EPT11 Malta Main Event – France Dominating Final Six

Day by day, one level after another, we have reached the final day of the EPT11 Malta Main Event. There are six players remaining, led by the Frenchman Valentin Messina, sitting on the stack of 7.8 million. His compatriot, Jean Mountry, is not far behind either as he will be starting today with just shy of 7.2 million in chips.

Trailing these two are Stefan Schillhable of Germany with 5.5 million and Javier Gomez Zapatero on 3.8 million. Zapatero will be looking to become the first Spaniard to have ever won a European Poker Tour main event today.

Rounding up the remaining field are Poland's own Dominik Panka with just shy of 1.7 million that he bagged last night and German Hossein Ensan, the official short stack and the only player under a million in chips. Panka is looking to repeat his success from the PCA 2014 Main Event when he won his first EPT title and match Vicky Coren's record by becoming the first man to hold two EPT titles.

23 players started yesterday and seventeen of them have been sent to the rail. It took five two-hour levels for this to happen and the action was fast and furious all along. Nine players said they goodbyes during the very first level. It all started with the elimination of Bruno Volkmann and the pace continued throughout the day.

Robin Ylitalo was one of two former EPT champions still in the field but his run was cut short when he was sent home in 14th place after a bluff gone wrong.

Fedor ‘CrownUpGuy’ Holz may not have an EPT title to his name, but he is certainly a celebrity in the poker world. Holz seized the WCOOP Main Event on PokerStars, banking more than $1.8 million. He was close to adding a big live title to his resume, but it wasn’t meant to be. Things started to go wrong when Fedor’s pocket Kings were cracked by Dominik Panka and he was never able to really recover from that beat, eventually exiting in 9th to bubble the official final table.

With eight remaining, the play continued until five full levels were played out and two players were sent to the rail during that period. Remi Wyrzykiewicz went first, banking €76,000 for his performance, followed by the chip leader to start the day, Czech Antonin Duda. Despite a good stack, things just wouldn’t work out for Duda but his exit in seventh place was still good for €108,200.

As this report was getting ready to go out, the action restarted in Malta and Hossein Ensan was sent home in sixth place as he couldn’t find much needed help against Dominik Panka. Ensan earned €153,700 for his efforts, while Panka added some ammo to help him along towards his goal of becoming the first male two-time EPT champion.

Five players battling it out now for the first prize of €810,400!

Photo: Neil Stoddart, PokerStars Blog