EPT: Koen de Visscher aan finaletafel

De Belg Koen de Visscher heeft de finaletafel van de EPT Campione gehaald. De Belg neemt vandaag plaats bij de laatste acht spelers en speelt mee om de hoofdprijs van €640.000. Chipleader is de Fransman Fabrice Soulier.

Het is voor De Visscher de tweede EPT finaletafel uit zijn carrière. Vorig jaar werd hij bij de EPT Snowfest 3e, goed voor €147.000. Vanwege de drukte met het livereport in Venlo, hier de beknopte info voor de finaletafel met dank aan het PokerStars mediateam voor de profielen.

Seating en counts
Seat 1. Olivier Busquet, USA, 3,011,000
Seat 2. Koen De Visscher, Belgium, 1,856,000
Seat 3. Mario Nagel, Germany, 1,210,000
Seat 4. Stefano Puccilli, Italy, 1,450,000
Seat 5. Jannick Wrang, Denmark, 2,882,000
Seat 6. Fabrice Soulier, France, 3,480,000
Seat 7. Balazs Botond, Hungary, 2,080,000
Seat 8. Robin Ylitalo, Sweden, 1,153,000

Pay-outs:

Seat 1: Olivier Busquet, 30, Westchester County, USA – 3,011,000
Widely regarded as one of the best heads-up sit-n-go players in the world, Olivier Busquet has made a highly successful move to live poker and has already earned over $2.5 million. He first started playing poker in home games while working for a Wall Street trading firm. He said: “When I first took up poker, it was with the idea that there was essentially a lot of skill set overlap between what a Wall Street trader and a poker professional were doing. Another friend of mine told me about online poker and I got right into it. Eventually, I had built up to a few thousand dollars and jumped into $5-$10. In the span of a month, I had earned about $100,000 and moved into the $25-$50 games.”

On one site, Busquet became the first ever player to win seven-figures playing heads-up SNGs and in 2009 he started playing live. He cashed several times at that summer’s World Series but it was his victory at WPT Borgata in September that put him on the map when he beat a 1,108-strong field for $925,514. A few months later, Busquet snagged the second biggest cash of his career – €597,000 after finishing second to Tobias Reinkemeier at the EPT6 Grand Final High Roller in Monaco. Since then he has cashed at the PCA, EPT Deauville and NAPT Mohegan Sun as well as finishing fourth in the EPT London High Roller event last October for £171,200 and 34th at EPT Madrid two weeks ago.

Seat 2: Koen De Visscher, 26, Wilsele, Belgium – 1,856,000
Visscher first started playing poker in €5 home games with friends but after a year started playing online and has been playing regularly ever since. He’s now a full time player and has focused on tournaments for the three years. He bubbled the first EPT he ever played – EPT Barcelona in Season 7 – but got his big break at EPT Snowfest just a few months later, finishing third for €147,000. Since then he’s accrued a further €50,000 in EPT cashes including three this season: 33rd at EPT Barcelona for €16,000, 18th at EPT Loutraki for €8,700 and 30th at EPT Deauville for €20,000. He’s no slouch online either, taking down a PokerStars.com SCOOP $1k NL event last year for $92,417. He lives with his girlfriend in Wilsele near Leuven.

Seat 3: Mario Nagel, 29, Gelsenkirchen, Germany – PokerStars player 1,210,000
Campione must bring back pretty good memories for German PokerStars player Mario Nagel because it’s here that he snagged his first ever live cash when he finished 27th at the Italian Poker Tour Campione event last June for $5,126. Just a few months later and he had another cash in Italy – third in one of the EPT San Remo nightly €300 turbo tourneys for €4,500. Online he’s done even better and won a $265 SCOOP event last year for $81,536. Nagel, who is an Industrial Administrator and is also studying economics, first started playing poker after he saw Chris Moneymaker winning the WSOP on TV in 2004. Initially he stuck to playing online tourneys on PokerStars but after his SCOOP victory, he started playing live events as well. EPT Barcelona was his first EPT and this is his first EPT main event cash. Nagel is being supported in Campione by his good friends Ole Schemoin, Tobias Hagedorn and EPT Prague champion Martin Finger.

Seat 4: Stefano “stefax27” Puccili, 40, Rome, Italy – 1,450,000
Puccilli has been playing poker for eight years with excellent results, especially on the Italian Poker Tour, where he is one of the most popular players at the tables. His IPT performances include winning IPT Sanremo in June 2009 for €120,000, finishing fifth at IPT San Remo in December 2009 for €27,000, 22nd at IPT San Marino in 2010, 29th at IPT Venice 2010 and third place in a €1,100 IPT Campione side event for CHF 21,900. Puccilli was the real star of the first IPT season in 2009/2010 and was voted both IPT Player of the Year and PokerStars Qualifier of the Year during the IPT awards in San Remo. The last year hasn’t been as successful but he has still managed to be the only Italian player on the first EPT Campione final table – out of 242 who started the event! He’s planning to use his winnings to take care of his family, increase his bankroll and maybe buy a good car. When he isn’t playing poker, he says he works “full time as a happy dad”.

Seat 5: Jannick Wrang, 31, Copenhagen, Denmark – PokerStars qualifier 2,882,000
Danish grinder Jannick Wrang recently finished ninth on the PokerStars MicroMillions leaderboard so you might be forgiven that he’s a low stakes player come good. That could not be further from the truth. Wrang, a regular $25-$50 Pot-Limit Omaha player, had lost $150,000 in a brutal two days of cash games and challenged himself to focus on the micro-stakes series. That ninth place gifted him a $1,050 SCOOP ticket, which he’ll no doubt use to good effect as he pushes through the $1,000,000 mark in online tournament winnings at PokerStars. The Dane has been playing the EPT since Season 3 and this will be his fourth main event cash. A 16th place finish at EPT London (£25,000) was his deepest result before Campione.

Seat 6: Fabrice “FabSoul” Soulier, 42, Avignon, France – 3,480,000
Soulier is ranked fourth in France’s all time money list with over $3.6 million in live tournament winnings. He’s been well known in Europe for many years but it was taking down the 2011 WSOP $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship for more than $600,000 that gave him worldwide renown. Other notable cashes include third at the Partouche Main Event in September 2010 for €500,000 (the event won by Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst), third in the Epic Poker League last September and 49th in the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $138,568. He has a total of 18 WSOP cashes as well as deep runs in several EPTs. Last season he finished 11th at EPT Berlin, 48th at EPT San Remo, 19th at EPT Deauville and 64th at EPT Prague – but Campione is his first EPT final table. Soulier was originally a film and TV director but, after winning a couple of large poker tournaments in France, abandoned that career to grind live cash games in the States. He was the top earning French player from 2001-2006 and, according to Cardplayer, one of the top five players in the world in 2006. He has appeared on numerous TV poker shows and was the main character featured in the 2006 PokerStars-sponsored documentary “That’s Poker.” Soulier is co-founder of the “Madeinpoker” online poker community.

Seat 7: Balazs “birs320” Botond, 27, from Budapest, Hungary – PokerStars player 2,080,000
Technology graduate Balazs “birs320” Botond has been playing EPTs since Season 6 and finished 13th at EPT Vienna last season for €26,000. He has made more than $200,000 in live tournament winnings but this sum is totally dwarfed by his online cashes which total more than $1.3m. On PokerStars alone, Botond has won more than $900,000 including a fifth place finish in a $1,500 2011 WCOOP event last year for $30,000. Last month the 27-year-old from Budapest won a $162 buy-in 6-max tourney on PokerStars for $27,100. In online rankings, Botond is currently 128th in the world, and second in Hungary. He took up poker three years ago and turned pro just six months later, eventually ditching his job in a Budapest department store. He is being supported here in Campione by his girlfriend Zsofi.

Seat 8: Robin Ylitalo, 25, Gothenberg, Sweden – 1,153,000
Ylitalo has been playing poker around five years, four years as a pro. He mainly plays high-stakes online MTTs with his biggest cash being $100,000 in a $600 buy-in event in January. He’s been playing EPTs for a couple of seasons but his best result before today was 13th at EPT Berlin last season for €28,000. This is his third EPT in Season 8.