€50,000 Super High Roller
Day 3 Started
2012 PokerStars.com EPT Barcelona
€50,000 Super High Roller
Day: 3
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2012 PokerStars.com EPT Barcelona
Buy-in
€48,500
Prize Pool
€3,072,960
Entries
64
Level
22
Blinds
60,000 / 120,000
Ante
20,000
Dan Smith Leads Into Final Table
Welcome back to the PokerNews coverage of the 2012 PokerStars.com EPT Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller. Today, the remaining eight players will battle it out for the title, the seven-figure first-place prize and the Shamballa bracelet.
Leading the way is Dan Smith, who's having himself an absolutely fantastic year on the felt. His chip lead only exemplifies the type of year he's having, which stands to get much better pending his result here today. Trailing not too far behind Smith is his good friend Mike "Timex" McDonald. JC Alvarado also boasts a big, seven-figure stack, but those three are the only players over a million in chips. Between them, they hold over 80% of the chips in play. None of the other five players have over 700,000.
Here's a look at how the final table stacks up going in:
| Seat | Player | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | JC Alvarado | 3,116,000 |
| 2 | Mike McDonald | 4,650,000 |
| 3 | Erik Seidel | 698,000 |
| 4 | Mike Watson | 604,000 |
| 5 | Dan Smith | 5,108,000 |
| 6 | Jim McCrink | 500,000 |
| 7 | Ilari Sahamies | 685,000 |
| 8 | Talal Shakerchi | 670,000 |
Play kicks off at 1:00 PM local time and you can find all of the action right here on PokerNews. Stay tune for the kick off and the crowning of the first seven-figure champion of the EPT's Season 9!
Seat 8: Talal Shakerchi -- 670,000
Talal Shakerchi is a European hedge fund manager from Surrey, England who was one of the 48 players to dip into the World Series of Poker $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop. Although this Super High Roller is quite that buy-in, €50,000 is nothing to sneeze at and is the largest tournament ever held in Spain — it's also one of the largest in the world.
Shakerchi's hobby was chess prior to poker, but nowadays the wealthy businessman turns to poker in his downtime, often seen at only the largest, most marquee events on tour.
Dating back to 2007, Shakerchi has amassed over $700,000 in live tournament earnings not counting this result here that's set to increase that number. His previous best year was in 2008, but Shakerchi's already pocketed more prize money in 2012 when you factor in this score.
In 2008, Shakerchi took third place in the €10,000 Grand Prix De Paris for €157,320. That's quite an impressive result, but not as impressive as the €223,000 he won for taking down the €10,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Max Turbo High Roller a few months ago in May at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final.
Shakerchi will enter the final table sixth in chips with 670,000. He's already proven this year that he has the prowess to take on the best and win, but this event will be worth much more to Shakerchi if he's able to storm his way to the title.
Seat 7: Ilari Sahamies -- 685,000
Ilari Sahamies is most commonly known as "Ziigmund," a high-stakes Finnish professional poker player known for frequenting the highest games in the world, especially online. Sahamies' specialty is both Pot-Limit Omaha and trash talking, which the latter you can often find in the chat box of an online poker room.
Sahamies first got into poker at age 15 when he reportedly hopped in a home game of another famous Finn, Patrik Antonius. From there, Sahamies began playing more and more live poker before transitioning into becoming an online phenom.
When it comes to Sahamies' online results, he's a cash game player, so there's not much to find. Still, Ziigmund is a fixture in the PokerNews Online Railbird Report, often winning or losing seven-figure sums.
As for his live game, Sahamies has $458,043 in live tournament earnings. His best year was in 2009. That year he recorded two big scores — the two largest of his live career. The first was in January when he took second in the Helsinki Freezeout Main Event for €125,126. The other was a sixth-place finish in the £20,000 EPT London High Roller for £74,000.
Sahamies will enter the final table bunched with with the five players all under 700,000 in chips. His stack sits at 685,000 to start the day and that puts him in fifth place on the leader board.
Seat 6: Jim McCrink -- 500,000
The shortest stack entering the final table is also the player least known. Still, Jim McCrink has plenty of tournament results on his record and it's no surprise he was able to maneuver his way to this final table.
Hailing from Las Vegas, Nevada, McCrink has over $575,000 in live tournament earnings. He has numerous cashes dating back to 2005, but only one over $100,000. That score came in 2010 when McCrink finished 62nd in the World Series of Poker Main Event for $138,285. By making the final table and the money here in the EPT Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller, McCrink has already surpassed that and earned his largest cash ever.
In total, McCrink has 10 WSOP cashes, four cashes from the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and two World Poker Tour cashes. Those four cashes at PCA events amount to over $110,000. The largest of those came this year in January when McCrink took fifth in the $10,000 6-Max High Roller for just shy of $55,000.
McCrink is already on pace to have his best year ever on the felt, but he'll have some work to do here if he wants to climb the ladder at this stacked final table. McCrink may only have 500,000 in chips — the smallest amount coming into the final table — but he's never been one to panic all tournament long.
Seat 5: Dan Smith -- 5,108,000
The chip leader heading into today's EPT Barcelona €50,000 Super High Roller final table is none other than young superstar Dan Smith, who continues to smash up the poker world here in 2012.
Back in January, Smith was down under at the Aussie Millions where he won the $100,000 Challenge for A$1,012,000 and the largest win of his career. Prior to that result, Smith had just $628,939 in live tournament earnings. Coming into this event, he's built that up to over $2.8 million — a feat that was clearly ignited by his outstanding result in Melbourne, Australia.
As if winning seven figures in one tournament wasn't enough to show the poker world you're a star, Smith decided to take to the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final and win all three of the €5,000 side events within a week's time.
First, he won the €5,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Max Turbo for €152,980. Then, he won the €5,000 No-Limit Hold'em for €250,500. Finally, Smith won the €5,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Max for €118,000. It's amazing anyone else decided to play the third one with the hopes of beating Smith.
What's more is that Smith's stellar 2012 hasn't slowed down at all. Following his crushing performance in Monaco in May, Smith cashed five times at the World Series of Poker this summer, including a big score in — you guessed it — another $5,000 event. He took third in Event 50: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em for $368,943. We're now going to pick up our jaw from the floor.
Yesterday on Day 2, Smith stormed to the chip lead in a big way and hasn't given up the reigns since, although his close friend Mike McDonald is right on his heels. Entering the final table, Smith's stack sits at 5.108 million and he doesn't look to be slowing down. Fittingly, he was the player to burst the bubble in this event by sending Artem Litvinov home in ninth place.
Combining Smith's result here with his previous ones of 2012, he's virtually a lock to win all player of the year races and awards out there. If he doesn't, someone needs to check the scoring criteria.
Seat 4: MIke Watson -- 604,000
Mike Watson is one of a couple Canadian players to make this €50,000 Super High Roller final table, coming in seventh in chips with 604,000. With over $3.4 million in live tournament earnings, Watson's shorter stack shouldn't deceive his opponents.
Watson most notably won the World Poker Tour Bellagio Cup IV in July 2008 for $1,673,770. He followed that up with a third-place finish worth £241,000 at the EPT London £20,000 High Roller.
Outside of his prominent WPT victory that really put him on the map, Watson has a few other notable wins. He won the $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em side event at the Bellagio Cup V in 2009 for $140,625, the A$1,000 No-Limit Hold'em event at the 2010 Aussie Millions for A$129,920, the €5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Max Turbo side event at the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe for €104,400 and the €5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo Six Max side event earlier this year at last season's EPT Berlin for €70,300.
Needless to say, Watson has quite the record in live events and has only improved upon that here in this one. Known to many as "SirWatts," Watson will be looking to turn it on for an electric come back here at the final table.
Seat 3: Erik Seidel -- 698,000
Erik Seidel needs no introduction, but we’ll give him one anyway. The 8-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and Poker Hall of Famer has been putting up results from around the world since 1988, including a career year in 2011 when he won $3,090,693. That made him the all-time money winner until Antonio Esfandiari took over those honors this summer with a win the$1-million buy-in Big One for One Drop.
Among the former Wall Street man’s 2011 accomplishments are a fourth-place finish in the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 High Roller Event for $295,960; third in the A$100,000 Aussie Millions High Roller for $618,139; first in the A$250,000 Aussie Millions Super High Roller for A$2,500,000; first in the L.A. Poker Classic $25,000 High Roller for $144,570; first in the NBC National Heads-Up Championship for $750,000; and first in the $100,000 World Poker Classic Super High Roller for $1,092,780. Needless to say, Seidel is no stranger to Super High Roller events.
In April of this year, Seidel finished 46th in the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo® Casino EPT Grand Final Main Event for $33,006, his only EPT cash to date. Obviously he will be adding another here today after entering the final table fourth in chips, which is well-below chip average as the three players above him have separated themselves from the pack.
Nonetheless, Seidel managed to make the final table with an under-the-radar approach with practiced patience and balanced aggression. Combine that with his experience in these sort of events, and he has to be the odds-on favorite among the short stacks.
Seat 2: Mike McDonald -- 4,650,000
Mike McDonald enters the final table second in chips at 4.65 million, trailing only his good friend Dan Smith. Yesterday on Day 2, McDonald built and built, knocking a few players out throughout the day's play including John Juanda and Anatoly Gurtovoy.
Hailing from Waterloo, Ontario, McDonald may be better known to all of you as "Timex." In 2008, he became the youngest player ever to win a European Poker Tour title by taking down the EPT Dortmund for $1,370,161 at the age of 18. McDonald nearly went back to back after having placed fifth in the same event the following year. In 2010, McDonald took third in the EPT Deauville Main Event for over $400,000.
He also has cashed in various events such as the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Aussie Millions, Canadian Open Poker Championship, World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker.
In 2011, McDonald made his first WSOP final table in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha - Six Handed event. He went on to finish in sixth place for $73,965. He continued to have a strong year and went on to win the Epic Poker League's second event for over $780,000. This year at the recent WSOP, McDonald cashed five times and made one final table.
In total, McDonald boasts a career live tournament record of over $4.2 million. He currently sits ninth on Canada's All-Time Money List. By making this final table, McDonald has already guaranteed himself to jump ahead of Scott Montgomery into eighth place on that list and could climb as high fourth if he were to win the event. McDonald is also 19th for total number of cashes from his country with 37.
Seat 1: JC Alvarado -- 3,116,000
JC Alvarado got his feet wet in poker after he graduated from high school. Through home games with friends — that actually began outside of the home at a local IHOP — Alvarado accumulated a small bankroll and built confidence in his game. From there, he took to the virtual felt.
As many who make the dive into online poker, Alvarado quickly lost his first deposit and was forced to reload. Soon, he learned the game and progressed through the ranks, but then disaster struck and Alvarado found himself broke. Nevertheless, Alvarado's drive and determination led him to get back into the game. With the support from his Mom, soon enough, his hard work paid off and Alvarado's bankroll was flush.
After building his bankroll and confidence back up online, Alvarado took to the live felt in 2006. He cashed in a few events that year, including one at the World Series of Poker where he took sixth place for just under $30,000. Then in 2007, he has his best year with nearly $650,000 in live tournament earnings. The big score that year was a runner-up finish in the World Poker Tour World Poker Challenge in Reno, Nevada where Alvarado scored $366,798.
In total, Alvarado has nearly $900,000 in live tournament earnings. That also means that this cash here will have Alvarado joining the seven-figure club as he's already locked up €122,960.
Overall, Alvarado has been quiet on the live felt since 2009, having only a few tournament results, but he's making a big splash here. Alvarado has a very solid chip stack coming into the final table, entering third with 3.116 million in chips.
Yesterday, PokerNews hostess Kristy Arnett chatted with Alvarado and you can check out that interview below.