The 23-year-old, who hails from Split, is fairly unknown in live events and only has two recorded results so far - both small cashes in EPT12 Prague side events. However, while he's yet to build his reputation on the live scene, Banic is no stranger to online poker. Using the screen name "BanicIvan" on PokerStars, he's currently ranked #49 in the prestigious PocketFives worldwide leaderboard and is #1 in his nation's rankings. Last year, Banic won The Big $162 twice and also has a victory in The Bigger $55 worth $38,218 - his best result to date.
Mike McDonald bagged the second biggest stack at the end of Day 1a and tweeted "Best main event day 1 in years." The 26-year-old Canadian's good Main Event run continued today and he's now bagged up 291,000 chips. McDonald's been an EPT regular since he turned 18 back in 2007. It took him only four months to break a tour record when he triumphed at EPT4 Dortmund to become the youngest EPT champion - a record he still holds. He has now notched up a total of 14 EPT Main Event cashes. The 2014 PCA runner-up is a regular contender in the highest buy-in tournaments around the world and his $13 million in winnings put him at #3 on the Canada all-time money list.
Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano is the only player here at the Royal Dublin Society who already has two EPT Dublin Main Events cashes to his name - and will aim to make history tomorrow by adding a third. Pagano has 230,000 and will be joined for Day 3 by fellow red spade representatives - Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree (147,600) plus Team Online's Jaime Staples (289,600).
With 605 players competing in the €5,300 Main Event, the total prize pool came to €2,934,250. The top 87 finishers will all get a slice of that and on Saturday, Dublin will crown its first EPT champion since 2007 - who will walk away with €561,900. The top six will all score six-figure prizes with a min cash worth €9,100.
EPT Dublin Main Event history:
Season 1: 163 players, €244,500 prize pool, Ram Vaswani (UK) for €93,000
Season 2: 248 players, €992,000, Mats Gavatin (Sweden) for €317,000
Season 3: 389 players, €1,847,750 prize pool, Roland De Wolfe (UK) for €554,300
Season 4: 221 players, €1,701,700, Reuben Peters (USA) for €532,620
Season 5: 605 players, €2,934,250 prize pool, €561,900 for the winner
Source: EPT press rls
