EPT Malta main and high roller events conclude
Sunday March 29,2015 : BIG MONEY IN MALTA ONLINE POKER TOURNAMENTS
EPT Malta main and high roller events conclude.
The inaugural European Poker Tour Malta ended this weekend, concluding a successful tournament on the Mediterranean island with a Euro 5,000 NL Hold 'em main event and an exciting Euro10,000 buy-in High Roller.
The main event attracted 895 entries, generating a prize pool of Euro 4,340,750, and it culminated in a 14 hour final table contested by Jean Montury and Valentin Messina, both from France; Polish players Dominik Panka and Remi Wyrzykiewicz; Stefan Schillhabel and Hossein Ensan of Germany; Javier Gomez Zapatero from Spain and Czech ace Antonin Duda.
Despite a scintillating performance, Dominik Panka found himself heading for the exit in third place, clearing the decks for an all French heads up between Jean Montury and Valentin Messina. The duo made a chop deal before resuming play, agreeing to take roughly Euro 600,000 apiece and leave Euro 100,000 and the trophy on the table for the winner.
The heads up action that followed, with Montury holding a slight chip advantage, proved to be a 147-hand marathon that only ended in the early hours of the morning.
The two determined and talented players went at it in a swingy and aggressive clash that featured at least half a dozen all-ins, but ultimately it was Montury who first built a 2 to 1 lead, and then vanquished his fellow Frenchman to claim the Euro 687,400 top pay-day and the honours.
Messina's runner-up take home was Euro 615,000, and the rest of the final table pay-outs looked like this:
Dominik Panka Euro 347,300
Stefan Schillhabel Euro 260,500
Javier Gomez Zapatero Euro 205,300
Hossein Ensan Euro 153,700
Antonin Duda Euro 108,200
Remi Wyrzykiewicz Euro 76,000
In the Euro10,000 buy-in High Roller, US poker pro and internet ace David Peters took the main prize and the honours after defeating Ivan Luca of Argentina in a tense heads up.
The competition attracted a field of 304 which created a prize pool of over Euro 3 million and enabled 39 players to cash.
Down to final table action, the survivors were David Peters, Ivan Luca, Viacheslav Goryachev from Russia, Artem Metalidi and Igor Yaroshevskyy from Ukraine, UK player Charles Carrel, Nick Petrangelo from the USA, and French ace Sylvain Loosli.
The last two players standing were Peters and Ivan Luca, who tried unsuccessfully to reach a chop agreement before getting down to business, with the American holding a 2 to 1 chip lead which he rapidly leveraged into a victory, claiming the Euro 597,000 first prize, the honours and a very nice Slyde watch.
It was his biggest pay-day yet in a career that has seen the young American win $3 million on the internet and a further $2 million playing in live tournaments.
Other final table pay-outs were:
Ivan Luca Argentina Euro 397,000
Viacheslav Goryachev Euro 290,500
Artem Metalidi Euro 234,500
Charles Carrel Euro 183,800
Nick Petrangelo Euro 139,000
Igor Yaroshevskyy Euro 102,000
Sylvain Loosli Euro 75,000
Nicola D'Anselmo Euro 62,200
