Seat 1: Mick Heder, 25, Them, Denmark - 1,370,000

Mick Heder collected his biggest prize here in the King's Casino just two months ago when he was fourth in the EPSC Main Event, taking €24,603. He returned to Rozvadov and is now among eight finalists in the Eureka 6 Rozvadov Main Event. With a sixth place or better, the Dane would record a new best result. He's already guaranteed to add at least €12,500 to his $87k in live tournament earnings. Heder told us that his main discipline is cash game but he didn't have any time to play it for the last three days, being busy with the Main Event.

Seat 2: David Urban, 26, Trebisov, Slovakia - 2,005,000

Two seasons ago here in Rozvadov, Martin Meciar became the first Slovakian to win the Eureka Main Event. Now it's David Urban who'll try to emulate his fellow countryman. Urban lies in fifth place on his nation's all-time money list, just behind Meciar. Urban's live tournament winnings exceed $300k and the list of his cashes includes a mix of various flags. Urban has cashed as far as in Australia (4th in the A$1k Six Max at last year's Aussie Millions). Back in July 2014, he won the CAPT Velden Open in Vienna, bringing €50,000 back home from Austria.

Seat 3: Hannes "suchadegen" Speiser, 30, Vienna, Austria, PokerStars player - 445,000

Hannes Speiser comes to the final table with the shortest stack but will try to follow the footsteps of his fellow countryman Raphael Wimmer who won the Eureka Rozvadov Main Event last year. Speiser is living in Vienna and is mostly focusing on the online multi-table tournaments, using screenname "suchadegen" on PokerStars. On the live scene, Speiser has racked up winnings of $221,000 so far.

Seat 4: Stoyan Stefanov, 25, Plovdiv, Bulgaria - 1,505,000

Mainly a cash game player, Stoyan Stefanov started playing poker with friends seven years ago. Now he's active both live and online. As for live tournaments, he's had only one cash to date: last year's 98th place for €1,775 in the Estrellas/UKIPT Marbella Main Event. Stoyanov is now guaranteed to add much bigger prize by making the final table here at Eureka Rozvadov.

Seat 5: Maria Lampropoulos, 36, Argentina - 2,455,000

If anyone is regularly cheering for Ivan Luca in the tournaments, it's Maria Lampropoulos who's been railing her boyfriend during many deep runs over the last 15 months. This time, she'll only need to look left to see him but might not be interested in supporting him that much.

The couple made the Eureka 6 Rozvadov final table and they'll be sitting next to each other on the feature table. While Luca is currently one of the hottest players in the world, Lampropoulos have also had a brilliant February at the poker tables. She cashed the EPT12 Dublin Main Event and then marched to the heads-up in the WPTN Brussels Main Event. Lampropoulos earned €68,200 for the second place - the biggest payday of her career. Now she has a chance to better her largest cash twice in less than two weeks - with another top two finish, she'd set her new top mark. The Argentinian couple is pretty much on the road all the time but they have plans to settle in London, trying to avoid flying overseas back and forth.

Seat 6: Ivan "Negriin" Luca, 24 Argentina - 5,355,000

It's hard to find a table where Ivan Luca wouldn't be considered a superstar as he's been thriving in nearly all events including the EPT High Rollers. Aged only 24, Luca is already #2 in the Argentinian all-time money list with more than $2.8 million in live tournament winnings. He's been crushing the events all over Europe since December 2014 when he arrived to the Czech Republic for EPT11 Prague and made three top three finishes there. After that festival, Luca shined in the FPS Deauville Main Event, finishing fourth for €68,500 at the end of January 2015. Then he added his first EPT High Roller notch when he took €397,000 for a runner-up finish in the EPT11 Malta €10k High Roller.

Luca also won his first WSOP bracelet last summer, banking $353k. He's now one of the regular heavyweights on the live circuit, having made several deep runs in the High Rollers and Super High Rollers. Since the beginning of this year, Luca has already cashed for more than $700k. The Argentinian is also an online beast, using a moniker "Negriin" on PokerStars. His numerous online achievements include a Super Tuesday title as well as a Sunday 500 victory. Luca has made a lot of final tables in his career but this one will be a unique experience for him. For the first time, he'll play against his girlfriend Maria on the final table. The couple tried to look back to remember if that had happened before but Maria said that they'd only played tournaments where they'd met on the last two tables. Luca is a huge favourite coming back for the Final Daywith 5,355,000 in his bag, he's entering the finale in chip lead.

Seat 7: Peter Siemund, 45 years, Berlin, Germany - 2,845,000

Peter Siemund is the oldest player among the eight finalists in the Eureka 6 Rozvadov Main Event. The 45-year-old from Berlin has been playing poker for five years, choosing between both cash games and tournaments. Siemund has not much time to play as he's working as a CEO for a couple of companies. When off duty, he's watches a lot of poker videos, trying to learn from the pros. So far, his highlight of this tournament was a successful bluff against Ivan Luca on the feature table. Back in 2013, Siemund cashed the EPT10 Prague Main Event, earning €9,900 for a 118th place finish.

Seat 8: Robert Kokoska, 27, Neratovice, Czech Republic - 895,000

One of the top poker players from the Czech Republic, he was originally planning another career, playing football for Sparta Prague. But when Robert Kokoska injured his knee several years ago, he started taking poker seriously and turned professional soon after. Kokoska has been successful both live and online, playing since 2008. On the live circuit, he's amassed over $230k in live tournament winnings with the biggest prize of $52,430 earned for a first place in the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza $1k Event back in 2012. Recently, he cashed in the PCA 2016 Main Event (93rd for $10,840). The 27-year-old from a small town Neratovice is still playing football. He's a midfielder for his hometown team which lies in the Czech fourth tier. Although seventh in chips, Kokoska can still hope to become the first Czech player to win the Eureka Main Event

Katerina 'Katerina289' Malasidou is one of the fastest-rising stars on PokerStars Team Online and this week you have the chance to learn from her - and win prizes at the same time!

The Greek poker pro will be hosting a special stream on the PokerSchoolOnline Twitch channel at 8pm on Tuesday March 8th. Join her there for an exclusive play money tournament with some excellent added prizes up for grabs. The winner will collect an $11 tournament ticket, and there's a bounty of five School Pass tickets on on 'Katerina289's head.

Join Katerina Malasidou on Twitch

As if that's not enough, if you play in the tournament and tweet a hand to @PokerStarsPSO using the BOOM! Hand Replayer then we'll give you one School Pass ticket, and Malasidou will bring the hand up on air to offer her valuable advice.

To take part in this great value tournament you must be a member of PokerSchoolOnline. To sign up, go to PokerSchoolOnline. It's free and will only take a few minutes. Once you are a member you can register for the PokerSchoolOnline.com Community Home Games Club in the PokerStars client using these details:

Club ID: 606097
Invitational Code: psoclub2016

Once you're registered to the tournament don't forget to watch all of the action unfold from 8pm GMT on Twitch. You'll be able to see how Katerina Malasidou plays, ask her questions about poker strategy in the chat box and you might just see your own play on the live stream too!

PokerSchoolOnline streams live on Twitch throughout the week, providing great value giveaways for viewers and poker strategy and advice that could really improve your game on PokerStars. If you haven't tuned in before there is no better time to start than with Katerina Malasidou's stream at 8pm GMT on Tuesday March 8th.

Was there ever any doubt? The Argentinian superstar started the day fourth in chips of the 63 returning players and quickly rose to the top. He stayed there for most of the day. When his compatriot, Andres Viola, was eliminated in tenth place to set the unofficial final table of nine he was actually in second place, half a big blind behind Peter Siemund.

He soon put that right. He eliminated Domenico Gala in ninth place in a four million chip pot and will start the final table in pole position with almost double his nearest challenger. When play resumes they'll be 43 minutes left in the 30,000/60,000 (10,000 ante) level.

The eagle eyed amongst you may notice that we have a lady at the final table. What's more she and Luca are an item! For most of the past two days Maria Lampropoulos beat a different drum to stay in the tournament, playing a short to medium stack extremely well to stay alive.

Today she showed she can play when she gets her hands on chips too. She eliminated Jonas Lauck in the third level of the day to win a huge 1,400,000 pot and climb to second at the time. She wouldn't be shifted either and will start tomorrow in 3rd spot with 2,455,000.

To those who follow poker though her deep run should come as no surprise. She's been a tear of late. She finished 58th in the EPT Dublin Main Event and followed that up with a second place in a WPT National event in Brussels just 10 days ago. That result was good for €68,200.

The player who splits those two at the top of the chip counts is the only remaining German in the field. Peter Siemund largely flew under the radar today. That is until he would a 2,300,000 chip pot with ace-king against the ace-queen of Robert Kokoska. That explains why he starts tomorrow's final table with 2,845,000 whilst Kokoska, who was near the top of the chip counts until then, comes in with 895,000. He's the only Czech hope of a first Eureka Main Event title.

The only other player with a stack of over 2m is David Urban and he squeaks in with 2,005,000. Throughout the tournament we've seen him content to play post-flop poker and he's a danger, make no bones about it. He's got over $300,000 in lifetime earnings and can now add a Eureka Main Event cash to those he's had on the EPT, Estrellas and UKIPT.

It's a cosmopolitan final table - Argentina (!) are the only country with more than one player - and the Eureka6 Rozvadov Main Event trophy could be heading to Bulgaria, Denmark or Austria tomorrow.

Stoyan Stefanov (1,505,000), Mick Heder (1,370,000) and Hannes Speiser (445,000) may all find themselves in the bottom half of the chip counts but only Speiser is in the danger zone. They certainly can't be discounted. Heder, for instance, finished fourth in a massive 2,292 runner tournament here in Rozvadov in January and Speiser has over $220,000 in live tournament earnings

Whilst those eight will return tomorrow to play for the trophy and a first prize of €124,890 there were 55 players who had their Eureka title dreams ended today. Michael Eiler, who returned with 1.7 big blinds, was first out and was followed by the likes of: Martin Kabrhel (51st), Tonino Schmitz (39th), Andreas Gann (38th), Grzegorz Wyraz (16th) and Daniel Rose (13th) as the field was whittled down to the final eight. You can see who's won what so far here.

Of more importance though is what's up for grabs tomorrow:

We'll be back tomorrow from 3pm CET as final eight play down to a Eureka champion. Meanwhile you can catch up on all today's action here and here.

All photos are copyright of Tomas Stacha

On the first few days of this event, we relied heavily on our Latin American colleagues to point out the who's who of LAPT regulars (this is my first time covering an LAPT, and the same goes for my colleague Will, and we couldn't be happier to be here). So, to Carlos, Reinaldo, and Sergio, we say thank you. We couldn't have done this reporting without you.

Even back on those Day 1s, though, there were still a few faces we did recognise. Whether they'd won big titles on the LAPT, or had big wins and deep runs in well-known events elsewhere, some of the players were so talented that their reputation preceded them. Bruno Politano was still here for one; as was Richard Dubini and Fabian Chauriye - players we've been following the entire way.

What were the chances, then, that out of the 565 players who entered this event, we'd end up with such a stacked final table of nine right at the end of it? Pretty slim, I'd say. We could only take eight through with us to the official final table tomorrow though, so we had to lose one. And that one was arguably the biggest name of them all.

So, who are our talented final eight? Who did we lose today? And just how long did it take to divide our Day 3 starting field of 32 by four? Let me tell you.

First off, we can tell you that Brazil's aptly-named Rodrigo Strong will be our final table chip leader tomorrow with 2,482,000. He had a surge near the start of the day and shot up into the millions quickly. It was all smooth sailing after that.

The bad news? We lost Brazil's former November Niner Bruno Politano right at the end of the day in 9th ($12,460). The man known as Foster has played exceptionally throughout this tournament, but his fate was down to the Poker Gods after he moved all-in for 720,000 with [ah][kc] and was called by Argentina's Richard Dubini who held [qc][qd]. It ran out [th][4c][jc][js][9h] and we lost Politano from LAPT9 Chile.

Let's rewind to the start of the day. 32 players returned and it was Ricardo Matamala (above, left) who led them all. He had a pretty steady day and never really got into any chip trouble, and will therefore return tomorrow short-stacked with 452,000.

But we lost plenty of other former chip leaders throughout play today, including two-time LAPT champ Fabian Ortiz (26th - $4,500), Fancisco 'Tomate' Benitez (16th - $6,700), and Manuel Urrejola (15th - $7,600). Ortiz lost a race with pocket sevens against A-K and it just didn't fall his way. He'll have to wait until LAPT9 Panama in May to win that third title.

The action was thick and fast between then and the final nine though - we lost players at a rapid pace. Those who left included Javier Venegas (14th - $7,600), Alejandro Rodriguez (13th - $8,7000), and Alfredo Torres (10th - $10,240).

That left us with nine. We had the aforementioned Bruno Politano, Rodrigo Strong, Fabian Chauriye, Richard Dubini, and Ricardo Matamala, as well as Aqviles Espinoza, Alex Vega, Roberly Ferico, and bringing up the rear was short-stack Carlos Pohmasevic. He entered the final table with just a few big blinds, but managed to cling on and end the day with 408,000 - just ten big blinds.

Richard Dubini and Fabian Chauriye are worth mentioning here; like we said at the beginning of this wrap, we've been following their play from the get-go. That's because Dubini is an online beast with almost $800,000 in live earnings, while Chauriye came 16th in the PCA Main Event in January.

After Politano busted, here's how they stack up for tomorrow's final table, which will begin at 12pm.

It's going to be a great finish to LAPT9 Chile, with all the players now guaranteed a min-payout of $15,780. So make sure you come back and join us tomorrow for all the live updates and more. In the meantime, you can go back and read all the Day 3 live updates here.

For now, this is the PokerStars Blog team signing off. Vamos!

All photos by Carlos Monti.

The Spring Championship of Online Poker has been around for a long time, but now, for the first time ever, the players have decided what one of the events will be.

As we told you last week, PokerStars decided to put the format of SCOOP Event 15 to a vote of the players. Dubbed the "Players' Choice Event," it allowed players to nominate their favorite format of hold'em tournament and then vote for each buy-in level's event.

That vote is now in.

What will you be playing in May? See below for the vote totals.

After tabulating more than 1,200 votes, Bryan Slick and the SCOOP tourney team have released these vote totals for the SCOOP Players' Choice Event. You'll note the winners in bold.

Here's how the final votes looked:

38.3% SCOOP-15-L: $7.50 NL Hold'em [Hyper-Turbo, Progressive Super-Knockout, Ultra-Deep]
21.8% SCOOP-15-L: $7.50 NL Hold'em [Progressive Super-Knockout]
11.4% SCOOP-15-L: $7.50 NL Hold'em [6-Max, Action Hour]
06.9% SCOOP-15-L: $7.50 NL Hold'em [Progressive Ultra-Knockout]
06.9% SCOOP-15-L: $7.50 NL Hold'em [Turbo, Zoom, Progressive Super-Knockout]
06.8% SCOOP-15-L: $7.50 NL Hold'em [4-Max, Shootout]
06.0% SCOOP-15-L: $7.50 NL Hold'em [Heads-Up]
02.0% SCOOP-15-L: $7.50 NL Hold'em [4-Max, Shootout]

32.8% SCOOP-15-M: $82 NL Hold'em [8-Max, Progressive Knockout]
29.5% SCOOP-15-M: $82 NL Hold'em [Hyper-Turbo, Progressive Super-Knockout, Ultra-Deep]
12.8% SCOOP-15-M: $82 NL Hold'em [6-Max, Progressive Ultra-Knockout]
10.6% SCOOP-15-M: $82 NL Hold'em
09.1% SCOOP-15-M: $82 NL Hold'em [4-Max, Shootout]
05.2% SCOOP-15-M: $82 NL Hold'em [Turbo, Zoom, Progressive Super-Knockout]

38.8% SCOOP-15-H: $700 NL Hold'em [Progressive Super-Knockout]
24.6% SCOOP-15-H: $700 NL Hold'em [8-Max, Hyper-Turbo, Ultra-Deep]
11.2% SCOOP-15-H: $700 NL Hold'em [8-Max, Progressive Ultra-Knockout]
10.4% SCOOP-15-H: $700 NL Hold'em [4-Max, Turbo, Shootout]
09.7% SCOOP-15-H: $700 NL Hold'em [Turbo]
05.2% SCOOP-15-H: $700 NL Hold'em [6-Max, Turbo, Zoom, Progressive Super-Knockout]

Stay tuned in the coming weeks for the official SCOOP schedule, satellites, and all you'll need to know to play for a SCOOP title in May.

PokerStars today announced details of a new $1 million freeroll, with a chance for every PokerStars player to qualify, and win a first prize expected to be $20,000.

Not only that, but between 30,000-50,000 players will finish in the money, from a starting field of 100,000. So on the one hand; you've got a good chance of reaching the money. Looked at another way, if you're going to win big, you may as well do it properly. Against 99,999 other players for example, each of them eager to stop you.

Either way this is one of the biggest events we've ever hosted. Here's how to play the freeroll, which takes place on Saturday March 19.

First you need to qualify, and every PokerStars player will get two chances to do that. Starting today March 7, at 15:00 GMT (10:00 ET), you can win your way through via one of the special 90-man Sit & Go's, and there are two ways to get hold of a ticket to play them - one through the Challenges window and the other by making a deposit.

Simply open your "Challenges" window to opt-in for a 'PokerStars $1 Million Freeroll' satellite ticket. Once you've opted in you just need to play one hand of a real money game or real money tournament, at any stake level, to release the ticket into your account.

Then, you can use your ticket to enter any of the 90-player Sit & Go 'PokerStars $1 Million Freeroll' satellites which run around the clock (they start once 90 players are registered). That's the first step. The second step is to finish in the top nine places. Do that and you'll advance into the PokerStars $1 Million Freeroll.

If you miss out the first time round, you get a second bite of the cherry. You can get a second satellite ticket by making a deposit of $20 or more using the bonus code "MILLION1"

Don't forget, this is an exclusive tournament, with a cap of 100,000 players, so satellites will stop running the moment 100,000 players have qualified, or two hours before the freeroll begins, whatever happens first.

Sure, that's a big field to steer past, but at least one player will know it was worth it.

For more information go to the PokerStars $1 Million Freeroll homepage. Otherwise it's time to get started. Good luck.

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11:30 Day 3 a half hour away...

With close to 200 players coming back for yesterday's Day 2 session, the tournament area was buzzing prior to that restart. Today, with just 32 players coming back for Day 3, the energy is still there, it's just more contained. Four tables will return, with a wide variety of storylines having the ability to play out as this LAPT9 Chile Main Event field plays down to a final table of eight.

That means we could have a slightly shorter day than usual, especially if this group keeps the fast pace that saw over two dozen players hit the rail in the final two levels last night. That pace saw Ricardo Matamala shoot to the top of the leaderboard late in Day 2, winning a pivotal hand at the death with a flopped set.

He'll come back as the only player of the 800,000 chip mark but a few big stacks and big names are behind him. Jorge Teodoulou and Alex Vega each finished with over 700,000 and Bruno Politano, the man leading a four-headed Brazilian monster into Day 3, comes back with just shy of 650,000. Those players are top of the leaderboard but the biggest name in this field will come back below the chip average, just like he did for Day 2.

Fabian Ortiz has already won two LAPT titles and his first came at Vina del Mar in 2009. He's hoping that Chilean lightening can strike twice en route to his third LAPT victory but he'll have his work cut out for him from the start, as he'll return with just shy of 265,000. Regardless of which players headline the action once we get to our eight-handed final table, the penultimate day of this LAPT9 Chile Main Event should be an exciting one.

The PokerStars blog will be here to follow all the action starting at 12pm, with a recap of Day 2 here and a list of the returning player's chip counts, along with payout information, on the right hand side of this page. -- WOC

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at LAPT9 Chile: Will O'Connor and Jack Stanton. Photos by Carlos Monti. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog

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1:50pm: The fight for the final table begins
Level 19 - Blinds 5,000/10,000 (1,000 ante)

Welcome to Day 3 of the Eureka6 Rozvadov Main Event. A total of 63 players have made it this far and the plan for today is to get to the final table, or at least as close as possible. Whilst 63 players to 8 seems a lot, 31 players (almost half the field) return today with a sub 20 big blind stack.

That's not a problem facing Daniel Rose. Two huge back to back pots in yesterday's final level means he comes into Day 3 with a stack of 1,570,000. The average is just 267,000. In fact Rose has the average stack for when 11 players remain!

Play starts at 2pm CET, you can see the start of day seat draw below.

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at Eureka6 Rozadov: Nick Wright. Photos by Tomas Stacha. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog