EPT Malta Kicks Off Today!

Today sees the start of the popular EPT Malta Poker Festival, with 76 events running until October 31st, including the €5,300 EPT Malta Main Event.

The Season 12 EPT festival, once again hosted in the Portomaso Casino in conjunction with the IPT (Italian Poker Tour) and Pagano Events, will see a host of PokerStars pros descend on Malta for the second time this year, accompanied by many more of the best European players, with the occasional US and rest of world poker pros joining in the action.

EPT Deauville champion Jake Cody, PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo plus Luca Pagano and Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospelier will be in attendance, as will Malta-based Ike Haxton.

They will all be chasing bumper paydays, similar to that which Frenchman Jean Montury won back in the inaugural EPT Malta this March. The French pro scooped a cracking €687,400 after seeing off 894 others, and the festival also saw Dzmitry Urbanovich winning a record four side-events, which helped him to the 2015 EPT Player of the Year title.

The festival kicks-off with the IPT Main Event, which will see PokerStars Mind Sports Ambassador Jennifer Shahade competing, following her busy Isle of Man schedule of poker- and chess-playing/organizing.

Four days later (October 25th) the Main Event begins, and more than 200 players have already qualified for both this and the IPT version, 15 of whom won their EPT seats for less than €55.

With a total of 76 events – plus 45 cash tables running for the duration, employing card-shufflers – the Malta-bound pros and amateurs will have plenty of choice of games, including many new to the EPT schedule.

Mixed game (NLHE, NL 2-7 Single Draw, PLO, PL 2-7 Double Draw), 10 Game Mix, HORSE Dealer's Choice, Quintuple Stud, Quintuple Draw, Splitsville Dealer's Choice, NL Turbo with four blinds and Sextuple Omaha all make their EPT debut, and for the High Rollers (and Super High Rollers) there are three big events on the agenda.

The three-day €25k High Roller starts October 23, followed by the EPT Malta one-day €10k HR on October 26, and topped off by the regular €10k beginning October 29th.

Getting kitted out.. in quiet anticipation of another sell out #EPTMaltapic.twitter.com/jYwFo88lKh

— European Poker Tour (@PokerStarsEPT) October 20, 2015

In addition to this mass of events, the EPT Malta will also feature The Italian Big Game, which promises to be the biggest televised cash game in Italy. The format will be similar to the Big Game seen in the US, where two “Loose Cannon” online qualifiers will pit their talents against seasoned professionals. The players will start with €10,000 and, aside from the Loose Cannons they can reload up to a maximum of €20,000. The two Loose Cannons appearing are Gianluca "FrullinoZIZI" Irpino and Francesco "cypuz" Cipolleschi.

Also, according to the organisers:

On October 22 (IPT Main Event Day 1B), all EPT & IPT Malta Main Event qualifiers will have the opportunity to act out a ‘Midevil’ battle!”

This will see 4 teams of 7-8 players locking horns, with members of the winning team receiving online tournament tickets. All the EPT Malta information can be found here