For the first time, a player from Azerbaijan has made it to the EPT Main Event Final Table. Not only that, but Ilkin Amirov is heading to the final showdown with 9,965,000 - nearly a third of the chips in play. Amirov is leading six remaining players still in contention for the €921,540 first prize, coveted trophy and prestigious title.
Amirov is not the first player from Azerbaijan to enjoy success on the tour this year though; at the PCA in January, Ilkin Garibli took down the $25k High Roller and Amirov himself finished 13th in the event for nearly $100k. Amirov has had a great year. As well as his PCA High Roller cash, he made the money in six WSOP events in the summer. Here at EPT Prague, he's already guaranteed his biggest ever cash as all remaining players are guaranteed at least €166,080.
Amirov took the lead on Day 4 with 13 players left, and extended it further in an incredible four-way all in, one of the most memorable hands ever dealt at such a late stage of the EPT. The hand, which you can watch here, knocked out three players at once with Javier Gomez Zapatero, Chris Walker and former chip leader Marc Macdonnell all unable to beat Amirov's pocket kings.
Hossein Ensan will be playing his third EPT Main Event final table in 16 months today. Last season in Barcelona, he was sitting there along with Bulgaria's Slaven Popov and the pair meet again in the final eight in Prague. In the EPT's 12-year history, this is only the second time that two players have met on two different final tables. Julian Thew and Ram Vaswani were the first back in season 1, when they found themselves competing on final tables at both EPT Dublin and EPT Copenhagen.
Vlado Banicevic became the first ever finalist from Montenegro but had to leave in eighth position worth €87,700 while Thomas Butzhammer from Germany has managed to better his 16th place from last year's EPT Prague to make his debut on an EPT final table.
EPT12 Prague Main Event Final Day seat order and chip counts:
Seat 1: Hossein Ensan, Germany, 2,725,000
Seat 2: Ilkin Amirov, Azerbaijan, 9,965,000
Seat 3: Slaven Popov, Bulgaria, 3,640,000
Seat 4: Thomas Butzhammer, Germany, PokerStars player, 5,490,000
Seat 5: Gleb Tremzin, Russia, PokerStars player, 7,785,000
Seat 6: Olivier Ferrero, France, Live satellite winner, 1,715,000
Source: EPT press
