Luca Pagano is no stranger to the EPT circuit. This final table marks the fifth of his career in EPT events and twelfth cash. Out of all of those deep runs, Pagano’s best finishes include sixth-place at both the 2008 EPT Monte Carlo and 2009 EPT Dortmund where he earned €337,000 and €153,000, respectively. Although the majority of Pagano’s tournament winnings come from Europe, he does have three cashes to his name in WSOP events.
He got his start after depositing on PokerStars and working his bankroll up to a hefty sum of money. Now, Pagano is one of the most recognizable faces is all of the poker community. He’s even one of the lucky members that can call themselves part of Team PokerStars PRO, where he represents his home country of Italy.
Pagano currently sits in second on the EPT’s all-time Tournament Leader Board. The current number one slot is being held by Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, but come the end of this final table, Pagano could overtake Grospellier if he does well enough. It looks as though he’ll need a sixth-place finish or better to jump into the pole position.
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Analtoly Gurtoyov may not be a household name, but he’s not just some random character splurging in an EPT event. Gurtoyov has played several of these events including the last two EPT Grand Finals in Monte Carlo, EPT Barcelona, and EPT Kyiv. He also played in the EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in 2009, finishing in the money.
He resides in St. Petersburg, Russia where he works as a drinks distributor. He’s been playing poker for five years and considers it only a hobby, not a profession. This final table will be Gurtoyov’s best poker accomplishment and he’ll be looking to make the most of it. His quest wasn’t made alone, as his long-time girlfriend has been rooting him on from the rail since the beginning.
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The overwhelming chip leader coming into the final table is Oleksandr Vaserfirer. Vaserfirer is from Kyiv, Ukraine and is a professional poker player.
If you remember back to our coverage of EPT Barcelona last month or even further back to EPT Kyiv, his name may ring a bell. Vaserfirer placed twenty-first in Kyiv and then went even deeper in Barcelona, finishing sixteenth. Those two finishes, combined with a cash in a side event at EPT London, have earned Vaserfirer over €40,000 this season alone.
You can often get a sense of someone’s ability by looking in his corner. Seated on the rail behind Vaserfirer every step of the way on the past couple of days has been WSOP bracelet winner and member of Team PokerStars PRO Russia, Alexander Kravchenko. Vaserfirer has a ways to go before he has the same claim to fame as Kravchenko, but adding a win here in Warsaw to his resume of EPT success this season would be one heck of a burst onto the scene.
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Like the man seated on his right, Alexander Klimashin is from St. Petersburg, Russia. Unlike the man on his right, Klimashin is a professional poker player specializing in online cash games. This final table marks not only the first live final table in his career, but also his first live cash. But if Klimashin happens to win here in Warsaw, it won’t be the first time he’s taken home the title in a championship event.
He’s only 28, but Klimashin is a two-time European Champion and three-time World Team Champion in the game of Renju. For those of you not familiar with the game (just as we were a few hours ago), it’s a tournament version of the strategic Japanese board game Gomoku.
When it comes to poker tournaments, Klimashin had this to say: "To be honest, I wanted some variety instead of always playing online cash. Also, I like traveling with my friends and I'm enjoying it. Tournaments are entertainment."
One of the 33 PokerStars qualifiers, Clayton Mozdzen came out of Day 2 as the chip leader and with the help of that big stack, been able to grind his way to the final table. He won his seat online in a $20 rebuy satellite.
Mozdzen isn’t new to big live tournaments. He has cashes on record that date back to 2006, where he finished in the money in the WSOP Main Event for nearly $40,000. In early 2007, he won Heat 36 of the Poker Dome Challenge in Las Vegas for $25,000. He has over $75,000 in live winnings to date and this final table will be his biggest to date.
Mozdzen is one of the few players to achieve SuperNova Elite status on PokerStars, but not the only one at this final table, joining Alfio Battisti in the accomplishment. He currently plays poker full time and enters the final table in third place in chips.
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Hailing from Ukraine, Ruslan Prydryk is a part-time poker player who works as a lawyer. Prydryk enjoys traveling to Las Vegas from time to time and have two cashes recorded from 2009 Bellagio Cup V events. He final tabled the $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event, taking fifth, and came close to make another in the $5,000 event, but came up short in eleventh. Those two cashes earned him just about $25,000.
This EPT Warsaw final table marks the first time Prydryk has cashed in an EPT event having played four of them in all. Other accomplishments include becoming the poker champion of Ukraine in 2009 when he won the Gary Bowman Cup. Prydryk has stated that he prefers to play live cash games.
Prydryk is married and has an 11-year-old son who is following him back home. His wife can be seen supporting his from the rail as she hopes her husband can work his way to victory. When he’s not playing poker, Prydryk enjoys watching and playing football along with spending time with his family.
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Alfio Battisti has been playing professional poker for two years where he can better be known online as "aLFioSn0b". Battisti earned SuperNova Elite status on PokerStars and has proudly displayed it throughout the tournament with his branded sweatshirt and other apparel. It’s nothing to bat an eye at, as only a handful of players reach this pinnacle each year, but we’ve got two at this EPT final table. Battisti will join fellow SuperNova Elite Clayton Mozdzen in the final eight.
An ex-bartender, the Italian Battisti used to be an avid sports bettor before turning to poker. He specializes in heads-up sit-n-gos online, playing for high stakes. Prior to Warsaw, Battisti has only played two EPT events, Dortmund and Barcelona, but plans to play a lot more. He’s even earned the respect of star player Luca Pagano, who mentioned, “I expect Alfio to get a good result here. He is running good and playing really well. He's definitely one of the strongest players at the final.”
Checking the live results for Battisti, it was found that he placed in the money at the WSOP Main Event this summer, earning over $36,000.
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Christophe Benzimra is relatively new to the poker scene, but understands the type of persistence it takes to succeed thanks to his business ventures. Benzrima moved from France to Romania after he became dissatisfied with business in his native country. With a tiny sum of money and a lot of hard work, Benzimra was able to turn a start-up Plexiglas company into a large business employing 150 people. It was this type of hard work that has helped to land Benzimra at this EPT final table.
He began playing EPT events back in Season 4 where he played Barcelona. Since then, Benzimra’s rarely missed an event, playing each that he could. He’s cashed in events at EPT Budapest and IPT San Remo, along with a couple of cashes in tournaments in his home country of France: Grand Prix de Paris and Partouche Poker Tour Main Event, both in 2009. In all, Benzimra has nearly €60,000 in live tournament earnings.
When asked about his play in this event, Benzrimra said, "I've been playing quite tight here, especially when we reached the last few tables because I really wanted to make the final table. But to me, poker is more about having fun than making money."
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The players are busy removing their chips from the bags and stacking them while the tournament staff runs through some quick announcements. We'll be underway in a few minutes.
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