bottom row (l to r) Michal Lubas, Ulrich Pauls and Karolis Domarkas
Seat 1. Karolis Domarkas, 28 years old from Lithuania. 555,000 chips.
Karolis Domarkas is an entrepreneur and poker player who has been playing the game for eight years. The €9,290 he’s guaranteed for making the final is nearly four times more than he cashed for total before this event. You’ll usually find Domarkas playing MTTs online and away from the tables he likes to play sports.
Seat 2. Bo Rundstrom, 58 years old from Sweden. 1.825 million chips.
Bo Rundstrom has been playing poker for fun for the past nine years. During the day he makes his living as a financial manager. He prefers live tournament poker and this is his second PokerStars Festival cash of the year after he came 79th in Dublin for €2,310. In between work and poker, Rundstrom finds time to play golf and watch the Swedish national team play football.
Seat 3. Marcin Horecki, 40 years old from Poland. 655,000 chips.
Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki hardly needs an introduction. When he’s not touring around the European poker circuit picking up cashes, he also earns a living as a financial advisor. He prefers live MTTs and his best results over the 13 years he’s been playing were his two third place finishes at EPT5 London and EPT7 Prague. In total, he’s won nearly $1.4 million in his career. The former national skier also likes other sports, racing and games.
Seat 4. Jan Sigel from Germany. 2.1 million chips.
Jan Sigel is a teacher from Germany and has been playing poker for seven years. His only recorded cash before this week was for €500, so he’s in new territory here. As well as live MTTs, he likes to play cash games online and live. He listed his hobby as “Being cool”, we wonder if his students think he is as well. If he goes on to win today, that answer will probably be a yes.
Seat 5. Behzad Zarnegar from Germany. 2.19 million chips.
Behzad Zarnegar didn’t really want to give much away, but he did tell us that he likes to play all games, has been playing for 20 years and poker is his main hobby. He’s used that hobby very well in Hamburg over the year as almost all his recorded $73k-plus cashes have come in this fine city. He’s still waiting for the that illusive win though.
Seat 6. Michal Lubas, 35 years old from Poland. 4.55 million chips.
Michal Lubas is the second Polish player at the table and is also a professional poker player. He’s been playing the game for 16 years and concentrates on MTTs, both live and online. He’ll pass the $200k live cashes milestone wherever he finishes today and he had his best result this year at PokerStars Festival Rozvadov where he came so close to claiming the title, but ended up second for a €91k payday. He enters the final table as chip leader so has a great chance of going one better today. Away from poker, Lubas lists basketball and music as hobbies
Seat 7. Ulrich Pauls, 36 years old from Germany. 4.26 million chips.
Long-time chip leader Ulrich Pauls comes into the final second in chips. He’s a full-time student and has been playing the game for 15 years. This will be the German’s first ever recorded cash as he usually plays cash games. This week may change that in the future! Away from poker, he likes to play and watch football.
Seat 7. Andrei Nodea, 27 years old from Romania. 849,000 chips.
Andei Nodea is the only representative from Romania at the final table. He mixes playing poker for a living with his other job, a web programmer. He’s been playing the game for three and a half years and you’ll usually find him at a cash game table. Away from poker he likes to play chess.