EPT German Open Live Updates

Mike McDonald raises to $80,000 and Andreas Gülünay makes the call. The flop comes K♥ J♦ 7♣ and Gülünay checks to McDonald, who bets out $120,000. Gülünay raises to $300,000 and McDonald makes the call. The turn is the K♣ and Gülünay bets $300,000. McDonald flat-calls and the river is the 2♥.

After some rumination, Gülünay moves all-in and McDonald pauses only a second before making the call and turning up A♣ K♠ for trips. Gülünay can only muster T♣ 7♦ and this tournament is over! The 18-year-old online phenom from Waterloo, Canada has won the 2008 PokerStars EPT German Open!

For the win, McDonald takes home an EPT title, €933,600 in straight cash and a rather unwieldy EPT vase he'll somehow have to convince Air Canada to let him carry on the flight home. Gülünay earns €528,500 for second place and will have no such luggage problems at the airport in Dortmund.

Congratulations to both finalists and to PokerStars and the EPT for yet another impressive and exciting event. We'll see you in Copenhagen!

Torsten Haase raises to $75,000 from the button and both Mike McDonald and Andreas Gülünay make the call. The flop comes Q♥ 5♥ 3♠ and McDonald checks to Gülünay, who checks behind before Haase bets out $150,000. McDonald moves all-in over the top and Gülünay immediately gets out of the way. Haase insta-calls, pinning his tournament life on A♣ 5♣ while McDonald is ahead with K♠ Q♠. The board finishes 3♣ 4♦ and Torsten Haase has been eliminated in third place. He'll take home €307,000 in a losing cause.

Mike McDonald just made a sick call to send Diego Perez Marco to the rail fourth. Timex came in with a $75k button raise and Diego re-raised all-in from the small blind. Andreas Gülünay stepped out of the way in the big blind, and McDonald asked for a count.

Perez Marco had $610k and McDonald made the unbelievable call for more than half his stack with pocket deuces. Perez Marco's J♦ 10♣ needed some help from the board, but none was found in the A♣ 9♥ 4♥ 6♥ Q♣ board, and he goes out fourth, cashing €234,200 after the deuces hold.

In the meantime, McDonald vaults into the chip lead with over $1.6 million.

In just the first few hands after the dinner break Claudio Rinaldi has gone out fifth. The action in the fateful hand began with Andreas Gülünay making it $80k to go and Claudio Rinaldi re-raising all-in. The less-than-classic race was on when Gülünay showed pocket sevens and Rinaldi the A♦ 9♦. The board ran out K♥ 4♦ 3♠ K♦ 5♠ and Rinaldi was run out fifth. He'll cash €193,000 for his efforts and Gülünay is the new chip leader with $1.289 million in chips.

Mike McDonald raises to $57,000 and Johannes Strassmann ships it all-in over the top in a massive overbet for about $500,000 more. Action folds back around to McDonald, who insta-calls with K♥ K♠, and Strassmann is exposed as a liar with 8♥ 7♥. The flop comes K♦ 3♣ 2♦ and McDonald flops a set. The board finishes out 2♠ 7♠ and that's the end of Johannes Strassmann, who is eliminated in sixth place and will take home €152,000 for his time, although he has to consider his early exit a grave disappointment.

A button raise from Andreas Gülünay of $55k is met by Claudio Rinaldi in the big blind with an all-in move. His last $400k gives Gülünay something to think about and he takes his time before eventually folding, showing an ace.

Rinaldi throws his hand in the middle and asks the dealer to turn it over. It's the Q-6 off-suit stone bluff, giving the Swiss fans in the crowd reason to cheer loudly!

The very next hand Gülünay raises again, Rinaldi shoves again and after an even longer time in the tank, Gülünay folds again. We will have to guess if the hand was better since Rinaldi mucked the winner this time.

Diego Perez raises to $50,000 in the cut-off and Johannes Strassmann re-raises to $140,000 from the button. The blinds get out of the way and Perez moves all-in for another $350,000. Strassmann tanks for a few minutes, asking Perez if he feels lucky, but eventually passes; Perez takes the pot.

Diego Perez Marco makes a fairly standard raise from the button amounting to $60k. After Johannes Strassmann lets it go from the small blind, Andreas Gülünay decides to raise, making it $140,000 total. Perez Marco calls and the flop comes A♠ J♥ 3♠. Gülünay immediately makes a sizable $200k raise and Perez Marco decides to pass, giving Gülünay the $300k pot.

Mike "Timex" McDonald makes a $60k raise under the gun and is only called by Andreas Gülünay on the button. The flop rolls out Q♦ 3♥ 2♥ and both players check. The K♥ turn brings a $65k bet from Timex and Gülünay calls, taking us to the river.

The 9♣ brings a big $150,000 raise from the Canadian, but the German shrugs and shoves for only $160k more. Pot odds are not enough to get McDonald to call, and Gülünay moves up from the short stack to around $700k.

After an Andreas Gülünay raise from the cut-off, Torsten Haase re-raised and Gülünay made the call. The J♣ 3♠ A♣ flop brought a Gülünay check, but Haase pushed all-in behind him for $383k.

Gülünay tanks for a good two or three minutes but eventually folds and Haase shows nothing but a gut-shot with K-Q.

Thibaut Durand is out seventh after getting severely short-stacked and shoving with any ace. He put his last $59k in from the cut-off and Johannes Strassmann went over the top to isolate him. After the blinds folded, the two went heads-up to the flop with Durand's tournament on the line. It was 8♠ 8♥ for Strassman and A♠ 4♦ for Durand. The flop gave Durand some hope with the Q♠ 4♠ K♥ falling, but it was over when the 8♥ came on the turn.

The Frenchman's seventh-place finish garners him €120,200.

Johannes Strassmann has taken his table talk to new heights here at the final table. Besides making comments regarding his intentions out of turn several times, the young German has begun trying to intimidate the other players when it is their turn to act.

Just as Diego Perez Marco announced a raise and began cutting out some chips in a recent hand, Strassmann, who was not even next to act, began telling him he would move in on him with a wide range of hands if he made a large raise, considering he had made so many raises throughout the tournament.

Big talk, but he didn't back it up. Marco did raise and when it was his turn, Strassmann folded. Johannes has played more pots than any other players at the final table and is certainly more talkative than the others.

Considering the early missteps and shaky plays, Strassmann may be trying to look confident and strong, but is coming off inexperienced and nervous instead.

Johannes Strassmann raises to $36,000 and Torsten Haase re-raises to $95,000. Action folds back to Strassmann, who asks for a count (Haase has $130,000 behind) and then announces a call and nearly turns up his cards. He's informed that Haase is not all-in and the cards remain on their fronts as we go to the flop.

The flop comes T♥ 6♦ 4♠ and Strassmann immediately puts Haase all-in. Haase insta-calls and turns up A♠ A♦ to Strassmann's 3♣ 3♥. The board finishes out Q♣ 9♥ and Haase doubles through Strassmann, who is knocked down to $659,000 while Haase doubles up to $595,000.

Christian Harder is out eighth. In this, his second EPT final table in a row following a seventh-place finish at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, he open-shoved with A♥ K♦ and got a quick call from the previously very unlucky Mike McDonald.

McDonald looked like a lock holding A♦ A♠ but the flop gave Harder outs as the J♠ 2♥ K♥ fell. The Q♥ on the turn gave him even more outs, but the 3♣ river wasn't one of them.

Harder's exit in eighth place will garner him €85,500.

Former casino croupier Rinaldi has been playing poker for the last three years - the last two as a semi-pro. He favours live cash games but has also had some tournament success – including 18th place at the 2007 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $36,000, with smaller cashes in the Italian Championships. This is only his third big live tournament and he now has at least €85,500 coming his way.

Haase says he's been a gambler for 20 years, but only recently took up poker. His favorite game is backgammon and he periodically takes time off work to travel around the world playing tournaments. The EPT German Open is his first major live event but, thanks to his backgammon experience, he considers his ability to read opponents one of his key strengths.

Gülünay first took up poker eight years ago but was stuck with Five-Card Stud as he couldn't find anyone who knew how to play Texas Hold'em. Gülünay has German citizenship, but is deeply proud of his Aramean roots– the Arameans being an ancient nomadic people from Mesopotamia whose language spread across the entire Near East from 800 BCE. A former bricklayer, Gülünay is now a freelance poker tournament events manager and says he rarely has time to play himself. His biggest success have come at the blackjack tables rather than at poker but says he will be "playing to win" at today's final.

Christian Harder, a student from Annapolis, Maryland, only played his first big live event in January when he made the PokerStars Caribbean final table and came seventh for over $142,000 after qualifying in a $650 multi-table satellite. He qualified on PokerStars for EPT Dortmund as well – and is now at his second final table in less than a month. After studying business last semester at Salisbury University, he decided to take this semester off to play poker. Known as "charder30" online, Harder is no stranger to tournament poker. He spends most of his time playing the biggest buy-in tournaments online.

Johannes, a former Starcraft player, became a pro in October 2006 – leaving behind his army training to concentrate on poker. He started with a $500 bankroll and has never made a deposit since. At first, he focused on $3/$6 Limit Hold'em but then switched to Texas Hold'em. He prefers online cash games, short-handed or heads-up $2k NLHE. He bought-in direct to EPT Prague with PokerStars. His best tournament results to date so far have been ninth place at EPT Prague in December for €39,200 and last season's EPT Grand Final - 23rd place for $44,253.

IT engineer Durand won his seat at EPT Dortmund for just $30 online last September and has spent virtually every minute since studying hard just for this event – watching videos, analyzing plays and playing live in a Paris casino. He has been playing poker for over two years, mainly online, but this is his first big live event. His aim at the start of the tournament was to triple up every day which, aside from Day 3, he has managed.

Perez comes from the Benimaclet neighbourhood of Valencia - the Mecca of Valenciano poker. He has been a professional poker player for just eight months but dedicates his free time to playing football, and spending time with his wife Maya and his friends. As well as poker, he also excels at the strategy games Starcraft, Warcraft and Dota. His success at EPT Dortmund follows closely on his cash at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January where he came 53rd for $16,000.

Mike McDonald is the midst of some dynamite form that has seen him cash four times in just five weeks. Still wearing braces on his teeth and only 18 years old, his fifth cash will be here in Dortmund and even if he were to bust out on the next hand, it's already the biggest of his career. The math student scored big in Australia shortly after finishing 14th at the EPT Prague last month for €20,200. Known as "Timex" online, Mike is not nervous about today's final and it's not his first TV appearance. Mike was eliminated on Day 1b of the WSOPE on the feature table by Jamie Gold. That day also happened to be Mike's 18th birthday.

It's about time to get final-tabling at the PokerStars.com EPT German Open in snowy Dortmund, Germany. Eight finalists from a field of 411 have braved blizzards, the Autobahn and a particularly piquant schnitzel to return for one final kick at the old can in Casino Hohensyburg with a €933,600 first prize on the line.

Players are just getting settled at the final table and action should resume within a reasonable facsimile of on time, so stay tuned for comprehensive final-table coverage in the grand PokerListings.com tradition, beginning more or less now.

Here are the chip counts from the final table:

Seat 1	Mike McDonald	$862,000
Seat 2	Diego Perez Marco	$744,000
Seat 3	Thibaut Durand	$148,000
Seat 4	Johannes Strassmann	$827,000
Seat 5	Christian Harder	$339,000
Seat 6	Andreas Gülünay	$556,000
Seat 7	Torsten Haase	$369,000
Seat 8	Claudio Rinaldi	$276,000