After four grueling days at the poker tables, the 2011 PokerStars EPT Barcelona Main Event is now down to just eight players, all with aspirations of becoming the next EPT Champion, hoisting the championship trophy over their head, and pocketing over €850,000 in the process.

The remaining players feature a cross-section of the poker world, ranging from one of the game’s top players in Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov, to European pros like Raul Mestre and Martin Schleich, to semi-pros/amateur players like Isabel Baltazar and Saar Wilf.

The chip-leader is Spaniard Tomeu Gomila who was able to build upon the chip-lead he took into Day 4. Gomila is well-known poker pro in the area and will undoubtedly have a lot of support as he looks for his first major tournament title on Thursday.

Mestre is another well-known Spanish poker pro, having written a number of strategy books in Spanish, as well as working as a poker coach.

Baltazar is the first women to make an EPT final table since Liv Boeree won the 2010 EPT San Remo back in April 2010. The lack of women at a final table might be seen as par for the course at the WSOP or on the WPT, the ladies have had a lot of success in EPT tournaments, and should Baltazar win the title she would become the fourth woman to do so –joining Boeree, Sandra Naujuks, and Victoria Coren.

The best known player remaining in the field is of course Eugene Katchalov, who is in the hunt for a number of Player of the Year awards, and is looking to add to his 2011 total of over $2 million in prize-money. Katchalov is looking for more than an EPT title as he enters the final table, considering he is just an EPT win shy of poker’s Triple Crown after winning his first WSOP bracelet at the 2011 World Series of Poker, and capturing the 2007 WPT Five Diamonds Poker Classic Championship. Katchalov enters the final table on an extremely short-stack, but as we’ve seen in the past a couple of small pots followed by a double-up can quickly change things at the final table!

Here is a look at the remaining eight players in the tournament as well as their chip-counts:

1. Tomeu Gomila – 6,985,000

2. Saar Wilf – 4,555,000

3. Raul Mestre – 4,260,000

4. Isabel Clemente – 2,270,000

5. Martin Schleich – 2,260,000

6. Dragan Kostic – 2,155,000

7. Juan Manuel Perez – 1,090,000

8. Eugene Katchalov – 690,000

Notable eliminations on Day 4 included Sigurd Eskeland in 18th place (€20,000), PokerStars Big Game Season 2 Champion Max Martinez in 12th place (€36,000), and Team PokerStars Pro Matthias de Muelder in 10th place (€50,000).

Tags: amateur players, Baltazar, Boeree, Books In Spanish, Championship Trophy, Doubl, Eclectic Mix, First Women, Gomila, Grueling Days, Poker Pro, Poker Tables, Poker World, PokerStars, prize money, Strategy Books, Victoria Coren, Wilf, World Series of Poker, WPT

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