€5,300 Main Event Day 1a | 2015 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Malta

03-22-2015 12:01 UTC+2

MyStack App Available Throughout the EPT Malta Main Event

Chad Holloway

The PokerNews MyStack App is available for players here in the EPT Malta Main Event, allowing players to directly update their chip count on the PokerNews Live Reporting page for their friends and family to see.

You can download the app absolutely free for iPhone or Android now to get started. Then, create a new PokerNews account or update your current one to start updating your status immediately. Your followers can see all the live action that you're involved in.

Be forewarned, however, any abuse of the app will result in account suspension or termination.

03-22-2015 12:17 UTC+2

Welcome to Day 1a of the 2015 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Malta Main Event

Chad Holloway

The European Poker Tour's first-ever stop to the island nation of Malta has proven a tremendous success, and the Main Event hasn't even begun! That's because two days ago Poland's Dzmitry Urbanovich topped a field of 88 entries to win the €25,500 High Roller €572,300, and then yesterday the long-awaited Global Poker Masters (GPM) kicked off their Playoff round, which saw the elimination of Team UK from the competition.

That doesn't even take into account the numerous side events taking place as part of the EPT Malta Poker Festival, which is hosting the largest number of tournaments ever at a PokerStars live event. There are also be up to 35 EPT-run cash game tables operating 24 hours a day.

The GPM will continue today at the Hilton Hotel, but in the main ballroom the EPT Malta will come to a head with the cornerstone €5,300 buy-in Main Event. Over the next few days some of the game's best will take their shot in this tournament including a long list of Team PokerStars Pros. For instance, World Series of Poker Player of the Year George Danzer, EPT Sanremo champ Liv Boeree, 2010 world champion Jonathan Duhamel, and the world’s top female player Vanessa Selbst are all here, as is Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo and PokerStars-sponsored PCA 2014 champion Dominik Panka. Team Online will be represented by Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Ike Haxton and Vito Barone.

Not all of those players will play today (some are still alive in the GPM), but we expect plenty of notables to test their mettle here on Day 1a.

Players will start with 30,000 in chips, and the plan for the day is to play eight 75-minute levels, meaning play should end tonight around 11:45 p.m. Click here to see the entire Main Event structure. Cards will be in the air at Noon local time, which is just under an hour from now. Stay tuned as the PokerNews Live Reporting Team brings you all the latest and greatest from the EPT Malta Main Event.

03-22-2015 13:54 UTC+2

Tureniec the First Player Eliminated from EPT Malta Main Event

Christian Zetzsche

Level 1 : 50/100, 0 ante

After a raise to 250 and the call of Michael Tureniec, Ryan McEathron also flat-called out of the blinds and they saw a three-way flop of . The initial preflop aggressor bet 550 and Tureniec raised to 1,500, which was met by a check-raise to 4,300 from PokerStars qualifier McEathron for 4,300 in total.

Only Tureniec called and shoved the turn after his opponent from Canada had led for 8,500. McEathron called the 26,000 all in with pocket sevens and Tureniec's pocket threes didn't find the one remaining out in the deck anymore.

Player	Chips	Progress
Ryan McEathron	70,000 70,000	70,000
Michael Tureniec	Busted

Tags: Michael Tureniec Ryan McEathron

03-22-2015 14:41 UTC+2

Main Event Underway with More than 200 Players Competing on Day 1a

Chad Holloway

Level 2 : 75/150, 0 ante

According to a PokerStars Press release, more than 200 players are competing on Day 1a of the eagerly-awaited €5,300 EPT Malta Main Event. Some 275 players have qualified for the event online. Among those already in seats are Team PokerStars Pros Jan Heitmann and Marcin Horecki as well as Team Sports Star Fatima Moreira de Melo and PokerStars-sponsored players Miss Finland Sara Chafak and 2014 PCA champ Dominik Panka.

Along with Panka, there are several other EPT champs chasing a second title including Dimitar Danchev (PCA), Jannick Wrang (EPT Campione), Oleksii Khoroshenin (EPT Vienna), Ruben Visser (EPT London), Martin Finger (EPT Prague), Antonio Buonanno (EPT Grand Final) and Martin Schleich (EPT Barcelona).

Other big name who've turned up include World Series of Poker bracelet winner Barny Boatman, WSOP Main Event finalists Jorryt van Hoof and Martin Staszko, Stephen Chidwick, Shyam Srinivasan, Jeff Rossiter, Marc Etienne McLaughlin, Sam Chartier and EPT €25k High Roller finalist Nick Petrangelo, who won his EPT Main Event seat online on PokerStars. Joao Vieira is also amongst today's entries, the Portuguese player is chasing the EPT Player of the Year title, and currently in third position behind Davidi Kitai and Vladimir Troyanovskiy.

Here's a look at the Season 11 EPT Main Events so far:

Event	Players	Winner	Prize
Barcelona	1,496	Andre Lettau (Germany)	€794,058
London	675	Sebastian Pauli (Germany)	£499,700
Prague	1,107	Stephen Graner (USA)	€969,000
PCA	816	Kevin Schulz (USA)	$1,491,580
Deauville	592	Ognyan Dimov (Bulgaria)	€543,700

03-22-2015 15:15 UTC+2

Poker and Malta Get On Very Well

MarcC

Level 2 : 75/150, 0 ante

Many of the Day 1A players just arrived yesterday, and a large proportion of them are visiting the island for the first time. They may not know what to do, but that Malta is a truly a brilliant place to play poker.

The Portomaso Casino (specifically) is attached to the huge Hilton Hotel, and they share a large conference space that’s perfect to host a modern European Poker Tour festival. If you’re unfortunate enough not to be staying in the Hilton then there’s a huge amount of other options within a five-minute radius. There's also great food options, the weather is amazing for nines months a year, and everyone you meet seems friendly. Basically it has everything one would want to host a poker tournament. One can't help but wonder why the EPT has taken so long to come.

Let’s forget the EPT for a minute though and look at the broader picture — the history the island has with poker. The EPT has been the first to do many things, but coming to Malta is not one of them.

The Portomaso Casino has been hosting poker events as far back as 2008 when the Malta Poker Tour held three €100,000 guaranteed events. Canadian’s Tommy Pavlicek has the honor of winning the first-ever event, taking home €30,000 in the process. The next 18 months saw similar festivals held, and then something special happened to the island, the Italian poker boom.

Malta is around 180 kilometers away from Sicily and less than an hour by plane from many major Italian cities. It’s also free from any regulatory restrictions, so Italian poker tournament organizers had found a great place to host events. It wasn’t long before PokerStars and Pagano Events took notice, bringing the Italian Poker Tour (IPT) to these shores for the first time in November 2010, during the tour’s second season. They held five events with a €2,200 Main Event won by Michal Polchlopek for €190,000. It was a success and the tour has been back many times since.

Almost every month, in the four and half years since that first IPT, the Portomaso casino has hosted poker events and not just those affiliated to online poker sites. The Finnish, Swedish and Israeli poker championships have all been here at least once, all leaving the tight regulatory restrictions of their own countries for the open arms of Malta.

Despite the fact that poker has a lot of skill to it, luck also plays a big part in the game. That means – for better or worse – there’s always been a crossover with the gaming industry. Back in 2011 the Maltese government introduced favorable corporate and gaming tax regimes in attempt to boost inward investment. It worked, as many start-ups and established companies – including PokerStars – flocked here and set up offices.

The gaming boom has continued to this day and the island is fast gaining a reputation as the gaming capital of Europe. The fact that the European economy is recovering fast as well means this could well be just the beginning of a very fruitful relationship between Malta, poker, gaming, PokerNews and hopefully you!

Tags: PokerNews Live Blog Feature Malta

03-22-2015 16:48 UTC+2

Shetta Busts Barbosa

Christian Zetzsche

Level 3 : 100/200, 0 ante

After the flop, Joao Barbosa ended up being all in for his last 18,000 chips after a raising war with Sami Shetta and had a huge draw in . Shetta held the for bottom set and the on the turn left Barbosa with two outs. The river was an ace but not of clubs, instead the meaningless .

Player	Chips	Progress
Sami Shetta	75,000 20,000	20,000
Joao Barbosa	Busted

Tags: Joao Barbosa Sami Shetta

03-22-2015 18:54 UTC+2

Show Some Respect To Malta’s Poker Mama

Chad Holloway

Level 5 : 150/300, 25 ante

She is friends to everyone who is anyone in the Maltese poker world, including Team PokerStars Online’s Ike Haxton. PokerStars Blog catches up with Jackie Cachia, affectionately known as “Poker Mama”. Click here to read all about it.

Tags: PokerStars Blog

03-22-2015 19:27 UTC+2

CONVersation: Brewster’s Millions Quick-Fire Edition

MarcC

Level 5 : 150/300, 25 ante

We grabbed a moment with a few players and had them give answer to a fake scenario.

"PokerStars have added €100,000 to the first place prize here at EPT Malta but there’s a catch: you have 24 hours to spend it from the moment you win. What’s your plan?"

Team PokerStars Pro Theo Jorgensen: I’m going to invite all my friends and have a monster party. I’ll get some really good music so I'll need to hire a band. I’m really hooked on a Canadian band called Bare Naked Ladies or an English band called the Beautiful South – so I’d hire them if I could afford them and get them here in time.

Marvin Rettenmaier: Wow! This is not easy. I don’t really need a car, I actually don’t really need anything and I’d feel bad wasting that much money on a party or something. I would get you something! Whatever you want but maybe not for the whole hundred thousand. Ah, I know! I’d get some poker lessons with Ike [Haxton], I’ve heard they’re $3,000/hour.

Mustapha Kanit: Oh wow! I’d probably buy a car if I have 24 hours and I have to spend it. I’m a lazy guy so it’s easy to spend it all on a car. The funny thing is I don’t even have a license!

Dan Smith: I don’t know what Ibiza is like at this time of year but I’d charter a jet or helicopter there, depending on what’s more feasible, and I think we’d all have a party!

Ludovic Geilich: I’d play dice at the closest table I could find. I’d also give half to charity. So, fifty thousand to charity and gamble the other half. I’d hope to have some profit at the end of the 24 hours and I’d share all that between friends and myself.

Sorel Mizzi: Three words – hookers and blow! No, 100k in 24hours? I would buy gold, obviously, and convert it into cash later. That’s the ultimate answer but if I couldn’t find gold, hookers and blow.

John O’Shea: I’d punt it on a bet and hope to spin it up. What ever is on next Saturday, it’d all go on that. It’d be a quick way to spend the money and get rid of it in 24 hours.

Antoly Filatov: I’m going to buy everything I can find here in Malta and then take it all back to Russia and sell it for twice the price. Then I’d have €200,000 and that’s a plan, all tax-free too!

Tags: Dan Smith John O'Shea Marvin Rettenmaier Mustapha Kanit Sorel Mizzi Theo Jorgensen

03-22-2015 20:46 UTC+2

Srinivasan Eliminated

Christian Zetzsche

Level 6 : 200/400, 50 ante

Serdar Demiroglu limped for 400 and Shyam Srinivasan raised to 1,400 from one seat over. Everyone else got out of the way and Demiroglu called to see a flop of . Demiroglu check-raised from 1,400 to 10,000 and called the shove of the Canadian for 28,700 with .

The PCA finalist turned over his for the nut straight but another ten on the turn immediately destroyed all his hopes for another deep run.

Player	Chips	Progress
Serdar Demiroglu	78,000
Shyam Srinivasan	Busted

Tags: Serdar Demiroglu Shyam Srinivasan

03-22-2015 22:59 UTC+2

Torelli & Hajiyev Tangle in Large Pot

Chad Holloway

Level 7 : 250/500, 50 ante

We happened upon a hand already in progress involving Ramin Hajiyev and Alec Torelli. There was already a considerable about in the pot when the former bet 17,100 on the turn and the latter called from the button.

When the completed the board on the river, Hajiyev thought for a solid minute before checking, and Torelli took an equal amount of time before moving all in for roughly 35,000.

Hajiyev hit the tank hard.

"You have jacks?" Torelli eventually asked.

"I do have jacks," Hajiyev replied, sounding a bit impressed. The man from Azerbaijan gave it about 30 seconds more thought, and then released his hand.

With that, Torelli chipped up to 86,400 while Hajiyev dropped to 41,300.

Tags: Alec Torelli Ramin Hajiyev