EPT11 Malta Main Event – Winner to Take Home €810,400

The Main Event of the inaugural European Poker Tour in Malta is in full swing. Two initial flights on Sunday and Monday attracted total of 895 players. The price for the shot at the glory was €5,300 and after the tournament expenses were covered, there was more than €4.3 million left to be distributed amongst the players.

Total of 127 will walk away with some money for their efforts, the minimum payment being €9,120. Those making final nine will earn at least €60k, but it is the first spot that can really be described as the life changing money. The winner will take home €810,400 to go along with the prestigious EPT trophy.

Although nearly 900 players started the journey, only about 200 of them will be returning to the tables today, with first order of business being breaking the bubble. As it is always the case with EPT main events, many well known faces joined the party but are no longer in the crowd.

Some of those include PokerStars Team Pros Vanessa Selbst and Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, as well as Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, Davidi Kitai, Steve O’Dwyer and Isaac ‘Ike’ Haxton who were eliminated during the initial flights. All these players have many titles and big cashes to their names, but they will not be taking the trophy in Malta.

Three players topping the field today are Sam Chartier, Mortiz Dietrich and Ismail Kalkan, all three above 400k in chips. Although having a lot of chips will go a long way towards winning a tournament, knowing what to do with the chips you have in front of you is even more important.

Man sitting in fourth spot certainly knows how to put his chips to good use.Sam Trickett will be coming back today with a great stack of 380k and will represent a real menace to anyone who crosses paths with him.

Alec Torelli is still in with the stack of 216k, as well as Dominik Panka sitting on 197k and Robin Ylitalo on 196k. In fact, looking at the list of big stacks, it is hard to see many names that don’t ring the bell, as Dan Smith, Benny Spindler, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Connor Drinan and many other extremely experienced players will be returning today.

Judging by the competition, it will be a very exciting day at the tables in Malta. The number of players with impressive poker resumes gathered in one place is bound to create some interesting situations and pull some really sick plays.

Players will be playing 90-minute levels today, so there will be plenty of room to play and really put those chips to good use.

Who will be crowned the champion of the inaugural EPT Malta event?

Photo: Neil Stoddart, PokerStars Blog