EPT11 Malta – David Peters Wins €10k High Roller for Almost €600,000

Although somewhat overshadowed by the Main Event, another big tournament reached its conclusion in Malta. It was the €10k High Roller and the man who took home the trophy and the first place prize of €597,000 was David Peters.

The High Roller event in Malta gathered a total of 304 entries, 235 of which were original buy-ins and 69 reentries. A high number of participants always means one and the same thing in tournaments - a big prize pool. It was no different this time, as when registration finally closed, players were looking at just shy of €3 million waiting to be distributed.

Another common theme in the majority of tournaments is that the winner gets to keep a lion’s share of the overall prize pool, and in this particular case the number that the tournament organizers came up with was €597,000. A total of 39 places got paid, with the minimum set at €20,500.

The crowd in the High Roller included all the usual suspects and many of them hit the rail with nothing to show for their efforts. Some of those who did make the money included the likes of Max Silver, Connor Drinan, Fabian Quoss, Jonathan Little, George Danzer, Davidi Kitai, Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald and, finally, Nicola D’Anselmo, who was eliminated just before reaching the eight-handed final table.

There was only a short break to set things up and play continued in search of the latest EPT High Roller champion. It wouldn’t be Sylvan Loosli, who was eliminated in eighth place, or Igor Yaroshevskyy, who fell in seventh. Those two earned €75,000 and €102,000, respectively, for their efforts.

Next to go was Nick Petrangelo. The American was sent to the rail by the eventual winner, picking up €139,000. Following him was the only UK player at the final table, Charlie Carrel, whose fifth place finish brought him €183,800.

Ukrainian Artem Metalidi is no stranger to deep runs and final tables, but he wasn’t given a shot at the title this time around as he was dispatched next, taking home €234,500. Then Viacheslav Goryachev of Russia bid his farewell, picking up €290,500 for his efforts and leaving Argentinean Ivan Luca and American David Peters to square off for the title.

Peters started with about a 2 to 1 advantage and after long deal negotiations fell through, the two continued to play for all the marbles. With the exact difference between first and second place at €200k, there was certainly a lot to play for.

It took some back and forth before the American was finally able to break Luca’s resistance. The final hand saw them play a classic heads-up coinflip, where the Argentinean was looking to hit with his a8 against the pocket Fours of Peters.

Alas, it wasn’t meant to be as Peters hit the set on the flop. On the turn, Luca was already drawing dead. After an irrelevant river was dealt, it was official. Ivan Luca finished as the runner-up, banking €397,000, while David Peters was declared the winner, picking up €597,000, the trophy, and a cool SLYDE watch to go with his newly acquired fame and fortune.

Photo: Neil Stoddart, PokerStars Blog