The final table is set for EPT San Remo and play will get underway at 2pm CET. The following eight players will be eyeing the first prize of €1,508,000, with the full payout schedule, and winners to date, available on the prizewinner's page.

As ever, there will be a full blow-by-blow account of the final table here, and a webcast of the action on EPT Live.

Introducing the finalists:

Seat 1: Kalle Niemi, 22, Turku, Finland - PokerStars qualifier - 641,000

Kalle Niemi is a first year law student at the University of Turku who began playing poker three years ago. This tournament in San Remo ishis first ever live event and the guaranteed €114,000 he will earn beats anything he has ever won online. Normally an online tournament player, Niemi qualified on PokerStars for $27 and says that he has found live poker to be "not so hard". He also admitted, however, that that his short stack made things simpler, allowing him very little post-flop play.

Seat 2: William Reynolds, 20, Sioux City, Iowa - PokerStars player - 2,531,000

William Reynolds has been playing poker since he was 16 and, by the time he was 18, thought he might well be able to make a living at it. He deferred college for four months, then a year, then another year. "I'm still hoping I don't have to go to college", he said. He plays mainly online and admits he hasn't had much success so far in live events - although he played at the WPT tournament in Niagara, as well as LAPT Mexico, the PCA, EPT Copenhagen and EPT Dortmund. Reynolds has thrived in the Sunday majors, winning a major event in October 2007 for $205,000, second in a $1,000 event on PokerStars in November for $60,000 and fourth in the $5,000 SCOOP PLO event last week for $87,000. Regarding San Remo, he's been happy with his performance so far: "It's been good. I don't think I've made any mistakes."

Seat 3: Alex Fitzgerald, 21, Seattle, USA - PokerStars player - 721,000

Alex Fitzgerald started playing poker when he was 15 - in 10c games at school. When he made $20 in a week, he said he felt like "a big baller" and then would spend it all on comic books. After working as a commercial salmon fisherman in Alaska, Fitzgerald then found work as a security guard in Seattle. He soon discovered he could snooze through his day job leaving him free to play poker eight hours a day. In his first month, he made $1,200 as a security guard and $7,000 online. But his online successes soon weren't enough and, after winning a seat to an APPT event in Manila, he decided to travel the world and has since played in numerous APPT, LAPT and EPT events as well as the Irish Open. He is
now based in Malta. Making the San Remo final table is his biggest live win to date.

Seat 4: Danilo D'Ettoris, Rome, Italy - 686,000

Danilo D'Ettoris is the only remaining Italian in a tournament that started with more than 400 local players. He was born in Crotone but now lives in Rome, where he works as a business consultant, and started playing poker in April 2008. He plays online on PokerStars but says he really enjoys the atmosphere of playing live. D'Ettoris is a regular at the Cotton Club poker club in Rome and is enjoying their support here in San Remo.

Seat 5: Gustav Sundell, 23, from Pålänge, Kalix, Sweden - 2,615,000

Gustav Sundell started playing poker in high school home games and after one of his friends won an online tournament, Sundell moved to the internet too. For the past five years, he's been playing poker full time mainly in online cash games. He has two major live tournament cashes: fourth in the Malmo Open for €25,000 and seventh in the Swedish Open Poker Championships in 2007. He also played the WSOP Main Event last year and has played on the EPT in Dublin and Prague. He busted on day one of all of them - "That's my speciality," he said. Normally he plays Omaha and prefers heads-up.

Seat 6: Constant Rijkenberg, 20, Amsterdam, Holland - 932,000

Constant Rijkenberg is an economics and business student, who has been playing poker for around two years. He rarely plays online, preferring live events at casinos all over Europe. Rijkenberg was enjoying such good results that he decided to turn pro 10 months ago. However his fortunes immediately plummeted and by September last year, he had lost his entire bankroll and would have given up playing altogether if he hadn't found himself in a high-stakes home game where he reversed his fortunes. He said: "I was totally broke but then I won back €30,000 in this home game. I've had an up and down career. I sold half my action to play in this tournament but my investors love me now."

Seat 7: Dragan Galic, 36, from near Hamburg, Germany - 3,098,000

Dragan Galic, a Croatian born in Germany, has been playing poker for three years and turned professional two years ago after giving up his job as a mechanical engineer for BMW. These days, Galic regularly plays big-field events in the casinos in Hamburg and Austria. Galic's wins were relatively modest until November 2008 when he won the PokerStars Sunday Million Warm-up for $77,897. He won again in January 2009 for $86,647, then final tabled a live CAPT event in Bregenz for €29,660 in February and last week came second in a €2,000 CAPT main event in Salzburg for €40,000. He has made the final table in eight of the 35 CAPT events he has entered. Galic has held the tournament chip lead at the end of every day so far, a feat never previously achieved at an EPT main event.

Seat 8: Ovi Balaj, 35, Romania - 625,000 chips

Ovi Balaj originally comes from Romania but now lives in Paris and has been playing poker for around six years. He mainly plays live, both tournaments and cash games and is a well-known regular at the Aviation Club in Paris. Although his live results are relatively modest, he has a string of cashes and final table appearances across Europe and has risen to seventh in Romania's all time money list with more than $72,000 in tournament winnings. He won his seat to EPT San Remo in a live satellite at the casino here and is enjoying his best ever result to date.

If you'd have blinked any time over the past couple of days on the Italian Riviera, you would have missed anything between 10 and 25 eliminations from the largest European Poker Tour event in its five-year history. More than a thousand started and now more than a thousand have departed. They flew out the door in record-quick time, and now, after another spectacularly swift day of poker, there are only eight players remaining. That, folks, means a final table - and another day in the books.

Tomorrow in the Casino Municipal, San Remo, the following players will be attempting to secure the €1,508,000 first prize that goes with the title of EPT champion:

Dragan Galic (Croatia) - 3,098,000
Gustav Sundell (Sweden) - 2,625,000
William Reynolds (USA) - 2,531,000
Constant Rijkenberg (Holland) - 932,000
Alexander Fitzgerald (USA) - 721,000
Danilo D'ettoris (Italy) - 686,000
Kalle Niemi (Finland) - 641,000
Ovi Balaj (Romania) - 625,000

The number beside their names is their chip stack heading into the final, and the more observant among you will notice that the biggest number has locked itself to the name Dragan Galic for the fourth consecutive day.

Dragan Galic

The Croatian has led the tournament ever since day 1a and although he took some early hits today, temporarily surrendering the lead to the likes of Constant Rijkenberg and William Reynolds, he hit back late in the evening to win huge pots from Danilo D'Ettoris, Gianni Giaroni and then an absolute monster against Rijkenberg, to regain his position of dominance.

But Reynolds and Rijkenberg also remain, both with sizeable stacks themselves and both demonstrably in the knowledge of how to use them. Rijkenberg also took some massive hits early in the day, but then managed to make pocket fours beat pocket queens, all in pre-flop, and went flying up the ladder and passed two million. It was only when he flew too close to the sun -- a massive bluff gone awry that cost him about 900,000 with nine players remaining -- that Rijkenberg was hauled back to the pack.

Constant Rijkenberg

Reynolds, for his part, managed simply to adhere to one of the hard and fast rules of successful tournament poker: win the big pots. Sitting on the featured table for much of the day, he seemed always to have the goods when it went to showdown, and took the small pots without showing his cards. That's how you win these things.

William Reynolds

The other major force tomorrow will be Gustav Sundell, from Sweden, who has been in the top three almost all day but has seemingly avoided all fireworks. Even our Swedish colleague at PokerStars blog, who has been following him closely, was at a loss to recall a single major pot that went to showdown. He just got himself some chips, got some more, and kept going upward until he too is in a great chance of taking this down.

Gustav Sundell

The relative short stacks tomorrow are Ovi Balaj, who has the chance to turn in the most successful performance from a Romanian on the EPT; Alex "Assassinato" Fitzgerald, an American who has made his home in Europe and around the PokerStars tables; Kalle Niemi, one of two Finns starting today, but the only one remaining after Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro busted; and Danilo D'Ettoris, who took the lions' share of Kelopuro's stack late in the day and will be the lone Italian around the final table.

Danilo D'Ettoris

The fact that only those remain means we lost all others. Notable mentions must go to the familiar names of Ben Kang and Malte Strothman, who flew the flag for Germany alongside Pietro Sibione and Doron Tourgman.

Malte Strothman

Katalin Jerney, from Hungary, was the highest-finishing woman, while Pierre Neuville, who narrowly avoided being the bubble boy on day two, clung on all the way to become the final table bubble instead. That's also not an enviable spot, but it's €78,800 sweeter than the other option.

Katalin Jerney

There'll be more of all this tomorrow -- text from us, photography from Neil Stoddart and video blogs from the PokerStars.tv team -- when we reconvene at 2pm for the final table.

Everyone is chasing Dragan Galic once again

Relive today with any of these links to today's action. Or check it all out in Italian, Swedish and/or German.

Until then, good night from San Remo.

The final squeeze to a final table
Level 21 updates
Level 22 updates
Level 23 updates
Level 24 updates
Level 25 updates

Ciao from Gianni Giaroni

Live updates from level 26 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the featured table.

The latest chip counts are available on the chip count page.

Blinds: 20,000-40,000 (ante: 4,000)

11.10pm: Final table in place
It's over. Pierre Neuville pushed in for 182,000 and Sundell raised making it a heads up showdown. Sundell showed [qs][qc] to Neuville's [kc][ts]. It wasn't straight forward. The flop [jd][2c][ad] gave Neuville a straight draw. But the [6s] on the turn and [10d] on the river ended Neuville's tournament and day four in San Remo. Full report to follow.

11.01pm: Play re-starts
Sundell takes the first pot back from the break, a modest pot against Galic which was played to the river when Sundell's pocket threes beat the seven-eight of Galic.

10.45pm: Break time
Play resumes at 11pm

Live updates from level 25 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the featured table.

The latest chip counts are available on the chip count page.

Blinds: 15,000-30,000 (ante: 5,000)

10.45pm: Level ends
That ends the level. Players take a 15 minute break.

10.38pm: Balaj gets involved
Balaj bets 90,000 pre-flop which Reynolds re-rasies to 237,000. The hand goes no further.

10.27pm: All in time
Kalle Niemi manages to navigate through his all-in, doubling up with ace-queen against Galic's ace-deuce.

10.20pm: D'Ettoris all-in
Danilo D'Ettoris moves in now, 603,000 in total. Galic thinks about it but there are no takers. D'Ettoris shows pocket queens.

10.15pm: Neuville, your time is now
Finally, Pierre Neuville moved all-in. He had little choice, his stack of 164,000 would not last much longer. It was now or never. Galic made the call with [ac][2s] but was behind the Belgian who showed [as][7h]. Not that it was straight forward. The flop [3s][4c][9c] gave Galic outs with a straight draw. The [jc] then gave him a flush draw. But Neuville's day is not over yet. The [js] doubled him up to 370,000. Now Niemi is the short stack, but he's not out of the woods.

10.10pm: More big hands
Another pot is played out by two players not in immediate danger. On a flop of [9c][2s][6s] Reynolds makes it 125,000 and Fitzgerald calls. The turn card [as] prompts Reynolds to make it 192,000. Again Fitzgerald calls for a [jc] river. Now Reynolds moves all-in. Fitzgerald visibly exhales. He knows the hand is out of reach, 1,351,000 to call. He folds.

10.05pm: A "what the..?" hand
An incredible hand that might just change the shape of the final. With Pierre Neuville sat with just a few blinds left in his meagre stack, the two big stacks go at each other in furious fashion.

Rijkenberg starts by raising pre-flop which Galic called. The flop come [6d][qd][10h]. Now Rijkenberg bets' 300,000 seemingly without thinking. Galic calls fast. On the [2h] turn Galic checks to Rijkenberg who sends another 400,000 flying into the middle. Not only that but Galic calls in a flash. The river [6c] and another half a million from Rijkenberg. As Galic thinks it over the young Dutchman looks up at Galic, who looks back. It's half a million to win a pot worth 2million. He calls, shows [qh][8h]. Rijkenberg doesn't even show. It's a massive pot which takes Galic up to nearly 4million. Rijkenberg says nothing.

9.55pm: Big stacks clash
We saw no cards but it was a big hand nonetheless. Galic made it 90,000 pre-flop which Sundell re-raised to 230,000. Undeterred Galic called to see the [7c][5d][2s] flop. Sundell immediately made it 300,000 more. Galic paused, but then folded.

9.50pm: Play re-starts
After a twenty minute ten minute break, play resumes on the feature table.

9.25pm: Gianni Giaroni is out
It's the end of a remarkable run but the Italian has fallen, busted by Dragan Galic, ace-queen against Giaroni's ace-deuce. That means nine left, seated around one table. They'll be a ten minute break as chips are rearranged.

9.20pm: Drama at the end of the level
A new level starts but the last hand of the last level was a dramatic one. There's another flop and that means Giuseppe Argento is involved. [2s][4d][7c]. William Reynolds bets 76,000 which Argento calls. The turn [6h]. Again Argento checks and Reynolds makes it 145,000. Argento thinks for a while and then announces all-in. When Reynolds turns over his [kd][ks] Argento turns away and scratches his head. He shows [3s][3h] which will need to improve. A [9h] hits the river though. Giuseppe Argento is out in 11th place.

Live updates from level 24 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the featured table.

The latest chip counts are available on the chip count page.
The prizewinners to date are on the prizewinners page.

Blinds: 12,000-24,000 (ante: 3,000)

9.15pm: Big pots and penalties
Danilo D'Ettoris, Dragan Galic and Ovidiu Mihai Balaj get to a flop. D'Ettoris had raised to 62,000 from the cut-off, Galic called on the button, as did Balaj from the big blind. The flop came [8h][4d][10c] and Balaj bet 80,000, which was called by Galic. Balaj then wanted to fold, but before he did so, he showed his hand to Gianni Giaroni in the small blind, who chuckled loudly. The floor-person was called to rule on whether Balaj had transgressed, but they played out the hand anyway. The [9d] came on the turn and D'Ettoris checked. Galic bet 102,000. Called. The river was the [5s] and D'Ettoris checked again, then Galic bet 200,000. D'Ettoris went into the tank, but was shaken out of his contemplation by Galic saying: "I hit the five." "You hit a set of fives?" asked D'Ettoris. "I hit the five," said Galic. Eventually that was enough for D'Ettoris to make the call. Galic showed pocket fives for that set and D'Ettoris mucked angrily. "I told you I hit the five," Galic said, as the Croatian moved back into the chip lead.

9.10pm: Rijkenberg on a roll
On a flop of [js][4s][10h] Argento and Rijkenberg are at it again. Argento checks to Rijkenberg who makes it 64,000. It's called. The turn card is [7s]. Argento checks again and Rijkenberg makes a bet with blues, over 100,000. No time to count it before Argento folds. With the cheek of youth Rijkenberg shows his [qc][8d].

9pm: Time to shove
A bet by Gustav Sundell is followed by Giuseppe Argento's move all-in. It's a total of 395,000 which Constant Rijkenberg calls as Sundell gets out of the way. Argento shows [ah][10h] to Rijkenberg's [ad][qd]. The flop helps the Italian. [7d][jh][4h] which gives him a flush draw. The turn [6s] is a blank but the river, [3h] is greeted by cheers on the rail. Argento first lifts his arms and then offers his hand to Rijkenberg. He's having none of it. Argento up to 880,000.

8.50pm: LarsLuzak's luck runs out
Sami Kelopuro was never going to hang around with less than five big blinds. He shoved with [Kd][9d] and Dragan Galic called with [Ah][3h]. Everyone else got out of the way and the board ran out [8c][7s][10s][4h][10h] which was enough to Galic to add a major scalp to his record and sent Kelopuro, aka LarsLuzak, back to the nosebleed cash games.

8.42pm: Relentless Rijkenberg
Once more Rijkenberg uses the all-in move to dissuade a player from playing a pot. On a flop of [3s][8d][2d] Argento had bet but stood aside as a thundering 1.8m raise came back at him. Brushing himself off Argento looked like he wanted to call but didn't. Another hand goes the way of the Dutch boy, who showed an eight.

8.40pm: "Whoooooooo hoooooo!"
Sami Kelopuro just lost a massive pot, possibly tournament ending for him, in a battle of the blinds against Danilo D'Ettoris. Kelopuro raised from the small blind to 70,000. D'Ettoris reraised to 250,000 and Kelopuro thought for a long long time before shoving, for about 500,000 more. D'Ettoris called. D'Ettoris tabled pocket queens, dominating Kelopuro's A-Q and when another queen flopped, that was pretty much that. Kelopuro is left with only about 150,000. D'Ettoris's celebration provided the headline for this mini-update.

8.32pm: Try try again
Argento moves all-in for a second time for roughly 700,000, but again he gets no takers.

8.21pm: Rasmus Åkerblom done
It didn't take long for us to lose our first player. It was the short-stacked Rasmus Åkerblom, who moved all in with K-J and was called by Dragan Galic's pocket tens. There was no help for the Swede and he finishes in 13th. Four to go.

8.20pm: Post prandial
The dinner break is over and the final 13 have returned to play down to the last eight.

Live updates from level 23 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the featured table.

The latest chip counts are available on the chip count page.
The prizewinners to date are on the prizewinners page.

Blinds: 10,000-20,000 (ante: 2,000)

7.10pm: End of the level
Constant Rijkenberg takes the last pot of the level. Players are now on a one hour dinner break.

7.05pm: Sibione eliminated
A bad day for Germany continues with the news that Pietro Sibione has just been eliminated. Ovidiu Balaj made it 50,000 from the button, Sibioni moved all in from the big blind, something like 380,000. Balaj snap-called with pocket kings and was never in trouble against Sibione's K-Q. Sibione leaves in 21st.

6.55pm: Action and inaction
The outer table is considerably less action-packed than the featured table, mainly because either Dragan Galic or Sami Kelopuro is raising every single pot and no one wants to tangle. Kelopuro has gone from around 300,000 to 600,000 without a showdown, simply by pinching blinds and antes. Representative of the tighter style being played by the others on the table, Giani Giaronni periodically reaches into his pocket and pulls out a piece of paper on which he has scrawled the payout structure of the tournament. He then counts the remaining players to figure out what kind of payday he's looking at.

7pm: The horror
Alex Fitzgerald make a bet of over 100,000 before Constant Rijkenberg moves all-in for a whopping 1,385,000 with a flop of [10c][5c][qc] already on the board. It would be all-in for Fitzgerald to call but he can't do it, eventually folding only to be shown [kh][10s] by Rijkenberg.

6.55pm: Niemi all-in
Kalle Niemi moves all-in with [ah][7d]. Constant Rijkenberg, the table's designated caller, obliges, showing [jd][qs]. When the flop comes [ac][5s][7s] if ends the hand. the [8c][ks] on the turn and flop change nothing. Niemi doubles up.

Earlier today the video blog team caught up with William Reynolds...

6.50pm: Jerney shown the door
Katalin Jerney moved all-in, looking fo a vital double up. She held [ac][8c] and when William Reynolds called he showed pocket sixes. The board came [4s][7d][qc][6h][qd]. It was over on the turn and Jerney became our 15th place finisher.