | Priit Parmasto | Estonia | $96,425 |
Day 6 should be shorter than Day 5, which extended past 12 hours of play as the field shrunk from 16 to seven. A lengthy seven-handed battle as the night wound down means that players will return to shallower stacks on the final day.
Action will pick back up Level 32. The blinds will be 100,000/200,000/200,000. Levels will continue to last 90 minutes in duration with 20-minute breaks at the end of each level.
PokerNews will be live reporting on a 30-minute delay as to avoid any spoilers with the PokerStars stream.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team is on-site here at Merit Royal Diamond Hotel and Spa and will continue to provide updates as the first-ever EPT Cyprus Main Event closes out.