In the past twelve months, Polish pro Dzmitry Urbanovich has amazed the international poker community with a string of extraordinary feats, including winning four events at EPT11 Malta in March, a runner-up finish in the €100k Super High Roller at the EPT11 Grand Final in May and becoming EPT11 Player of the Year aged only 19. He's now celebrating yet another incredible achievement with his first EPT Main Event final table appearance. The 20-year-old is leading for the EPT12 Dublin Main Event final day with only six players left in contention for the title, trophy and €561,000 first prize.
In the last year, Urbanovich has accrued more than €3.6 million in live tournament winnings to take the lead in Poland's all-time money list. With 5,125,000 in chips, Urbanovich is now in pole position to emulate his fellow countryman 2014 PCA winner Dominik Panka, who is the only Polish EPT champion to date. Urbanovich came in to Day 5 as the fourth biggest stack and finally secured the chip lead in the last level of the day. Many players would take advantage of today's relatively early finish to chill out for a bit, but after bagging up his Main Event chips, Urbanovich wasted no time in getting hold of some more by jumping in to the €2k NL Turbo Bounty event.
Patrick Clarke, currently second in chips with 4,300,000, is the last Irishman standing and bears the Emerald Isle's hopes on his shoulders. While home soil might be considered an advantage for the 27-year-old from Ardee, there hasn't been an EPT champion winning at home for the last twenty stops (the last was Daniel Pidun at EPT9 Berlin). But Clarke has already tasted success here in Dublin - he won the Irish Poker Open in April 2014, for a lifetime best cash of €200,000. His performance here in Dublin gives him his first ever EPT cash and he's already guaranteed a €119,450 payday.
Kully Sidhu, third in chips with has 3,260,000, is the only player who's already appeared on an EPT final table - he was eighth at EPT10 London for £60,640 but tomorrow's cash will certainly eclipse that figure.
Amateur poker player Gilles Bernies has extended his first EPT Main Event experience to six days. The international marketing student from Düsselddorf has now sealed his best poker result with a guaranteed six-figure prize. Bernies was leading at the start of the official final table but then dropped to fourth, bagging 2,735,000.
At 43 years old, passionate Twitch broadcaster Ilios Kamatakis is the oldest player on the final table. He's currently ranked #8 on Greece's all time money list for live tournament winnings but could possibly shift up his nation's top three if he wins the €561,900 first prize tomorrow. Kamatakis has 1,965,000, the second shortest stack amongst the final six. However, he'll still operate with a comfortable 39 big blinds.
Rhys Jones is in the toughest position ahead of the finale. The poker pro from Portsmouth has 740,000 and will have a mountain to climb. Jones has three EPT Main Event cashes to date but none match his deep run here in the Irish capital.
The elimination of EPT11 Grand Final winner Adrian Mateos in 10th place means that - whatever happens tomorrow - we'll have a new EPT champion, and Dublin will crown its first EPT champ in more than eight years. The last EPT Dublin champion was American Reuben Peters who defeated a 221-strong field - and Annette Obrestad heads-up - to take down the event in Season 4 for €532,620. There were nearly three times that number of players this season - 605 players competed, generating a €2,934,250 prize pool shared by the 87 top finishers.
EPT12 Dublin Main Event Final Day chip counts:
Seat 1: Gilles Bernies, Germany, PokerStars qualifier - 2,735,000
Seat 2: Dzmitry Urbanovich, Poland, PokerStars qualifier - 5,125,000
Seat 3: Patrick Clarke, Ireland - 4,300,000
Seat 4: Kully Sidhu, UK - 3,260,000
Seat 5: Iliodoros Kamatakis, Greece, PokerStars qualifier - 1,965,000
Seat 6: Rhys Jones, UK, PokerStars qualifier, 740,000
