Hand #1: Brian Roberts had the button, but it was Chris Moorman opening to 65,000 from the cutoff. Everyone folded in turn, and Moorman takes the first nibble out of this final table.
Hand #2: Max Silver had the button, and Jake Cody raised to 60,000 under the gun. Folds all around, and the Brits take the first two pots.
Hand #3: Elio Fox had the button, and the action folded through him to the blinds. Dermot Blain raised to 80,000 from the small blind, and Jake Cody spent a long while squeezing his cards in the big. He paused some more, and you could see the gears turning in his head. He eventually reraised to 220,000 total, and Blain checked his cards once more before flicking them into the muck. Three for the Brits.
Hand #4: Dermot Blain had the button. Brian Roberts raised to 65,000 from middle position, and the action came around to the blinds. Once again, Jake Cody wanted to play for more, and he three-bet to 200,000 flat. Roberts furrowed his brow and shot a glance, but he didn't waste much time slapping his cards back toward the dealer face-down. The U.K. is on a roll.
Hand #5: We have our first flop, turn, and river. Chris Moorman was under the gun, and he opened to 65,000. Moritz Kranich was the only one to come along, defending his big blind to go heads up. The dealer spread out , and Kranich check-called 90,000 from Moorman. The and completed the board, and the two men checked it down. Kranich showed first, and his was good. It's now England 4, Germany 1.
The shortest stack coming into this final table is Shawn Buchanan, but he's nowhere to be found. The cards are in the air for the first hand and Buchanan's seat is empty.
Welcome to the Hotel Majestic Barriere for the final time this year. It is of course the final table of the €10,400 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. We have finally reduced the field from 593 players to our final table of eight after five days of spectacular poker and you can read about all of them below.
The players have scrubbed up nice, are taking their seats and we have the likes of Johnny "f*****g" Chan sitting on the rail.
Jack Effel has just taken the mic and is about to introduce the players, so lets get it on!
Sitting fifth in chips heading into this final table with an even 2,000,000, Brian Roberts is scoring his second World Series of Poker cash and his first final table. He holds the least amount in live tournament earnings at this final table, but Roberts is no stranger to poker.
Roberts is widely considered as one of the best online poker players in the game and was one of the players featured on the American reality TV show 2 Months $2 Million. The show chronicled Roberts and three other players who shared a house in Las Vegas for two months with the goal of earning two million dollars. Although the group only won $676,700, Roberts has the chance to earn a lot more than that today.
Chris Moorman is 26 years of age and holds an economics degree from Essex University, although his true life major is poker. Moorman is a bright, young superstar who is regularly considered one of the top No-Limit Hold'em players in the game today.
Moorman holds millions in online poker winnings, but we'll be focusing on the live events here. Coming into this final table, Moorman holds over $1.3 million in live tournament earnings with the bulk of that coming this year. Back in January, Moorman placed seventh in the Aussie Millions Main Event for A$175,000. After that, he cashed five times at the WSOP including two final tables in six-handed events.
Moorman finished third in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed event and then second in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed Championship. Those finishes earned Moorman $271,800 and $716,282, respectively.
Moorman also sits right behind Shawn Buchanan on the WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard. He'll need to win the event in order to pass Phil Hellmuth to take over the number one spot.
Moritz Kranich is 31 years old and a professional poker player. His largest score ever came in 2009 when he won the EPT Deauville Main Event for €851,400. Kranich also cashed in the 2009 EPT Dortmund Main Event and 2010 EPT Grand Final Monte Carlo.
Kranich will come into the final table second to last in chips with 1,660,000, but has the chance to join tablemate Jake Cody as a member of poker's Triple Crown winners if he can win this event. Along with his EPT Main Event win, Kranich won the $10,000 Championship at the WPT Bellagio Cup VI in 2010 for $875,150.
Kranich holds over $2.1 million in live tournament earnings entering this final table.
Shawn Buchanan may have the least amount of chips coming into this final table at 1,015,000, but he's the player who has the most live tournament earnings at nearly $4.2 million. That number is good enough to put him seventh on Canada's all-time money list and he has an opportunity to add a whole lot more to that today.
When it comes to World Series of Poker events, the 29-year-old Buchanan crushes. His first WSOP cash came back in 2004 and then starting in 2007, the cashes just started piling on. In 2007, Buchanan cashed three times at the WSOP, in 2008 he added four more, in 2009 he cashed twice and then in 2010 he finished in the money eight different times. Out of all of those finishes, the largest score came in 2010 when he placed second in the $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed for $812,941.
If you think that's impressive, Buchanan has added even more in 2011. In Las Vegas during the summer, he cashed five times at the WSOP including one second-place finish in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship. He then cashed three times at this WSOP Europe including coming runner-up to Michael Mizrachi in the €10,000 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em event for €207,624.
Outside of the WSOP, Buchanan has three top-five finishes in WPT events. He placed second in the 2007 Mandalay Bay Poker Championship for $768,775, fourth at the 2009 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $333,302 and third at the $25,000 WPT Championship in 2010 for $587,906.
Also of note is that Buchanan is still in the running for WSOP Player of the Year due to all his success this year on the WSOP felt. He needs to finish in second place or better to take over the POTY lead.
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
, and Kranich check-called 90,000 from Moorman. The 
and 
completed the board, and the two men checked it down. Kranich showed first, and his 
was good. It's now England 4, Germany 1.
