donpeters
Lisa Hamilton
Hamilton is well-known as a high stakes live cash game player and, until last summer's WSOP, had never played a major live tournament. However, her decision to take part in the $1,000 Ladies' Championship certainly paid off when she bested the 1,060-strong field to take the first-place prize of $195,390.
Despite this success, all her decisions to play live events still seem to be made on a whim. She only came to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure at the insistence of her good friend, Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier.
Originally from Honolulu in Hawaii, Hamilton moved to Las Vegas in 2005. As well as playing poker, Hamilton also spends time helping out with her family's clothing retail business.
donpeters
Tobias Reinkemeier
Tobias Reinkemeier has been having a highly successful time here at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Fresh from his 46th-place finish in the Main Event, which netted him $52,000 and his biggest live cash to date, he is now in the chip leader for the final table of the High Roller Event.
Reinkemeier is widely considered in the German poker community to be one the country's best tournament players. He has played numerous EPTs and cashed in all three he has played this year, including an 11th place at EPT London for ￡28,000. His total live tournament winnings amass to $360,000. He also won $168,750 online for winning a $1,500 SCOOP Heads-up event this year.
Originally from Cuxhaven in Germany, Reinkemeier moved to Malta 18 months ago where he now resides.
donpeters
Will Molson
Will Molson, a 22-year-old student from Montreal, clearly enjoys high rolling in The Bahamas. Last year, he finished second to Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier in this same $25,000 buy-in event, earning $228,000. Since then, Molson has cashed at EPT London while taking a year out from college to travel and play poker.
Molson goes into the final with 669,000 chips, a remarkable turnaround since the end of day two, when he had the fewest (60,000) of the remaining 24 players. He plays at PokerStars under the moniker "molswi47" and is a regular around the high stakes cash tables.
Dmitry Stelmak is a full-time poker pro from Moscow who came to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure with a bunch of friends from Russia.
Before playing poker, he was studying Mathematics and Science at the University of Moscow. His favorite poker game is pot-limit Omaha. He started playing poker five years ago online and four years ago went to his first live tournament.
His best live result so far was last year when he chopped first place in the $3,000 Bellagio Cup for $104,095. He has also won a side event on the Russian Poker Tour; a $2,000 event with 100 players. Last September he cashed at EPT Barcelona, coming 38th for €20,000. He also came 14th in a €2,000 side event.
donpeters
Michiel Brummelhuis
Compared to other players at the final table, Michiel Brummelhuis is not a familiar face outside his own country. Brummelhuis started playing small-limit hold'em games online and grinded his way up to playing poker professionally. His success in cash games translated into tournament poker and he is now one of the biggest winners in the Netherlands. Online he plays under the name "utreg".
His biggest online cashes include $144,000 for winning the $1,000 WCOOP Second Chance on PokerStars and $101,000 in another big Sunday tournament.
He has also been successful in live events as well with his best result so far a win at the Master Classics of Poker €1,000 Freezeout for €68,310. He also made the final of the 2009 WSOP $10,000 Limit Hold'em event, finishing in seventh place.
donpeters
William Reynolds
William Reynolds has been playing poker since he was 16 and by the time he was 18, thought he might well be able to make a living at it. He decided to defer college for four months and see how poker worked out. After those four months, he decided to take a year off. After that year, he decided to take off another year!
Reynolds came to international attention when he came fourth at EPT San Remo last season for a life-changing €377,000. He also recently cashed at the LAPT event in Playa Conchal, Costa Rica, coming in 13th place.
He thrives online and has enjoyed good results. He won an event in 2007 for $205,000, came second in a $1,000 event on PokerStars in November of 2008 for $60,000 and then scored a fourth in the 2009 $5,000 SCOOP PLO event for $87,000. He said: "This is a really prestigious event and it's awesome to be part of a field where you know everyone is very talented."
donpeters
Adolfo Vaeza
Adolfo Vaeza is the only amateur at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller final table, but he could easily prove to be the dark horse in this event. While most of the finalists spend all year traveling the poker circuit and/or grinding online, Vaeza has only traveled to three events in his life. The twist is that he's made the final table every time.
He came fourth in the EPT6 London High Roller event for ￡141,000, he came fifth in a €5,000 No-Limit side event at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo last season for €51,000. Now the 57-year-old father-of-four has done it again.
Vaeza is from Montevideo, Uruguay and runs a construction company. He plays high-roller events because they have "smaller fields and a high level of play."
donpeters
THe $25,000 High Roller Event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is today, beginning at 12:00 p.m. local time. It's sure to be a good one, with the players all vying for over $575,000 in first-place money. A total of nearly $1.7 million is up for grabs at the final table along with the perks of some television time.
Due to the long final-table bubble last night, things might get crazy in here real fast. The longer the players played on the bubble, just meant that the blinds got higher and higher as the clock ticked on. The average stack got shorter and the action will be fierce from the get-go. There were talks about the tournament staff possibly winding back the clock and we'll let you know what that decision is.
Tobias Reinkemeier will be the chip leader coming into the final day of play. He's the only player with over one million in chips. WSOP Ladies' Event champion Lisa Hamilton has also made her way to the final table and will be looking to add this title to her resume. Here's how the players stack up in seat order.
Seat 1: Adolfo Vaeza - 758,000
Seat 2: William Reynolds - 482,000
Seat 3: Michiel Brummelhuis - 394,000
Seat 4: Dmitry Stelmak - 150,000
Seat 5: Will Molson - 669,000
Seat 6: Tobias Reinkemeier - 1,072,000
Seat 7: Lisa Hamilton - 440,000
Seat 8: Matt Marafioti - 236,000
We'll see you ll shortly to kick things off. Stay tuned!
