€5,300 Main Event Dia 3 | 2015 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Malta

2015-03-25 12:29 UTC+2

The Race to the Money on Day 3 of the EPT 11 Malta Main Event

zedmaster84

Sam Chartier in Charge at the Start of Day 3

After 14 levels and two days of tournament poker, the PokerStars European Poker Tour Malta Main Event has seen its field of 895 entries whittled down to just 186 hopefuls with the top 127 spots getting paid at least €9,120 for their efforts.

Day 3 is typically the money day and the bubble is expected to burst within the first three levels. As of today and until the end of the tournament, the level duration increases to 90 minutes each and Sam Chartier is leading the field with 465,500 in chips.

He is closely followed by Germany's Moritz Dietrich (460,000), Javier Rodriguez (442,300) and Ismail Kalkan (426,900) whereas UK's super star Sam Trickett completes the top five with a healthy stack of 380,100.

Plenty of other notables have made it through: Noah Vaillancourt (285,000), Sergio Aido (272,500), Valentin Messina (253,500), online beast Ignat "0Human0" Liviu (248,100), Alec Torelli (216,500), Mateusz Moolhuizen (211,400) and Giuliano Bendinelli (207,300) all bagged up above-average stacks.

Several EPT champions are still in as well: Jannick Wrang (237,100), PokerStars Sponsored Player Dominik Panka (197,300), Robin Ylitalo (196,000), Benny Spindler (149,400), PCA champion Kevin Schulz (127,000), David Vamplew (76,600), Sotirios Koutoupas (62,700) and Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody (58,000). 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion and Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel also returns to the table after bagging up 77,500 chips.

Play resumes in half an hour from now at 12:00 p.m. local time with level 15 and blinds at 1,500 - 3,000 and a running ante of 400. After each level there is a break of 20 minutes and Day 3 is expected to bag and tag around 20:45 local time. Make sure to tune into the PokerNews live reporting to find out who makes the cut, has to leave empty-handed and will remain to become the first EPT Malta champion on Saturday!

Tags: Alec Torelli Benny Spindler David Vamplew Dominik Panka EPT Malta Giuliano Bendinelli Ignat Liviu Ismail Kalkan Jake Cody Jannick Wrang Javier Rodriguez Kevin Schulz Luis Rodriguez Mateusz Moolhuizen Noah Vaillancourt Robin Ylitalo Sam Chartier Sam Trickett Samuel Chartier Sergio Aido Sotirios Koutoupas Valentin Messina

2015-03-25 13:34 UTC+2

Diamonds For Angell

[user20283]

Nível 15 : 1,500/3,000, 400 ante

Brett Angell started the third day of the EPT Malta Main Event with a huge triple up that launched him into contention. Earlier this week PokerNews writer Marc Convey spoke to Angell about his highly successful run on the UKIPT, and right now he's on course for another deep run.

Just now Angell raised to 6,000 under the gun and Stefan Ivanov three-bet from the button to 14,000. Ran Ilani four-bet all in for 48,000 from the big blind and Angell went all in for 56,000 himself. Ivanov called and with that he put two players at risk.

Ivanov:
Ilani:
Angell:

The board ran out and Angell hit a perfect board that gave him the nut flush. Ilani was knocked out, Ivanov took a hit and Angell now sits on a very competitive stack.

Jogador	Fichas	Oscilação
Brett Angell	170,000 130,800	130,800
Stefan Ivanov	95,000 -25,600	-25,600
Ran Ilani	Eliminado

Tags: Brett Angell Stefan Ivanov Ran Ilani

2015-03-25 13:41 UTC+2

Cody Busts to Lazzaretto

zedmaster84

Nível 15 : 1,500/3,000, 400 ante

Team PokerStars Pro and former EPT champion Jake Cody three-bet shoved out of the big blind and initial raiser and big stack Filippo Lazzaretto immediately called, turning over his . Cody was at risk with and the flop was bad news for the Brit.

Cody needed running threes or cards for a split pot in order to stay in the tournament. However, the dealer burned and turned the on the turn and it was all over. Cody grabbed his belongings, said "good game" and left his chair, bumping fists with his opponents while the already meaningless appeared on the river.

Jogador	Fichas	Oscilação
Filippo Lazzaretto	410,000 61,900	61,900
Jake Cody	Eliminado

Tags: Filippo Lazzaretto Jake Cody

2015-03-25 14:31 UTC+2

Eight Players Remain in the Hunt to Become the EPT's First Double Male Champion

Nível 15 : 1,500/3,000, 400 ante

The hunt for the first double European Poker Tour champion was a story that lasted almost ten seasons and nearly 100 stops. While other major tours around the globe celebrated double, triple and even quadruple champions, the EPT celebrated only new champions at every stop.

The EPT grew into the biggest and richest poker tour in the world and it seemed everyone wanted in. Because of that, it became a lot harder to get out with one trophy, let alone two. Vicky Coren finally got the monkey off the tour’s back by taking down EPT Sanremo in Season 10, seven seasons and a 82 events after she won EPT London on her home turf.

Now that Coren’s won two, what do we look for now? The first man to win two titles, is what!

Generally, a Main Event would get to Day 3 and media covering the event would naturally start seeking out all remaining champions. As a tournament reporter, one gets great satisfaction from tracking the eventual winner’s progress from a long way out. To be able to track a player to a second title would take it to another level.

Here in Malta we’ve made Day 3 of the Main Event so it’s time to seek out those double-chasing players. Eight in all made it through to the start of the day and are listed below in a table showing their previous win and stacks at the start of play.

Name	Title	Chips	Big Blinds
Jannick Wrang	EPT8 Campione	237,100	79
Dominik Panka	EPT10 PCA	197,300	65
Robin Ylitalo	EPT10 London	196,000	65
Benny Spindler	EPT8 London	149,400	49
Kevin Schulz	EPT11 PCA	127,000	42
David Vamplew	EPT7 London	76,600	25
Sotirios Koutoupas	EPT10 Deauville	62,700	20
Jake Cody	EPT6 Deauville	58,000	19

All would love to become the first male double champion, but Kevin Schulz, the 2015 PCA Main Event champ, has another achievement to aim for that the others can’t – to be the first player to win two titles in one season. If he were to achieve that it would be remarkable and we could be waiting another 20 seasons without it being repeated.

If you had checked on his stack with 15 minutes to go before the end of Day 2, you would’ve said he had no chance to win. That's because he was sitting with just 15,000 at the time. Somehow the American managed to spin that up to 127,000 by the end of the day to have real momentum for Day 3.

Two players who won’t be joining Vicky Coren as a double champion in Malta are Jake Cody and Sotirios Koutoupas. The Team PokerStars Pro and last season’s Deauville champion came into the day as the two shortest stacks of our former champions and failed to make it past the first level.

Cody three-bet all in with ace-three but Filippo Lazzaretto, who had opened with big slick, called and flopped a king. The Brit was drawing dead by the turn. Koutoupas made it to the river in a pot with Raphael Blouet but folded, which left him short. He busted in unknown action soon after.

Be sure to stick with the PokerNews coverage throughout this Day 3 as we’ll try to keep a close eye on the six players who can still mark out their own little patch of poker history.

Tags: Benny Spindler David Vamplew Dominik Panka EPT Malta Filippo Lazzaretto Jake Cody Jannick Wrang Kevin Schulz Robin Ylitalo Sotirios Koutoupas Victoria Coren

2015-03-25 15:03 UTC+2

Torelli Gets Lucky With Huge Move

zedmaster84

Nível 16 : 2,000/4,000, 500 ante

Arriving at the table of Alec Torelli, the American had cut out a three-bet to 23,000 on the button and Jan Przysucha then four-bet to 58,000 out of the big blind. "58?" Torelli asked the dealer and then pondered about his decision for more than four minutes. Suddenly he announced "I am all in" and now Przysucha asked for a count.

The Czech then called when it was 226,000 to go and flipped over his . Torelli's move with left him in desperate need of help and the dealer burned and turned the board of . Two pair on the river saw Torelli double up in spectacular fashion and he quickly added "I know I made a mistake" before kissing his hole cards and throwing them into the muck.

Jogador	Fichas	Oscilação
Alec Torelli	466,500 240,000	240,000
Jan Przysucha	95,000 -150,000	-150,000

Tags: Alec Torelli Jan Przysucha

2015-03-25 16:17 UTC+2

Aces on the Bubble Give Aido the Chip Lead

[user20283]

Nível 16 : 2,000/4,000, 500 ante

We just witnessed a monster pot, and up until this point the biggest pot of the tournament, between Sergio Aido and Raphael Blouet.

It started with a series of folds as the action got all the way to Sergio Aido in the small blind. Aido called the big blind and Blouet raised it up to 12,500.

Aido opted to three-bet making it 34,000 and Blouet called. On the flop popped up and Aido bet 32,000, Blouet called.

The turn was the and Aido bet 70,000. This time Blouet went for the raise, making it 145,000. Aido went into the tank for several minutes before ultimately making the call with 116,500 chips left behind.

The river was the and Aido instantly checked.

"All in," Blouet calmly announced and Aido sighed as he leaned back in his chair.

Two minutes went by and all of a sudden, with the eyes of at least a dozen other players looking at him, he tossed in chips to make the call.

Blouet wanted to muck his cards right away, but since this was an all-in showdown they had to be shown. Blouet had and Aido raked in a massive double up with .

"Wow," was heard from the mouths of Dan Smith and Steve Watts who were also at this table, and Aido is now the new tournament chip leader as we are on the money bubble.

Jogador	Fichas	Oscilação
Sergio Aido	680,000 407,500	407,500
Raphael Blouet	125,000 -205,000	-205,000

Tags: Dan Smith Raphael Blouet Segio Aido Steve Watts

2015-03-25 16:32 UTC+2

Atanas Kavrakov Bubbles the 2015 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Malta

Webjoker

Nível 16 : 2,000/4,000, 500 ante

Atanas Kavrakov (blue hoodie, Seat 7) bubbles the EPT Malta Main Event 2015 to Bruno Volkmann (Seat 8)

Bulgarian Atanas Kavrakov, winner of the WPT National Cyprus in January this year, has been eliminated from the tournament in 128th position. Already severely short stacked, he shoved his last 36,000 (nine big blinds) from under the gun plus one. His neighbor Bruno Volkmann from Brazil made the call and action quickly folded around.

Kavrakov immediately showed his but wasn't suppose to, the cards had to stay closed until action on all tables was done. It took some time before the show continued, only after a five minutes Kavrakov found out he was up against .

The flop came and Kavrakov added a flush draw to his aces and kings outs. What started out as a 55/45 situation in favor of Volkmann, was now turned around with Kavrakov taking a small lead.

The Bulgarian all in player still needed to hit though, and would fail to do so. The on the turn was a blank, and so was the on the river. Volkmann made a full house and Kavrakov was left with nothing but a busted flush draw and busted dreams.

With the departure of Atanas Kavrakov the remaining 127 players are all in the money, guaranteed €9,120.

Jogador	Fichas	Oscilação
Bruno Volkmann	360,000 46,000	46,000
Atanas Kavrakov	Eliminado

Tags: Atanas Kavrakov Bruno Volkmann

2015-03-25 17:11 UTC+2

Duhamel Scores the Lucky Double

Webjoker

Nível 17 : 2,500/5,000, 500 ante

In one of the first hands after the break, Jonathan Duhamel shoved all in for 65,500 from the cutoff. Dorin Rauta on the button thought for some time, and made the call. Both blinds quickly folded.

Dorin Rauta:
Jonathan Duhamel:

The flop came and Duhamel found a pair. The on the turn bricked but the on the river made Duhamel escape elimination.

"Lucky" said Duhamel to Rauta with an almost apologetic voice. "Team Pro, it's normal" said Rauta with a smile while shaking hands with the man he just doubled up.

Jogador	Fichas	Oscilação
Dorin Rauta	295,000 -35,000	-35,000
Jonathan Duhamel	142,500 65,000	65,000

Tags: Jonathan Duhamel Dorin Rauta

2015-03-25 17:29 UTC+2

PokerStars/EPT Well Represented at Tonight's European Poker Awards

Nível 17 : 2,500/5,000, 500 ante

Day 3 of the European Poker Tour Malta Main Event is taking center stage this afternoon, but tonight, after players have bagged and tagged, attention will shift to the 14th Annual European Poker Awards (EPA). The awards, organized by the Global Poker Index, will be held next door at the luxurious Hilton Hotel, marking the first time in its history that it hasn't been held in France.

The EPA is sponsored by PokerStars and Roger Dubuis, and will recognize players, industry figures, and events by doling out 13 awards to those who contributed the most to the growth of the game in 2014.

For instance, Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree will be honored as the GPI Female Player of the Year, while EPT regular Ole Schemion will take down GPI Player of the Year honors. Interestingly, both PokerStars and the EPT have strong ties to other categories.

EPT Live commentary is nominated for Media Content of the Year (other nominees include: Nosebleed documentary by Victor Saumont; Neil Stoddart's pictures; and Remko Rinkema's videos), while EPT President Edgar Stuchly is nominated for Industry Person of the Year (alongside Hermance Blum, General Manager WPT Europe; King's Casino Leon Tsoukernik; and Dusk Till Dawn owner Rob Young).

Likewise, PokerStars' Helping Hands Charity Tournament and partner Right to Play, Quintessentially Foundation are two of the nominees in Charitable Initiative of the Year (along with REG Charity and WPT UK Charity Raffle), and Shark Cage has been nominated for Poker Innovation of Initiative of the Year (along with Expresso, Winamax Poker; Unibet launching its own gaming platform; and the WPT 500 expanding into new markets).

Regarding Events of the Year, EPT Main Event in Barcelona, Prague and Vienna earned nominations in the buy-in €2,000+ category (the other nominee being Master Classics of Poker Amsterdam), while the Estrellas Poker Tour Barcelona and Eureka Poker Tour Prague got the nod in buy-ins up to €2,000 (the other two being Battle of Malta and WPT500 at Dusk Till Dawn).

Meanwhile, reigning World Series of Poker Player of the Year and Team Pro George Danzer is nominated for Breakout Player of the Year alongside PokerStars-Sponsored Player Dominik Panka, EPT Grand Final runner-up Jack Salter; and EPT Deauville third-place finisher Oliver Price.

"Definitely excited," Panka told PokerNews on the last break. "It's like poker's Oscars. I'm very flattered that I am nominated."

Panka is also nominated for Tournament Performance of the Year for his victory in the 2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure where he denied Mike "Timex" McDonald his second EPT title.

"I think Tournament Performance of the Year seems better than Breakout Player of the Year, but I think Martin Jacobson, Davidi Kitai, and Vicky Coren played amazing final tables. I can't imagine they will pick me," Panka admitted. "To be honest, I think I have a decent shot at Breakout Player of the Year. No expectations, just fun."

Regardless of whether or not he makes it through Day 3, Panka confirms that he will be attending the awards ceremony scheduled for 8:30 p.m.

"I told them I would go, and I'm a man of my word," Panka deadpanned.

With two nominations, Panka has double the chances of walking away with an award, but as he pointed out, he faces some stiff competition. In the Breakout Tournament Performance of the Year category, that includes Jacobson, the reigning WSOP Main Event champ who overcame a field of 6,683 players to win the $10,000,000 first-place prize.

"Just to be nominated, out of all the tournaments, my performance is nominated," said Jacobson, who is also in the money here in the EPT Malta Main Event. "That's pretty cool itself, so to win it would be awesome."

Jacobson also took a moment to reflect back on his performance in the WSOP Main Event: "It was very consistent until the last day, which was the first big pot I lost, when I dropped to fourth to eighth in chips. Then the final table bubble burst right after that. Then I just did a lot of work before the final table to make sure I was prepared as possible. The final table went really smooth as well obviously."

Jacobson confirmed that he will also be at the awards ceremony, though right now his focus is on surviving Day 3. Before we let him get back to it, we had to know, if he won an European Poker Award, would his display it next to his WSOP gold bracelet?

"I haven't managed to get it back to Europe yet," Jacobson said with a laugh, revealing that the bracelet is still in Vegas. That said, if he wins an EPA, or the EPT Main Event trophy for that matter, don't count on him leaving it behind in Malta!

PokerNews will be attending the European Poker Awards, so be sure to stay tuned in the coming days for results, videos, and more.

Tags: Dominik Panka European Poker Awards PokerNews Live Blog Feature

2015-03-25 19:29 UTC+2

No Delay As Sergio Aido Flies Up the Leader Board

Webjoker

Nível 18 : 3,000/6,000, 1,000 ante

One of the fastest-acting players on the circuit also now has one of the biggest stacks. PokerStars Blog watches as Sam Chartier comes to sit next to Sergio Aido and attempts to halt the Spanish cyclone.

Tags: Samuel Chartier Sam Chartier Sergio Aido