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EPT: Germany's David Kaufmann a massive chipleader in the final six
A week ago, a packed poker room in Paris managed to produce 1,747 entries in the largest ever EPT Main Event ever played outside of Barcelona. Today, after five days of play, the field has been whittled down to the last 6 hopefuls who will face off today in the final battle for the coveted €1,287,800 prize.
The Road to the Final Six
Yesterday's action at Le Palais des Congrès de Paris welcomed back the top 18 players who faced off in the battle for the six spots in the grand final. From three tables, the last one gradually took shape, with Germany's David Kaufmann having already replaced Barny Boatman as chipleader. By the end of the day, Sindre Hansen (€119,100), last year's Spadepoker Tour champion Lorenzo Arduini (€154,800) and finally Canadian Ami Barer (€201,250) had to say goodbye to the game.
After the stacks were counted and wrapped up, we got to know the official chipcount of the final six, which is led with a huge lead by German pro David Kaufmann, who wrapped up almost half of all the chips in play. The Cologne native has a number of online successes to his name, led by his 2013 WCOOP Main Event championship ($1,493,499).
| SEAT | NAME | COUNTRY | STACK |
| 1. | Owen Dodd | UK | 2,950,000 (15bb) |
| 2. | Eric Afriat | CAN | 2,525,000 (13bb) |
| 3. | David Kaufmann | GER | 24,800,000 (124bb) |
| 4. | Alexey Ponakov | LAT | 10,050,000 (50bb) |
| 5. | Peter Jorgne | SWE | 2,400,000 (12bb) |
| 6. | Barny Boatman | UK | 9,675,000 (48bb) |
Who's who at the final table
The rest of the final table line-up has nothing to be ashamed of either, with the runner-up spot so far being held by Aleksejs Ponakovs, who has played a lot in a career spanning almost 15 years. A regular on the live high roller scene, he cashed $8.3-million in live tournaments last year, solidifying his title as Latvia's number one player. Ponakovs isn't lost in the online waters either, where he's recorded 25 six-figure cashes, including winning the Sunday Million.
Holding the third spot with a 50bb stack is the legendary Barny Boatman, a 68-year-old veteran who has been around poker all his life. If successful today, he would become the oldest EPT champion in the 20-year history of the series. One of the founders of the HendonMob database, Boatman has been a regular at EPT events since the series' inception, and he would certainly welcome adding a Spade trophy to his two WSOP bracelets.
Rounding out the table are three shorts with nearly identical stacks (12-15bb) - Owen Dodd, Erik Afriat and Peter Jorgne. Of particular note is the latter Swede, a successful businessman who sold his software company in 2018 and moved to Spain for early retirement. From 2022, he started to pass the time with poker, and just 10 months later, the results were in - Jorgne finished second in the inaugural Paris EPT for €780,100. Yesterday, Jorgne became only the 8th player in history to make back-to-back final tables of the same EPT Main Event.
Final Table payout structure:
- 1,287,800€
- 804,750€
- 574,850€
- 442,150€
- 340,100€
- 261,650€
The grand finale will blow the show away today from 13:00 on blinds of 100,000/200,000, and once again you'll be able to enjoy it in the form of a Live Stream. We haven't had a final table this interesting and packed in a long time, are you looking forward to it? Who would you give the title to? Let us know in the comments on our social media!
Source - PSlive, PokerNews, Flickr/PSlive, YouTube