Salvatore is an amateur player from Italy but is enjoying a spectacular roll on the European circuit right now. He came second in a Notte di Poker event in Venice three weeks ago for €100,000, and is now chip leader going into the final table of EPT Prague.

By day, Salvatore – who is married with two sons – works for a housing association in Monza, but he plays a lot of recreational poker in cardrooms through Italy. This is his second EPT – he played San Remo last season but didn’t cash.

Despite playing cards for more than half of his 32 years, Fredrik Nygard is contesting his first EPT here in Prague - and is chip leader going to the final table. He plays any games he can find - blackjack, Caribbean stud, five-card stud, whatever - but is most profitable around the poker tables, where he is primarily a high-stakes, live cash player.

He has played on the WPT and at the Aussie Millions, focusing on the side action there, and enjoys traveling to play. Formerly a salesman for nine years, with his own sales consultancy business, Nygard now lives in Oslo, Norway, a short hop from his native Finland.

Andrew did two years of biochemistry at McMaster University in Hamilton (outside Toronto) before dropping out this year to play poker full time. His biggest live cash to date was in November when he came fifth at the PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour event in San Jose, Costa Rica for $61,063.

He focuses on big-buy-in live tournaments that he can satellite into. He plays both cash games and live tournaments online.

Chen's path to the final table today has been a little nervy. Twice he was all-in in a coin-flip situation, and both times had to wait until the river to hit one of his overcards.

The explosion in poker in Spain owes a lot to Raul Mestre, a high-stakes cash player from Valencia who recently began to share his knowledge with a team of other professionals. Raul  trains, among others, the recent LAPT Punta del Este champion Jose Miguel Espinar and now finds himself at an EPT final table, the first of his career.

Although he does most of his playing, and winning, around the online tables, Raul has a couple of high finishes on the WPT to his name, as well as victory in the televised Late Night Poker Ace series in 2006. Mestre is one of the short stacks going into the final, but quite literally wrote the book on poker strategy and has all the skills necessary to make a charge.

Salesman Francesco has been playing Texas Hold’em for the last three years. He plays very little online poker and considers himself mainly a live player. This is his third EPT – he also played San Remo last season and Budapest in October.

He wrote, “I’m feeling more serene and happy than excited about the final table. This style of tournament is really suited to my game and getting this far is pay-back for all the losses I’ve suffered. I’m a solid player and only get knocked out because of bad beats.”

Massimo, who celebrated his 50th birthday on Thursday, is a medical dentist from Sant'Elia Fiumerapido near Frosinone in Lazio, central Italy. He has been playing Texas Hold’em for two years and started playing on PokerStars six months ago. This is only the second live tournament he has ever played; the first was a side event in Venice where he came third.

He said, “I feel very emotional about getting to the final table; I never thought I’d get to this point. It’s not enough to be good in a tournament like this – you also need a lot of luck to get to the final. The biggest emotion for me is telling my wife and children about it over the phone.”

Student Nasr is at the start of a big round-the-world trip and has kicked off his adventure in Prague – playing in his first EPT. The rest of his trip – which includes Cairo, Malaysia, Tokyo, Shanghai and New Delhi - will also involve some “poker stops” like the Aussie Millions and APPT Manila.

Nasr, 23, initially studied Islam and science but is now switching to International Business. He has lived in Germany since he was five but his parents originally come from the Middle East – his father from Libya and his mother from Syria. Nasr is well-known on the live poker circuit in Germany and is looking forward to the Prague final table – his biggest success in poker so far.

Alexiou studied mathematics at university but gave up on the subject after opening his own fitness club business. He’s currently living in the Greek capital Athens with his wife and 13-year-old daughter. He took up poker as a hobby three years ago, playing cash games in Greece and taking part in tournaments abroad. Although he’s not a full-time poker player, this is his third final table in just a few weeks. He won the last two and is going into tomorrow’s final with the second-largest chip stack.

And we're back!

The final eight players have spent last night tossing and turning with dreams of EPT success at the forefront of their minds.

Salvatore Bonavena leads the charge at the head of the chip counts.

Yesterday's play started fast and we've no reason to think that today will be any different as the players go at it hell for leather in pursuit of that juicy €774,000 first prize.

Here are the full payouts awaiting all our finalists.

Czech yourselves people, the game is on!