Spampinato hails from Italy but now lives with his wife Daniela in Malta. He works full-time as a sports trader plays poker for fun; he won his seat for the Main Event in a €500 live satellite at Portomaso Casino.
Online, he plays MTT and has had some good results, including winnng the Big $55 two years ago for $17k. The €62,570 he’s now guaranteed for making the unofficial final table is nearly ten times his total live tournament winnings to date. Because of his work, he can't make many poker plans so thinks it’s unlikely he’ll be able to go to EPT Prague. However if he wins, he says he and Daniela will use the money to buy a home and start planning a family.
Greenwood, who turned 27 three weeks ago, is one of Canada’s best-known live players and – along with brother Max – a regular competitor on the European Poker Tour. Greenwood has well over $1.7m in live tournament winnings, $1.25m of that gained this year alone - and €110,590 in the last week after he finished sixth in the €25k High Roller.
His year began in style when he was sixth in the PCA $100k SHR for nearly $400,000, and enjoyed a spectacular visit to Vegas for the World Series, gaining his first bracelet in the $1k NL event for $318,977 and fifth in the $10k NL Six-Handed Championship for a further $126,745.
Greenwood also has stunning online credentials; with five €100k+ career cashes, all during 2015, he is over $1M in profit on PokerStars. Other accolades include winning the SCOOP $2k NL-H for $377,280 two years ago, runner-up in the WCOOP Super Tuesday for $221,760 last year and taking down the SCOOP $2k PLO 6-max Turbo Zoom for $141,960 this year. He came in to Day 5 as one of the shorter stacks but has made the final nine partly thanks to winning a 805,000 pot when he shoved on a four-betting Alexander Ivarsson forcing him to fold.
Rainer Kempe must be getting pretty used to the limelight at EPTs. He’s now made back-to-back Main Event finals, after finishing fifth in Barcelona for €320,400. He’s been thriving ever since the Season 12 debut event; not only did he qualify online for Malta (again in a €320 Deep Hyper-Turbo), he has also had time to nip up to Nottingham where he had a small cash in a £300 NL Deepstack.
His most recent cash came only a few days ago though when he finished 16th in the one-day EPT Malta €10k High Roller for €20.405. Kempe is one of numerous German players who have moved to the UK to play online. Most settle in London but Kempe has relocated to the seaside resort of Brighton on the South Coast, a city which is also home to EPT Berlin champion Robert Haigh and British pro James Dempsey. Kempe, who hails from Berlin but studied at the University of Potsdam, has live tournament winnings of $636,731, which include his seventh place finish in the $1,111 Little One for One Drop in Vegas for $90,189.
Affable Scotsman Niall Farrell has reached the official final table at EPT Malta second in chips. Farrell already has more than $1.3M in live tournament winnings, with his biggest result being runner-up in the 2013 WSOP $3k NLH event for $366,815.
He has twice fallen shy of EPT Main Event finals however – he was tenth at EPT9 London and 15th at EPT Barcelona in Season 10.
He’s no slouch online either; PocketFives report he has more than $2.4 million in cashes, results that include becoming the FTOPS Main Event champion in 2014 for $266,232. He’s been an online pro since graduating in law from Dumfries University.
Action folded to Jaroslaw Sikora on the button and he raised to 100,000. Niall Farrell defended from the big blind, and then both players checked the flop. The turn saw Farrell check-call a bet of 125,000, and then he checked for a third time on the river.
Sikora bet 225,000, and Farrell made a quick call. Sikora showed the for not too much, and unsurprisingly it wasn't good as Farrell held a pair of aces with the .
Nabil Cardoso shoved his short stack and managed to swipe the blinds and antes.
He then did it again, getting his stack of 410,000 from early position. Action folded to Sam Greenwood in the big blind, and he seemed agonized about what to do. Greenwood hit the tank for 2:23 and then made the call.
Greenwood:
Cardoso:
Cardoso's kicker had him well out in front, and there would be no bad beat as the board ran out a clean .
Jaroslaw Sikora made it 100,000 from middle position. Daniel Dvoress in the hijack three bet to 265,000 and action folded back around to Sikora. The player from Poland thought about it for a minute or three before four betting to 725,000. Dvoress needed some time but in the end let it go.
Niall Farrell opened for 110,000 from the hijack and his neighbor Rainer Kempe in the cutoff and Alen Bilic in the big blind called.
The flop came and Bilic checked. Farrell fired 175,000 into 395,000 and Kempe instantly released. Chipleader Bilic made the call. The on the turn saw both players check and the completed the board. Bilic checked and Farrell bet 325,000 into the 745,000 pot. Bilic called after tanking for a bit.
Farrell showed for not much of anything, Bilic took it down with .
![[user153638]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
flop. The 
turn saw Farrell check-call a bet of 125,000, and then he checked for a third time on the 
for not too much, and unsurprisingly it wasn't good as Farrell held a pair of aces with the 
.
.
and Bilic checked. Farrell fired 175,000 into 395,000 and Kempe instantly released. Chipleader Bilic made the call. The 
on the turn saw both players check and the 
for not much of anything, Bilic took it down with 
.