French Players Dominate EPT Malta Final Six But Panka Still Looms
The PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Malta Festival comes to thrilling conclusion today, bringing to an end 12 days of poker where 69 events were crammed in. The stop has already passed the 10,000 entries mark for only the third time in it's near 11-year history, so it's safe to say the decision to bring the tour to Malta has been wholly vindicated.
Both the High Roller and Main Event - the two blue ribbon events of the stop - will crown champions today. The Main Event will return for the final day with six players remaining, dominated by two French players who hold more than half of the chips in play between them. Valentin Messina and Jean Montury will hope to join the likes of Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Lucien Cohen and Ludovic Lacay as Fench EPT champions and will have lots of support today.
Here's how the final six line up:
| Seat | Player | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stefan Schillhabel | 5,515,000 |
| 2 | Javier Gomez Zapatero | 3,800,000 |
| 3 | Valentin Messina | 7,805,000 |
| 4 | Hossein Ensan | 865,000 |
| 5 | Dominik Panka | 1,680,000 |
| 6 | Jean Montury | 7,185,000 |
Sat in seat five is the last remaining EPT champion left in. Dominik Panka, the 2014 PCA champion and Polish player of the year, survived a bumpy birthday ride yesterday and heads into today send to last in chips. He has the massive advantage of being in this position before and the confident young man with have little fear running through his body.
Cards will be in the air at midday CET but PokerNews coverage will resume at 1:00 p.m. to be in line with the cards up coverage on EPT Live. Join us back here then to find out who will become the first ever EPT Malta Champion.