EPT11 Deauville Final Table Set: Player Profiles
We now have the EPT11 Deauville Final Table set with the player profiles appearing below. Four our French, two are Lithuanian, one is Romanian and one is Bulgarian.
But first, here are your seats and chip counts:
Seat 1 - Benjamin Pollak, France, 705,000
Seat 2 - Massou Cohen, France, 1,385,000
Seat 3 - Andrius Bielskis, Lithuania, 1,525,000
Seat 4 - Matas Cimbolas, Lithuania, 1,295,000
Seat 5 - Dany Parlafes, Romania, 4,695,000
Seat 6 - Ognyan Dimov, Bulgaria, 2,720,000
Seat 7 - Benjamin Buhr, France, 4,010,000
Seat 8 - Joseph Carlino, France, 1,430,000
Seat 1: Benjamin Pollak, 31, Paris, living in London An accomplished player (both online and live), comfortable with both cash game and tournament play and familiar with most poker variants, Benjamin Pollak is a consummate all-around player, and can already be considered an old-timer despite his young age. Prior moving to London a few years ago, Pollak was a regular visitor at Paris’s Avation Club de France in Paris (since 2007), alternating between PLO and NLHE 5€/10€ cash-game tables and multi table tournaments. A very consistent player, Pollak seemingly makes a big score during each one of his poker trips, especially during the last few months, with a 11th place in the PCA Main Event (for $78,874), a big side event win at EPT Prague against Martin Jacobson (for €64,190) and a fifth place in the EPT Barcelona €10k High Roller (for €219,000). Other big scores include 27th place in the 2013 WSOP Main Event (for $285,408), a runner-up finish at WPT Barcelona WPT in 2013 , fourth at WPT Prague 2011 for €104,000) and a win at the 2010 Trophees Haussmann event in Paris for €100,800. This is his fifth EPT Main Event cash and will help him top the $2 million mark in live tournament winnings.
Seat 2: Massou Cohen, 61, Paris, France Of the 592 players who took part in this season’s EPT Deauville Main Event, Michel “Massou” Cohen is one of the very few who has made the trip to Normandy every year since the event was first held in Season 1. With live results dating back to 1996 (only one year after poker became legal in the country), Cohen has a lot of experience but is nonetheless an amateur player, running a plastic surgery center/clinic on the Champs Elysées, only a few blocks from the now-defunct Aviation Club de France. Cohen was a regular fixture at the club since poker was introduced there exactly 20 years ago (sadly for all French players, the club closed down last September). Cohen, who has accumulated an impressive string of cashes, final tables and victory in every card room in Paris, is now cashing for the second time in an EPT Main Event - seven years after finishing 58th at the EPT Grand Final for €43,575, his second best live result. Cohen also has several results in France Poker Series tourneys.
Seat 3: Andrius Bielskis, 34, Lithuania – PokerStars qualifier Bielskis came to poker from another other card game - bridge. He played as an amateur at first but, at the beginning of 2013, decided to improve his poker skills and took some poker lessons from professional players. His improvement was rewarded pretty soon. On March 4th 2013 he won the Sunday Million Anniversary for $848,589. After that big win, he decided to pursue a fulltime career as a poker pro and gave up his career as a manager. He came close to another big online score last year when he finished 13th in the WCOOP Main Event for $54,621. His total online winnings are $1.46 million. Last summer he had a deep run in the WSOP $1,111 Little One for One Drop where he finished 39th from a starting field of 4,496 players. EPT11 Deaville is his first EPT Main Event – he won his seat in a €215 2xChance "PokerStars" satellite. He is married with a 4-year-old son.
Seat 4: Matas Cimbolas, 21, Lithuania, living in London A former economics student from the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, Cimbolas decided two years ago to give up his economics and business studies and move to London to pursue a full-time career as a poker pro. He had huge success online with nearly $1m ($991,197) in total winnings, his biggest score being a runner-up finish in the Sunday 500 for $52,325. He also has a SCOOP-H final table, victories in The Sunday Brawl and The Sunday Major on Full Tilt Poker. At the end of 2013 he started to play more live events – mainly in medium buyin tournaments in the UK. Success came in November 2014 when he won WPT Nottingham for £200,000. He outlasted a star-packed final table there, which included Antoine Saout, Patrick Leonard, Tamer Kamel and Ben Warrington who he beat heads-up. It was the first major live tournament title in Lithuania poker history.
Seat 5: Dany Parlafes, 30, Romania – PokerStars qualifier Parlafes first appeared on the international live poker scene in 2009, and his winnings already amount to nearly $500k ($488,192 so far) but – as he said yesterday after busting a player: "I'm the best at running good". He is now guaranteed at least €58,820 for making the final eight. Parlafes, who made the transition to poker from sports betting ten years ago, is mainly a cash game player but he also plays some tournaments as he likes travelling with his mum and seeing new places. He reported a bunch of results in EPT and Eureka circuits but his best cash was in 2012 for $ 144,979 at the Vienna Poker Festival. He won his two weeks ago on PokerStars.fr and turned 30 on Saturday. He said: “"I had a huge party for two days in a row," he said. "On Friday I had a party for my closest friends, and on Saturday I had a party for 50 guests in the biggest club in Bucharest." Explaining that they "raged all night," Parlafes said he was in no fit state to make his way to Deauville on Sunday -- it had been the original plan to come to France and rest. Instead he had to jet into Paris on Monday, get a shuttle to Deauville in the morning and play through 12 intense hours. "It was the most difficult day of my poker life," he said. "It was terrible. Very difficult. And I also ran bad on Day 1." Describing himself as an online PLO grinder, playing at the high stakes tables on PokerStars, Parlafes is viewing the EPT as his big chance to make major changes. "This is my chance to finish the cash game grind," he said. "I am done with it. It I win this, I'll take a break, otherwise I'll go back to the grind."
Seat 6: Ognyan Dimov, 25, Bulgaria Dimov has played numerous EPTs since the start of Season 10 including the PCA, Prague, London and Barcelona. Ranked #25 in the Bulgaria all-time money list for live events and a SuperNova on PokerStars, the 25-year-old from Veliko Tarnova finished 11th at EPT London last October for his best ever live result of €33,500. He was also 20th in the EPT Barcelona High Roller for €11,400. His first ever live results was also on the European Poker Tour when he finished 31st in a €1k side event at EPT Prague last season. His total live tournament winnings are already over $100k. Online, Dimov has been playing on PokerStars since 2009 and is a regular in the major tourneys. 2014 was a very successful year for him online – his best results were third in the $1,050 Super Tuesday ($400K Gtd) for $61,608 and runner-up in the $109 Sunday Rebuy ($225K Gtd) for $45,884. He also has multiple third and fourth place finishes in tourneys like the $215 Sunday Supersonic ($125K Gtd), $530 Sunday 500 ($300K Gtd).
Seat 7: Benjamin “FreeStyle324” Buhr, 25, Lamballe, Brittany – PokerStars qualifier After spending the last few years honing his skills online and avidly following the tour via EPTLive, Benjamin Buhr finally made his EPT debut this week. He said: “It has always been a dream for me to play the EPT in Deauville.” Buhr says his main goal for his first appearance at an EPT was to “gain experience”. With a seat at the final, a hefty chip-stack and a €543,700 first prize in sight, the 25-year-old is certainly getting more than he asked for! Buhr qualified in a €500 Double Vision satellite on PokerStars.fr on New Year’s Day (after bubbling the first one he played). He is a relative newcomer to big live tourneys (with only four cashes to his name, including a min-cash at this year’s FPS Main Event final) but an experienced online player under the moniker “FreeStyle324” ($94,561 in cashes on PokerStars.fr). This event in Deauville has been a typically up and down affair: he was among the chip leaders at the end of Day 1, but took a nosedive on Day 2 and needed a lucky break against Ronan Montfort to stay alive. Buhr is being supported here by his girlfriend as well as his mom, who’s been cheering from the rail since Day 1 (a cousin is also on the way - no info about aunts and/or uncles).
Seat 8: Joseph Carlino, 49, Lyon, France Every so often the EPT throws up a real character and there’s no doubt that Joseph Carlino – the all-singing, Tae Kwon Do-kicking bon vivant who has been entertaining EPTLive viewers for two days - is one of them. He came to Deauville after qualifying online for the FPS Main Event - and then won his EPT Main Seat in a live satellite. The ebullient part-time actor, who runs a restaurant in Lyon, is also a karaoke fan and amateur magician and having the time of his life here at Casino Barriere. He’s been playing poker since at least 2009 but now guaranteed by far his biggest lifetime cash. In fact, the €58,820 he’s guaranteed for making the final is way more than all his other live cashes put together.
