EPT Deauville Final Table Preview

Eugene Katchalov has a chance to enter Poker’s Triple Crown Club with a win on Saturday…

ALL EYES ON EUGENE

The past few years on tour haven’t been particularly kind to Eugene Katchalov (GPI#121). The former WPT and WSOP champion‘s last victory on the live tournament circuit came at the World Series of Poker in 2011, is widely recognized as one of the top poker players in the world, despite his recent string of non-success on tour.

Katchalov enters 2014 with an opportunity to right past season wrongs right out of the gate at EPT Deauville. By far the player with the most “big moment” experience at the Deauville final table, Katchalov will be starting the day second in chips, just under half the chips that Greek amateur Sotirios Koutoupas (GPI#893) will have waiting in front of him when final table play kicks off on Saturday.

And while most of the poker world will be cheering Katchalov, those same people will be expecting to see him complete the final leg of Poker’s Triple Crown and join his great friend ElkY in poker’s most elusive club, it also means that all the pressure in the world will be on the Ukrainian/American’s shoulders. It will certainly be interesting to see how Katchalov makes out on Saturday.

KOUTOUPAS THE MAN TO BEAT

As mentioned, Sotirios Koutoupas is the man to beat at the final table. The man from Greece, who helps run his family’s wholesale business (tip of the cap to Mad Harper for this bit of info) and enjoyed two deep runs at EPT Prague in 2012 and 2013, holds over 30% of the chips and will look to go one better than his second place finish in Prague in 2011 to finally raise his first EPT trophy.

Here is a closer look at the final table participants: 

[table id=803 /]

›› SEAT 1  |  OLIVER PRICE

• Finished 49th in 2013 WSOP Main Event ($151,063)
• Cashed at ISPT Wembley last May (£1,950)
• Made Semi-Finals of 1K Heads-Up event at 2013 EPT London (£3,880)
• EPT Career: 0 cashes, $0 USD in earnings

›› SEAT 2  |  CHUN “HARRY” LAW

• Cashed in NLH 1K event at 2012 WSOP ($8,351)
• Won 2010 Grosvenor UK Tour Summer Series prelim (£6,560)
• EPT Career: 0 cashes, $0 USD in earnings

›› SEAT 3  |  CARLO DE BENEDITTIS

• Collecting first cash of his career
• EPT Career: 0 cashes, $0 USD in earnings

›› SEAT 4  |  EUGENE KATCHALOV

• Finished 71st at EPT Prague in December (€13,200)
• Won bracelet at 2011 WSOP in Seven-Stud event ($122,909)
• Finished third at EPT Barcelona in 2011 (€315,000)
• Won SHR event at 2011 PCA ($1,500,000)
• Won 2007 WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Classic ($2,482,605)
• EPT Career: 1 final table, 7 cashes, $681,530 USD in earnings

›› SEAT 5  |  ANTHONY LERUST

• Finished 45th at FPS Paris in November (€2,800)
• Earned a fourth place finish at the 2012 Texapoker Open de Gruissan (€3,600)
• Over 240K in online tournament winnings (per PocketFives)
• EPT Career: 7 cashes, $164,290 USD in earnings

›› SEAT 6  |  ELI HEATH

• Won prelim event here at EPT Deauville (€28,000)
• Earned a 73rd place finish at EPT Barcelona earlier this season (€12,700)
• Finished 92nd in 2013 WSOP Main Event ($59,708)
• Finished 13th at 2011 Aussie Millions ($70,000 AUD)
• EPT Career: 2 cashes, $37,072 USD in earnings 

›› SEAT 7  |  RUSTEM MURATOV

• Recently finished 18th at Merit Poker Winterfest Warm Up ($2,356)
• This will mark his third career cash on the live tournament circuit
• EPT Career: 0 cashes, $0 USD in earnings

›› SEAT 8  |  SOTIRIOS KOUTOUPAS

• Recently finished 25th at EPT Prague (€24,900)
• Finished 2nd at EPT Prague in 2012 (€510,000)
• Earned a 56th place finish at EPT Berlin (€15,000)
• EPT Career: 1 cash, $16,263 USD in earnings

Catch the live stream of Saturday’s EPT Deauville Main Event final table, featuring James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton, starting at 1:00pm CET, over at EPTLive.com.