With nearly 200,000 in the middle on a board reading , Justin Bonomom who was in the cutoff, had the "all-in" button in front of him along with a stack of 121,000. Vladimir Troyanovskiy was debating what to do, and eventually he spiked in some chips to call.
Bonomo rolled over the , and a frustrated Troyanovskiy showed he was out kicked holding the . Ship the double to Bonomo.
Level 8 is coming to an end, and the tournament staff just announced that the remaining tables will play three more hands each before bagging and tagging for the night. We're headed down to the floor to catch any last-minute action and to compile a list of chip counts. Stay tuned for those as well as a full recap of the Day 1 action.
In the last hand of the night, Brian Roberts opened for 12,500 and Justin Bonomo called from the hijack. A short-stacked Paul Newey then moved all in blind from the cutoff for 82,500. The button and blinds all folded, and then both Roberts and Bonomo called.
The flop saw Roberts bet 40,000, Bonomo called, and then both players checked the turn as well as the river. Bonomo showed the , which was behind the of Roberts. Newey then revealed the for two pair.
"Saved myself €25,000," a joyful Newey said after discovering he tripled up.
"Best poker I've ever seen you play," Senh Ung, one of Newey's best friends, said from the rail.
"Nitty Newey never would have played that," Rob Schiffbauer added.
After a successful stop in Season 11, the European Poker Tour was back at the Mediterranean island of Malta for a 76-event series hosted in conjunction with the Italian Poker Tour.
"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."
On Friday, Day 1 of the €25,000 High Roller kicked off inside Portomaso Casino. The tournament saw 57 unique players take to the felt and account for 10 reentires, which brought the total field to 67. That's down a bit from last season's field of 88 entrants (Dzmitry Urbanovich won that event for €572,300), but registration is open until the start of Day 2, meaning there's a strong chance it'll go up.
After eight one-hours levels, 49 players bagged and tagged with China's Quan Zhou and his stack of 952,000 leading the way.
In Level 7 (2,000/4,000/500), in a blind-versus-blind hand, Mike "Timex" McDonald and Zhou each invested 26,000 from the small and big blind respectively. The flop saw McDonald check-call a bet of 32,000, and then he check-called one of 46,000 on the turn.
When the completed the board on the river, both players checked and McDonald tabled the . It was no good though as Zhou had him out kicked with the .
"River nine," Zhou joked.
"You probably win all my chips," McDonald said with a laugh.
Of course not everyone was as fortunate as Zhou. Martin Finger, who won the EPT12 Barcelona High Roller a few months back, was the first to go, which happened after Anton Astapau opened for 2,400 from the hijack and four players called to see a flop of . Action checked to Astapau, who bet 5,600, and Smain Mamouni called before Brian Roberts squeezed from the button for 28,000.
Finger cold-called from the small blind, and all other players folded to make it heads-up action to the turn. Finger checked, Roberts bet 55,000, and Finger shoved. Roberts called and Finger discovered the bad news.
Finger:
Roberts:
It was a brutal set over set, and Finger was drawing to one out. The river wasn't it, and Finger hit the rail. He soon exercised his single reentry option, but it did him little good as he was eliminated for a second time in Level 6.
Others who fell on Day 1 were Rasmus Vogt, Berthold Winz, Yingui Li, Mohsin Charania, Justin Liberto, and Patrik Antonius. All of those players will have the opportunity to reenter on Day 2 if they choose, but one man who will not is Scott Seiver, who exhausted his single reentry.
Among those who will be back are recent World Series of Poker Europe bracelet winner Dietrich Fast (931,000); Germans Christopher Frank (704,000) and Marvin Rettenmaier (670,000); last year's runner-up Connor Drinan (510,000); EPT11 Grand Final High Roller victor Charlie Carrel (453,500); EPT11 Grand Final champ Adrian Mateos (352,000); and reigning World Poker Tour Player of the Year Anthony Zinno (305,000).
Day 2 will kick off at 12:30 p.m. local time on Saturday. As always, the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be on hand to capture all the action, which you can read about in our live blog. Until then, check out PokerStars' premiere of live Spin & Go's at the EPT12 Malta: