This 53 year-old retired Brisbane local is a $2/$5 cash game player and has been into poker for eight years now. Balandinos tells us his biggest poker highlight was finishing third in the Aussie Millions Mix Max event this year.
The best moment in Balandinos's tournament this week came when he spiked a set on the river holding pocket deuces to eliminate an opponent who had pocket kings. When he's not playing poker, Balandinos enjoys spending time with his grandchildren.
Erich Stadler is a 43 year-old manager from Queenstown New Zealand and has been playing poker for eight years. He got his start in home games with buddies who he says are his biggest poker influences.
Stadler told us he mostly playes tournaments and making the final table this week is his greatest poker accomplishment. His biggest tournament moment this week saw him win a big flip with ace-king against an opponent's pocket queens. Off the felt Stadler loves skiing, motorcycling and having a drink.
The 73 year-old Peter Matusik is now retired and tells us he's been playing poker for 30 years. He can't remember how he got his start in poker but he said his biggest influence is fellow final tablist Manny Stavropoulos.
Matusik can usually be found on the $5/$5 or $5/$10 tables but his biggest poker highlight so far was winning ANZPT Gold Coast in 2011. He starts the final table as chip leader this week but outside of poker Matusik enjoys reading, travel and gardening.
Lin Shi or Lenny as he calls himself is a Melbourne local who works as a sales representative. Shi has been playing the game for five years now and said he got started watching poker on television. The $2/$4 cash game regular had his favourite poker moment when he finished sixth in a Macau Baby Dragon event.
The defining moment in Shi's tournament this week was flopping a flush for a big pot and he told us he really liked the structure of the blinds levels. Shi clearly has some poker chops but his main hobby is music.
Australian Nikolce Trajkovski has seven cashes to his name so far with a total live earning tally of $13,409. His biggest cash to date came in 2013 when he placed fifth in an APPT Six Max side event for $9,165. By locking up at least a ninth place finish here this week Trajkovski has earned himself his biggest score yet.
A big moment for Trajkovski came today when he eliminated Brett McGrath in the later stages, holding ace-queen against his opponent's ace-ten and fading danger to deal the knock out.
