This is the tenth Eureka Poker Tour main event, meaning that thus far, as the official final table of Eureka events are eight handed, that roughly 72 players have made a main event final table on the tour. Of course it's slightly less as Antonio Dieguez Rodriguez, for example, has made two winning Eureka Nova Gorica after finishing runner-up at the first ever Eureka Poker Tour main event in Prague.
But that's still 70 ish names to work with and there are some finalists and even some Eureka main event winners in the field today, time then to take a closer look at them both in this tournament and their poker highlights in general...
Petar Zografov, Bulgaria: Zografov has been a presence on this tour since the very beginning. In fact I noticed him on the first day of Eureka Prague where he ran up a big stack, showed absolutely no fear and controlled his table. He went on to finish 15th in that event, so it seems odd that he had to wait until the second season before he finished in the money on the tour again. But, he didn't just finish in the money, he only went and won Eureka2 Bulgaria, becoming the first and thus far only Bulgarian to win a Eureka main event. Even sweeter that he did it in his own country. "To win the trophy in my home country is the perfect situation, I feel great," he said in the aftermath of that win.
He's since had more success on the circuit, winning an event in Romania in March this year for $39,681 taking his lifetime tournament earnings over the $100,000 mark. He's off to a decent start here adding 50% to his stack as he's up to 30,000.
Milan Rakic, Serbia: It was hard not to notice Milan Rakic at Eureka Bulgaria back in 2011. His trademark poker glasses (bought in Portugal), peace sign t-shirt and animated demeanour endeared him to anyone who witnessed his run in the tournament. He had to settle for second place though, losing a monster heads-up battle to Idan Greenberg.
Since then he's had a string of small cashes in his home country but short of a 23rd place finish at Eureka Croatia, again is Season 1, he's yet to trouble the scoreboard again on the Eureka Tour. Today has gone just swimmingly for his as he's increased his stack to 33,000.
Ioannis Triantafyllidis, Greece: Last but not least we have Ioannis Triantafyllidis. The Greek had cashed twice in Eureka main events (18th, Eureka Croatia and 19th Eureka2 Bulgaria) before making his biggest splash at Eureka Prague last December. He eventually busted in fourth place which was good for $55,943.
That's his last recorded live cash, but he'll be hoping to change that here in Dubrovnik but wouldn't you know it he busted out as I was writing this so will have to wait until at least the next side event to break the barren streak.
Tournament Update: We're now halfway through the fourth level of the day and 160 of 171 runners remain making the average stack 21,375. With blidns at 100-200 ante 25 that's just over 106 big blinds.
Team PokerStars Pro/Sponsored Player/Full Tilt Ambassador chip counts:
Johnny Lodden - 14,600
Dag Palovic - 14,750
Matthias De Meulder - 18.075
Christophe De Meulder - OUT
Matej Marinovic - 38,000
Daniel Bevac - 22,000
Hana Soljan - 19,975
Andras Nemeth - 5,100
PokerStars Blog reporting team in Croatia: Nick Wright. Photos by Ivan Dabac.