EPT BUDAPEST - FINAL TABLE PLAYER PROFILES

See also all players

Seat 1: Marino Serenelli, 60, San Benedetto del Tronto, Italy – 357,000 chips
Marino, a restauranteur from the beautiful seaside resort of San Benedetto del Tronto, is currently enjoying his biggest ever poker success. Normally a cash game player, he has only played three live tournaments in his life – but made the money in all of them. Normally his poker playing takes place while he’s holidaying on the Caribbean island of St Maarten. Unmarried, Marino once appeared on Italy’s biggest talk show – the “Maurizio Costanzo” show – to talk about his life as playboy.

Seat 2: Will Fry, 28, Nottingham, UK – PokerStars player – 572,000 chips
Will has been playing poker since he was six years old, when he took up five card draw with his cousins. His early fascination with cards even extended into magic and he still likes to practice cards tricks with his friends. Will mainly plays cash games online but mixes it up with some live play whilst travelling for a few months every year. He rarely plays tournaments and this is his biggest buy-in event. He plans to give a proportion of his winnings away to charities associated with third world poverty.

Seat 3: Ciprian Hrisca, 35, Bucharest, Romania - 1,038,000 chips
Ciprian decided to play the EPT Budapest because it was the closest event to his home town of Bucharest in Romania. The 35-year-old, who works in real estate, only began playing poker 18 months ago - first cash games with friends before starting to play online on PokerStars.com. Now playing in his first live event, he thought EPT Budapest would make a “nice holiday” and now finds himself at the final table. Outside of poker, Ciprian enjoys playing football and is looking forward to the birth of his first child due in April.

Seat 4: Gino El Diablo" Alacqua, 47, Milan, Italy – 466,000 chips
Gino first came to the attention of the international poker community when he was runner-up to Arnaud Mattern at the debut EPT Prague event last season. Now he’s back at his second final table in a year – a double celebration because it is also his 47th birthday. The former antiques dealer had only been playing poker for 18 months when he competed in Prague but is now a regular on the EPT circuit and has risen from 26th to sixth place in the Hendon Mob's All Time Italy money list with total live tourney winnings of more than $860k.

Seat 5: Martin Jacobson, 21, Stockholm, Sweden – PokerStars qualifier – 306,000 chips
Martin Jacobson from Stockholm, Sweden, is only 21 years old but has already been playing poker for three years. He is a chef but is considering moving abroad and is currently playing poker full-time. Martin won his seat to Budapest in the Last Chance qualifying satellite on PokerStars last week This is his second EPT - he played EPT London at the beginning of October but busted on Day 1.

Seat 6: Albert Iversen, 21, Århus, Denmark – 1,059,000 chips
Albert started playing poker at high school with friends before taking up the game online and playing low-stakes cash games. He swiftly built up his bankroll and now plays high stakes – 25-50, 50-100 and higher. He is currently taking a year off from University - he’s studying English and communications - to play live. Albert bought himself into this tournament and it's his fourth EPT. This is the first time he has cashed.

Seat 7: Johnny Lodden, 23, Norway – PokerStars sponsored player - 500,000 chips
Norwegian poker star Johnny Lodden has cashed at six EPTs but this is his first final table – and the first time he has been sponsored by PokerStars. Johnny, who came 11th at the World Series Europe main event last month for £54,300, started his poker life playing high-stakes cash games online. In fact, he was so feared by most people that few players were willing to take him on at the highest levels. His great friend Team PokerStars Pro Wlliam Thorson said: “I’ve known Johnny for many years and always known he’s a great player. But a lot of people who are great online don’t necessarily cut it in live tournaments. Johnny has worked hard though and I always knew he would be a great live tournament player as well.”

Seat 8: Zoltan Toth, 41, Hodmezovasarhely, Hungary – 1,059,000 chips
The local hero at the EPT Budapest main event, Zoltan Toth has showed real character during the last few days. He advances to the final table with a slight chip lead, with over 1,000,000 chips. This is his greatest poker achievement to date, although he’s a tournament-only poker player usually at his local casino. After graduating from high-school, Zoltan started up his own businesses and now owns a pub and clothes-import company. When asked about his hobbies and poker life, he merely replied: “During the summer I go fishing, winter time I play poker”.