The eight final table members are now in their seats and tournament director Thomas Kremser is just introducing them.
Despite the vast sums of money being played for the mood is quite jovial and relaxed, partly because Kremser has just introduced Cristian Dragomir and mentioned the story about him being berated by Phil Hellmuth at the WSOP.
As soon as the cards are in the air we will let you know.
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De Visscher started playing poker on holiday in April 2006 and has been playing regularly ever since. He kicked off in €5 home games with friends but after a year started playing online. He's now a full time player and has focused on tournaments for the last year. One of his other hobbies is traveling which he can combine perfectly with poker. If he wins the tournament, he will consider buying an apartment but his main goal is just to keep playing. He lives with his girlfriend in Wilsele near Leuven.
When Cristian Dragomir first took up poker seven years ago, he thought – mistakenly - he was the only full-time player in Romania. Actually there were about 30 Romanian pros at the time but very little live poker action. In 2007, Dragomir enjoyed his first taste of fame when his team came second in the PokerStars World Cup of Poker. He said: ”That was a turning point for Romanian poker because it was on TV. People still talk to me about it as if it was yesterday.” The team stayed very close and included Cristian Tardea who Dragomir reluctantly busted here in tenth place. In 2008, Dragomir gained fame again when he was involved in a notorious hand at the WSOP Main Event against Phil Hellmuth. Hellmuth raised with AK and Dragomir called with 10-4, hitting a 9-10-7 flop. Hellmuth proceeded to call Dragomir an "idiot" and "the worst player in history" and earned himself a penalty, later overturned. Dragomir eventually finished in 29th place – his best result to date. He has played eight EPTs so far but this is his first cash. His wife Madalina is supporting him from home with the couple’s young son Sasha.
Mortensen started playing poker almost three years ago. In 2010 he reached a handful of final tables, his biggest cash being for $67,000. He played his first EPT in Copenhagen in Febrary, busting late on day 2. He plans to play a lot more EPTs in future, probably Berlin and San Remo, and also this summer’s World Series. “It’s always a problem with the tax in Denmark, but Vegas is a good experience for me as a poker player,” he said. Despite all of these trips his bread and butter are online tournaments, where he has already achieved numerous five figure cashes.
Murphy has been playing poker for four years, the last two of those as a full-time pro. His game of choice is online 6-max cash games, either 400NL or sometimes 600NL. His best live result was fourth place out of a 3289-strong starting field in a WSOP 2010 $1,000 tournament. He won $162,568 for that achievement. Murphy, who won his seat to Snowfest in a $22 rebuy on PokerStars, has reached the final via a very up-and-down Day 4. He was planning on leaving Hinterglemm tomorrow but those plans will have to be shelved for now.
Meulyzer started playing poker in 2004 when he discovered the game with friends and thought it would be cool to smoke big cigars and drink whisky while playing the game! He soon discovered online poker, kicking off in small stakes cash games. Philip is now a full time pro specializing in $2/$4 cash and occasionally $3/$6 and $5/$10. He also enjoys playing the Sunday online tourneys. Besides poker, he loves movies and is a keen soccer fan. He's an admin on PokerInfo.be and a prolific poster on PokerClub.be. He says Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis is one of the players who inspired him to get good at poker.
As entries into the poker world go, beating ten-time WSOP winner Johnny Chan heads up at a PokerStars APPT high roller is hard to top. Vladimir Geshkenbein, who was barely out of his teens when he won that $266,705 in 2009, has also proved to be a mercurial talent here at Snowfest. Breaking through Day 1 as overall chip leader, the Russian has been an aggressive and constant threat at every table he’s been on. Geshkenbein can usually be found playing $25/$50 cash games and has scored $417,740 in live winnings. He was born in Russia, grew up in Switzerland and now lives in Malta.
Maisto took up poker – the Italian five-card version - some 15 years ago but switched to Texas Hold’em five years ago. Although sponsored, poker is not his full-time occupation; he runs a string of businesses including a call centre. He only played one EPT last season - in Prague – but didn’t cash until this year. He won the DKK 15,000 event at EPT Copenhagen in February for approximately €48,000 and also had deep runs at EPT Vilamoura and EPT Vienna. He is being cheered on at Snowfest by a group of friends that includes serial EPT casher Nicolo Calia. Maisto’s wife Antonietta is supporting him from home where she is looking after the couple’s two young sons.
Former construction worker Vandersmissen has been playing poker for 2.5 years, the last year as a full-time pro. He specializes in online NLHE cash games but is also keen to learn Pot Limit Omaha so he can play more events during this summer’s World Series. His aim is to win a WSOP bracelet. His best result to date was €150,000 in a €3k tourney in Barcelona last December and since turning pro, he has won over $440,000. Vandersmissen is good friends with Belgian Team PokerStars Pros Matthias and Christophe De Meulder along with the other two Belgian finalists. He aims to be the first Belgian poker player to win an EPT but doesn’t know what he’d do with the prize money; he says he already has everything he wants! “The money is just a bankroll boost” he said.
And so, it comes down to this.
Yesterday we started the day with three Flemish players occupying the top of the chip counts, an unprecedented achievement. And now, all three of them - good friends away from the tables too - have made it to the final table.
Chip leader by a long way after knocking out Iulian Ruxandescu in 20th place with a set against Ruxandescu's flush draw yesterday is one of those three Flemish players, Kevin Vandersmissen. He goes into the day with an enviable 4,512,000 - around a third of the chips in play. His fellow Belgians Philip Meulyzer and Koen De Visscher have to settle for rather more average-y stacks for now.
In second place behind Vandersmissen is Cristian Dragomir. Best known for being called "the worst player in history" by Phil Hellmuth at the 2008 WSOP Main Event (he finished 29th), Dragomir is the last Romanian standing after busting his friend Cristian Tardea in 10th place yesterday - an episode that made Dragomir rather emotional.
Also still in the mix are Russian steamroller Vladimir Geshkenbein, winner of the APPT Macau High Roller event and master of the accidental rubdown (upon eliminating EPT Copenhagen winner Michael Tureniec: "Is this your first time playing live?"), Day 4 chip leader Giacomo Maisto, talented Danish whippersnapper Morten Mortensen, and WSOP $1,000 NLH finalist Denis Murphy.
Play is due to start at 2pm, around 40 minutes from now. This is going to be good.
Seat 1: Kevin Vandersmissen
Seat 2: Giacomo Maisto
Seat 3: Vladimir Geshkenbein
Seat 4: Philip Meulyzer
Seat 5: Denis Murphy
Seat 6: Morten Mortensen
Seat 7: Cristian Dragomir
Seat 8: Koen De Visscher
All bios courtesy of the lovely people at PokerStars.
