Russo, who hails from Naples, has been playing poker for the last five years with good results, including a final table at a tournament in Saint Vincent, as well as a positive performance in high stakes cash games. Russo might not be that well-known in Europe but he says he has been improving his game and he is now considered “someone to watch” on the Italian circuit. Russo just recently graduated in Economics from one of the most prestigious universities in Italy, the “Bocconi” in Milan. He’s now a pro player and, as well as poker, he is also keen on chess and backgammon. He’s planning to use his next poker winning to increase his bankroll and book a fantastic holiday.
Manigrasso has been playing poker for two years and and has a couple of good results including tenth place for $17,245 in Campione d'Italia. He plays online at PokerStars.it with the nickname "sofia2007175". Manigrasso is not a professional poker player but says it’s his dream to win an EPT. Whatever happens at the final, his wife and daughter will come out of it well – he’s pledged to buy them some great presents.
This is the first time that Spada, who comes from Ostia, near Rome, has played a major live tournament and he says that getting a seat in the final is a dream come true. He started playing online six years ago on PokerStars.com with the nickname "robertino74", and now plays on PokerStars.it as "Spacchennatt". Spada mainly plays cash games and says he spends his winnings on his four kids. His family are coming to support him at the final. Spada’s biggest dream is to win a lot of money so he can help disadvantaged people.
It’s no surprise to find that Xuan Liu is a graduate of Waterloo University in Canada, a poker hothouse where she ran home games attracting stars such as EPT5 Grand Final winner Glen Chorny, Michael Watts, Steve Paul and Michael “Timex” McDonald. After college, Liu carried on playing live cash games and enjoyed success for several years. She recently switched her focus to live tournaments and has so far amassed over $80,000 earnings. She took to the live poker circuit last November, competing at NAPT LA before travelling to Spain for EPT Barcelona. Her breakthrough came soon after when she won a IPT San Remo €1,000 side event in December for €48,000. Liu is the first female finalist this season; the last woman to make a final was Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree who won EPT San Remo last year.
Heinzelmann was runner-up at EPT Berlin a few weeks ago and could better that €500,000 win here in San Remo. Prior to Berlin, the 20-year-old German was already a familiar figure on the EPT circuit, having played around 20 events. His Berlin success dwarfed his previous best live results which include 41st at EPT6 London for ￡12,800 and final tables in two side events - EPT San Remo €300 Turbo last season and the EPT Vilamoura €1,000 NL event last September. He’s been playing poker for around two years after a friend sent him a few dollars to deposit online. He has won both the PokerStars Sunday 500 and the $100 Daily rebuy tourney. His online winnings now total more than $450,000.
Rupert Elder, a former Economics student at Warwick University and now professional poker player, has been playing the game for several years. He mostly plays a mixture of online $2-4, $3-6 and $5-10 NLHE cash games though he switches across to tournaments on Sunday nights. Whatever happens on today's final table, this will be Elder's biggest ever live tournament result. His previous best was 80th for €10,000 at the EPT in Berlin a few weeks ago, in what was only his second ever EPT (the first being the PCA earlier this year). Elder will be supported tomorrow by his good friend Andrew Teng who was eliminated in 12th place as well as former PCA finalist Ricky Fohrenbach. Elder isn't too happy about being seated to the right of Max Heinzelmann who he rates as the most dangerous opponent at the final table tomorrow but still remains confident.
Russian pro Max Lykov started playing poker back in 2005 while studying engineering at university. By 2006, he’d started crushing the online game and says he has still only ever made two $40 deposits. He now has a huge bankroll and is one of the highest earning Russian live tournament players of all time. Lykov’s breakout year came in 2009 with a run of deep finishes at events around Europe, including winning a Red Sea Poker Cup event. In Vegas, he came close to winning his first WSOP bracelet , finishing third in a $5,000 NL Shootout event for $145,062. Just a few weeks later, Lykov scored his first major title, winning the inaugural EPT in Kyiv, Ukraine, for $468,504. He finished 13th at EPT Snowfest last season and won a $1k side event at the 2010 PCA for $100,000. At this year’s PCA he topped that with a third place worth $369,490 in the $25k High Roller tournament. A month later, he final-tabled WPT Venice, bringing his total live tournament earnings to over $1.4 million.
Born in Turin 40 years ago, former real estate agent Francesco began to play poker in 2005 and from 2008 it became his primary activity, scoring over $600,000 in tournament winnings. Francesco become famous for the exceptional result at EPT Copenaghen in 2010 where he finished second, winning approximately $400,000. De Vivo had already demonstrated that he was a winning player in 2008 when he won the Italian championship of Texas Hold'em. Some months later, he went to Las Vegas for WSOP 2008, where he cashed in the Main Event, finishing 503th. His favorite loves are Texas Hold’em Tournaments and his favourite player is Phil Ivey. His Pokerstars ID is Checco.D.
It's final table time here in San Remo, brought to you live by Pokernews. And what a cracking last day we have here too as there are excellent potential stories all over the place. Rupert Elder currently leads, could he be the next British winner in a long line of recent success for the United Kingdom - it certainly is a golden age for UK poker. In second place is Max Heinzelmann who already has a stunning achievement in making back to back EPT final tables at two of the biggest finals of the year, could he go one better than in Berlin?
Xuan Liu is the first woman to make a final table apperance since...Liv Boeree here last year and we all know what happened then but the task is tough with her relatively short stack. Team PokerStars Pro Max Lykov is also fairly short but he has an advantage in that he is a former EPT winner, could he overcome his chip advantage and somehow break records as well?
And what of our Italians who make up half the final table, most would admit to being unknown quantities but Francesco De Vivo did come second to Anton Wigg at EPT Copenhagen last year. There has never been an Italian winner on the Italian leg of the EPT, could this be the time that everything changes?
Seat 1: Francesco De Vivo - 1,090,000
Seat 2: Max Lykov - 1,495,000
Seat 3: Rupert Elder - 8,005,000
Seat 4: Max Heinzelmann - 7,885,000
Seat 5: Xuan Liu - 1,740,000
Seat 6: Roberto Spada - 4,775,000
Seat 7: Massimiliano Manigrasso - 2,000,000
Seat 8: Costantino Russo - 2,565,000
Play will be begin at 12pm (CET) and will also be streamed on EPT Live.
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