Seat 1: Albert Sapiano, Uk - 1,133,000If any player will also be described as a mainstay of the UKIPT, it needs to be Albert Sapiano. Hailing from Maidstone, he's a relentless presence at the live tournament poker scene, and counts among his successes several outright wins for as much as £50,160; his overall live tournament earnings top $340,000. Originally within the honey business, Sapiano now dedicates a big proportion of his time following the live circuit; he describes the UKIPT as "wonderful - especially with addition of the choice for re-entry. It's about bloody time!" This tournament, however, has only taken one bullet.

Seat 2: Stian Knutsen, Norway - 2,096,000Stian Knutsen is a 30 year old professional poker player specialising in online cash games. It's only recently that Knutsen rediscovered the thrill of the live game, travelling to Spain for both the live cash action and the Estrellas Main Event this year (cashing for €1,840). His start in poker came when a pal staked him 11 years ago, and this naturally progressed to a web based career after only one year. His progress to the general table's chip lead was initially rocky, but after his stack hit the 500,000 mark, he played "many more controlled pots, slowly building." This has placed him near-tied for pole position with Adam Maxwell for tomorrow's final, where he's guaranteed his biggest live cash.

Seat 3: Chris Da-Silva, Uk - 1,411,000Chris Da-Silva is a software architect and cites poker as his main hobby clear of work. He's been playing for 15 years and, like the general public of his age, started out online before entering into the live arena more recently (after a break from the sport.) He sees himself as a cash game grinder and plays NLHE at medium to special stakes. Since September last year he decided to play more competitions and that has resulted in where he's now - on a UKIPT final. Da-Silva has won a couple of cash races at local casinos for warm results (one for £13,000) but that is his best lead to an MTT proper and he hopes to outdo his previous best performance tomorrow.

Seat 4: Alex Fradlin, Israel - 1,363,000Alex Fradlin is a 48 year old dentist who started playing about 15 years ago online on PokerStars, specialising in tournaments alone. Now, however, it's now not legal to play online in his home country of Israel, and he's been travelling at the live circuit a little bit more this year. He recently cashed for €5,050 within the Italian Poker Open - his first live result thus far - and his final table appearance now guarantees a fair larger one, perhaps marking a more permanent transition to the live felt.

Seat 5: Henry Bibby, Uk - 564,000Henry Bibby has manoeuvred a brief stack throughout the perilous waters of the general table bubble, to make his first Main Event final table, and guarantee his first UKIPT cash. Bibby has a string of prior live leads to smaller-stakes tournaments across the United Kingdom, however the £5,000 he's guaranteed for making the final, lowest stacked or not, outstrips them all.

Seat 6: Adam Maxwell, Uk - 2,087,000Adam Maxwell is a 21 year old professional poker player from Watford, and was for all of six weeks, after graduating university having studied Mathematics. His biggest win so far is $25,000 online under the moniker "adznen300". That is Maxwell's first ever UKIPT and he has found it to be "an excellent experience" - all of the more so due to the fact he heads to the overall nearly tied for the chip lead and that this cash (minimum £5,000) will add considerably to his results to date, which come with a primary place in a £300 tournament for £8,500. He looks forward to playing the impending PokerStars Festival Events and aspires to sign up for the Championship Events soon.

Seat 7: Valdir Cordeiro Dos Santos, Brazil - 1,811,000Valdir Cordeiro Dos Santos owns a building company, but makes time to play a good little bit of poker including the odd EPT (concerning which he reminisced about bubbling at EPT3 in London). This year he took down a 550-runner £150 Superstack tournament for £15,628, and has performed equally well within the similar-sized UKIPT Super Series Main Event. Dos Santos started playing 16 years ago live in Sao Paolo and has stayed loyal to the brick and mortar game ever since.

Seat 8: Dara O'Kearney, PokerStars Qualifier, Ireland - 869,000Dara O'Kearney, 51, is a certified poker player and previous ultra-running champion hailing from Dublin. Probably the most best-known players at the UKIPT circuit, he plays both live and online, all over the world. His largest cash thus far was for $300,000 for his runner-up position in WSOP Event 54 in 2015, but he's also garnered accolades similar to the UKIPT online qualifier of the year. Partly following from that, he has played almost each UKIPT event since Season 1, making the overall two tables five times previously (including one 9th place), although that is his very first Day 3 appearance. The UKIPT is O'Kearney's favourite tour, and he's sad to look it go, meanwhile adopting a "be patient approach" in regards to the brand new PokerStars Festival events.

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: UKIPT]