In Las Vegas, Nevada, this summer, Stephen Graner was one among nearly 8,000 hopefuls who sat down within the inaugural "Millionaire Maker" tournament on the World Series of Poker. The concept that was pretty straightforward: although the buy in cost only $1,500, the winner was guaranteed a seven-figure score.
Graner didn't win. He finished in sixth, which earned him $273,854. But he spent a few of those winnings on a visit to Europe this autumn, and €5,000 of it on a buy-in to the EPT Prague main event. And after five days of superlative play within the Czech capital, there's greater than only a small chance that he could yet be made a millionaire.
The 26-year-old, who was born in Hawaii but now lives in Las Vegas, is the dominant chip leader heading into the overall day. They pay their champions in euros on this neck of the woods, but €969,000, the primary prize money, is $1.21 million. Let's call it delayed gratification.
"I'm confident but I HAVE BEEN on this spot before and certainly didn't seize it," Graner said after bagging the chip lead. "I'm excited for tomorrow but there's more work to be done...There's no pressure, I'll just attempt to take advantage of logical, calculated decisions that I WILL and whatever happens, happens."
That's some cool wisdom coming from the child of the Graner family. His three older siblings Dan, Dave and Sarah was watching the action from America via EPT Live, alongside their father, Steve, and mother, Mary. Graner's girlfriend Nicole is here in Prague.
To win the life-changing sum tomorrow, Graner will first want to navigate his well beyond the next final table. But having today survived skirmishes with the likes of Vanessa Selbst, Davidi Kitai and Sam Grafton, who're all notable for his or her absence from the general seven, Graner could be in confident mood.
Seat 1 - Anton Bertilsson, Sweden, 7,740,000Seat 2 - Simon Mattsson, Sweden, 2,130,000Seat 3 - Jonathan Wong, United Kingdom, 1,900,000Seat 4 - emptySeat 5 - Stephen Graner, United States, 12,405,000Seat 6 - Bjorn Wiesler, Germany, 3,285,000Seat 7 - Remi Castaignon, France, 1,030,000Seat 8 - Fabio Sperling, Germany, 4,710,000
(Click through for full final table player profiles.)
So, yes, let's come again to Selbst, Kitai and Grafton. The expectancy was, when play began at noon, that we might be in for a last table featuring the fearsome Team PokerStars Pro, the fearsome Triple Crown winner and the fearsome, garrulous Brit. But Selbst had an accident with A♥J♥, running into Bjorn Wiesler's kings -- ("Not actually too bothered about that, made a read and went with it," she said) -- Kitai dwindled then bust against his countryman Remi Castaignon ("Busto 10ieme. J'ai tout donné! Merci à tous pour le soutien!" he said) -- in which point Grafton had already slammed into Graner's kings with A♠7♥ ("Dream over," he said, before posting a photograph on Twitter eating a dessert.)
So it was that the one really well-known player a few of the final group is Castaignon, a former EPT champion, who took down his title in Deauville in season nine. It's fair to mention Castaignon has not been probably the most prolific players since then, but he's now in with a shot of changing into the primary man to win two EPT titles.
For all Selbst and Kitai's disappointment, this has actually been an exceptional tournament to be a front-runner. Simon Mattsson and Fabio Sperling led this tournament on the end of days three and four, respectively, and feature managed to take their stacks to the final.
You'll notice also, perhaps, that for the primary time within the European Poker Tour's 11-year history, we're starting the general day with fewer than the customary eight. After titanic battles across the final tables of the PCA, the Grand Final and Barcelona, and without the demands in Prague of creating a television show, they played right down to eight today, took a couple of snaps, but then played on for the most efficient a part of another level.
During that period, Miltiadis Kyriakides was eliminated by Graner and now becomes the hardest answer to an EPT trivia question you're prone to see. Just remember his name (write it down) should anyone ever ask you, "Name the one player to make the general table at the EPT but not play at the final day."
Anyway, that's for the pub quiz bores. What you need to know is that coverage of the overall table begins at 1pm CET, when you'll even be capable of watch all of it on EPT Live. The €10,000 High Roller event is constant until midnight, so head to the High Roller page for coverage of that.
Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: European Poker Tour]
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