Seat 1: Mark Reilly, Ireland - 845,000Mark Reilly, 36, have been a poker pro for the last 11 years, mainly playing medium stakes PLO, both cash games and tournaments. The €16,840 he's now guaranteed for making the UKIPT Dublin final table would be the third biggest cash of his live poker career - and brings his lifetime live tournament winnings to just about $200k. His best live result up to now was winning the $1k NL Hold'em Championship at Binions in the course of the World Series in 2014 for almost $41k. His best result at a PokerStars live event was tenth in a €1k event at EPT Prague in December. Online, he has a Sunday Warm-Up victory under his belt. He said: "I also final tabled a SCOOP or WCOOP event - I REALLY can't quite remember which!"

Seat 2: Dave Pollock, Ireland (PokerStars Qualifier) - 4,335,000Dave Pollock, 40, have been commuting (apart from last night) backward and forward from his hometown Cork with the intention to take part in the UKIPT Main Event. He's no stranger to a streamed final table, having finished 2nd within the Irish Open in 2014 for €130,500 (although tomorrow's top prize exceeds that). Pollock, a factory worker, have been playing poker for 10 years (live tournaments), and still competes weekly with friends in Cork, although says, "I WILL NOT appear to win there, against them. They know me too well!" Here on a UKIPT final table, he says he's more comfortable, and is derived back as one among four very close top stacks.

Seat 3: Adalsteinn Karlsson, Iceland (PokerStars Player) - 4,420,000Adalsteinn Karlsson, from Husavik, Iceland, started playing poker in 2010, first on Full Tilt Poker after which on PokerStars. He's been learning the sport since then and just recently began to play live poker. He became the Icelandic Poker Champion in November 2015, beating a field of 140 players for greater than £9,000, and this enabled him to take his game at the road. Karlsson competed at UKIPT5 Edinburgh and came third within the Edinburgh cup for £5,225. Clear of poker Karlsson is a self-taught computer programmer and loves to travel. He's capable of work from his laptop so can take his job at the road. He's been living, on and off, in Thailand for past four years, training in Muay Thai and enjoying life there.

Seat 4: Jelcides Monteiro, Luxembourg - 1,025,000Jelcides Monteiro may be celebrating not just his first live final table on Sunday, but his first ever live cash. The 28-year-old was an entire time poker player for the last three years but mainly plays cash games. He was born in Cape Verde, a volcanic archipelago lying 500km off the coast of West Africa, but moved to Luxembourg when he was four years old (and now speaks six languages fluently). This is not his first PokerStars live event - he also competed within the EPT and Eureka Prague Main Events in December but did not cash. He's had considerable success online though including a deep run within the Sunday Million last week. A COUPLE OF months ago, he finished fourth within the Hot $109, and was then runner-up the next day.

Seat 5: Vladas Tamasauskas, Lithuania (PokerStars Player) - 4,255,000Vladas Tamasauskas is a 21 year old Lithuanian poker pro who cut his teeth online playing the weird combination of No Limit tournaments and Razz, before heading out at the live tour. He's only made two trips so far, the primary being to the Bahamas (where he could legally play poker before his 21st birthday). At Eureka5 Prague he finished 11th for €19,460 and now here in Dublin he's about to cash for no less than €16,840. Tamasauskas intends to stick for the whole EPT Dublin Poker Festival (which runs until the twentieth February). He is also new to the non-virtual felt but having found friends in Lithuania to talk about strategy with early on, he's comfortable heading into the overall an in depth third in chips.

Seat 6: Marc Foggin, Uk - 2,220,000Marc Foggin, 32, was alleged to be flying to Las Vegas tomorrow for his friend's birthday and a few deep-stack tournaments, but has needed to cancel after making the UKIPT Dublin final. Foggin is a semi-professional poker player based in Newcastle who runs a property business together with his dad - whom he's debating flying over to observe the overall survive Monday. Foggin found the poker site in a casino while looking to hide from a pal of his one night, and having sat down at a table found the sport suited him; he has almost $400,000 in live tournament cashes from America to Australia.

Seat 7: Quentin Dellis, Belgium - 4,150,000Quentin Dellis, a 27 year old poker professional, came to Dublin for the UKIPT and its side events (the PokerStars Cup and High Roller) but has only been capable of be aware of the primary Event. It's worked out well for him; he'll soon add a UKIPT final table prize to his five cashes in EPT side events thus far within the last year. Dellis was introduced to poker by friends, thought it was fun, and gradually became intrigued by its intricacies. He's been playing for 5-6 years, professionally for 3 (mainly tournaments) and although he's partial to Turbo online tourneys, "will also be more patient" when it's called for.

Seat 8: Samuel Vousden - 3,675,000Born in Hong Kong, Samuel Vousden grew up in Salo, south Finland. He flew under the radar until last December, when he fell just shy of the EPT12 Prague final table finishing 14th and earning €45,930 - his biggest live result to this point. Vousden has played just a few live tournaments just and on Monday he'll experience his first ever live final table. However, he's arguably one of the crucial experienced players some of the final eight; he's been crushing the net realm for several years. Vousden has earned opponents' respect on PokerStars, having a Sunday Million title in addition to a SCOOP title under his belt. Clear of poker, he's a Manchester United supporter, and a large fan of David Beckham.

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