Welcome to the European Poker Tour's second-ever stop in Malta! After a resounding success in Season 11, the EPT returns to the Mediterranean island in conjunction with the Italian Poker Tour, which has been hosting its IPT Malta Main Event – a tournament that attracted 947 players and created a €918,590 prize pool. All told, a hefty 76 events will be held during the festival.
"We’re thrilled to be heading back to Malta for the second time this year," said Edgar Stuchly, PokerStars Director of Live Events. "The debut EPT here in March was a big success and our players relished the opportunity to experience high quality poker in a great tourist location. We have a great tournament schedule planned, as well as a fantastic cash game offering, so it’s truly appealing for every kind of player."
While that IPT Main Event will be playing out across the room here at the Portomaso Casino, our focus today will be on the €25,000 High Roller. The tournament, which kicks off at 12:30 p.m. local time, will feature 60-minute levels and start players with 250,000 in chips.
The three-day single reentry tournament will see players knock out eight levels on Day 1 (which means they should bag and tag at approximately 9:30 p.m. local time), though anyone looking to late register will have until the start of Day 2 (12:15 p.m. local time to be exact) to do so.
Last year, the inaugural event attracted 68 unique entries that accounted for 20 reentries, which created a prize pool of €2.156 million. Among those to cash in the event were Martin Finger (8th - €79,800), Dani Stern (5th - €166,000), Nick Petrangelo (4th - €205,900), Daniel Dvoress (3rd - €263,000), and Connor Drinan (2nd - €297,800). However, in the end it was Dzmitry Urbanovich who emerged victorious to capture the title (one of four he'd win at the EPT11 Malta) and €572,300 first-place prize. Fittingly, Urbanovich, who just finished 15th in the 2015 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event for €28,700, went on to capture EPT11 Player of the Year honors.
The latest High Roller is expected to draw some big names, but three players are already confirmed after winning their way in via a €3,000 satellite on Thursday night. That event attracted 32 players and two rebuys, meaning €98,940 was in the prize pools. Three seats were awarded to Justin Liberto, Smain Mamouni and Rasmus Vogt, while Bryn Kenney took €21,690 in cash for a fourth-place finish.
According to PokerStars, here are a total of 10 tourneys taking place at EPT Malta today, making it by far the busiest day so far. In addition to Day 2 of the €1,100 IPT Malta Main Event and the start of the €25k High Roller, there is also a €500 NL Turbo at noon, €200 PLO Hi/Lo Turbo at 2 p.m., three €100 Flipout events, and Day 1c of the €300 Malta Cup. A super satellite to the IPT High Roller starts at 11 a.m. and there is a €2,500 Hyper Turbo single rebuy Hyper Turbo super satellite for the €25k at 10 p.m. In addition, there are also 45 cash game tables running 24/7 now through October 31.
Also making a first appearance at the EPT Malta festival is a live version of PokerStars Spin & Go tournaments – hyper-turbo Sit & Go’s that feature a lottery-style prize pool multiplier. Each three-handed super-turbo tournament will feature a €50 buy-in and offer up to 20x the buy-in with a €1,000 top prize. In addition, live Flipout events, as seen on Full Tilt, will be offered.
Stay tuned as PokerNews brings you all the latest and greatest from the EPT12 Malta €25,000 High Roller!
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flop. Two checks saw Liberto continue for 2,400, Winz folded, and Mateos check-raised to 9,000. It did the trick as Liberto released his hand.
