Clarke, 27, hails from Ardee, a small town located in the northwest of Ireland. He took over the chip lead in the last hand of Day 4 today, when he got his nut flush paid off to vault up to 2,850,000. Clarke has already tasted success in Dublin. Two years ago, he won the Irish Open for €200,000, his best result to date. He's now guaranteed to pick up €25,820 for his first EPT Main Event cash. So far, there has been only one Irish EPT champion - Steve O'Dwyer who triumphed on the thrilling EPT9 Grand Final final table (featuring Team PokerStars Pros Johnny Lodden, Daniel Negreanu, Jake Cody and Jason Mercier).
The overall Day 1 chip leader Gilles Bernies is playing his first EPT Main Event, having qualifed on PokerStars. He'll start Day 5 with 2,801,000 - the second biggest chip stack among the remaining players. The 27-year-old German was born in Bretten but is currently studying International Managment in Düsseldorf. After he bagged his chips today, he described his EPT debut as "weird", admitting he's a recreational player with no plans to turn pro.
The two youngest players left in the field are also the ones who have accumulated the most in live tournament winnings with $8 milion between: EPT Player of the Year Dzmitry Urbanovich is 20 and EPT11 Grand Final champion Adrian Mateos is 21. Mateos is the only EPT champion left, and this the closest that Urbanovich has come to a EPT Main Event final table despite having already acquired seven EPT trophies. In the last level of today, the two youngsters clashed and the Polish all-time #1 doubled up - with a set of fours versus Mateos's missed flush draw. At the end of the day, Urbanovich bagged 1,407,000 while Mateos has 651,000.
Others still in contention for the €561,900 EPT Dublin first prize are EPT10 London finalist Kuljinder Sidhu (1,260,000), Estrellas5 Barcelona winner Matias Ruzzi (587,000) and English poker pros Rhys Jones (1,095,000) and Day 3 chip leader Alex Goulder (1,012,000).
There were 605 players in the EPT12 Dublin Main Event, creating a €2,934,250 prize pool. The 71 players who have already cashed include Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano, who finished 17th for €25,820 to notch up his 21st EPT Main Event cash and third here in Dublin.
Source: EPT press
