Georgios Zisimopoulos Wins Italian Poker Tour Malta Main Event for €142,205

March 25, 2015

Mo Nuwwarah

Georgios Zisimopoulos captured the title at the biggest event in Italian Poker Tour history, the IPT Malta Main Event, for €142,205. The score was the largest live cash the Greek has registered to date and pushed his live earnings to more than $500,000 to go with just under $2 million in online tournament cashes.

Zisimopoulos ended up taking home the lion's share of a five-way deal that awarded him €114,205, Nicolino di Carlo €119,585, Michael Feil €101,260, Jaroslaw Sikora €97,975, and Frederik Reusch €97,675, with Zisimopoulos adding €28,000 after outlasting his four fellow deal-makers.

The 1,285 runners the €1,100 event at Portomaso Casino drew smashed the previous IPT record of 1,010, set in Season 6 at Sanremo.

Final Table Results

Place	Player	Prize
1	Georgios Zisimopoulos	€142,205*
2	Jaroslaw Sikora	€97,975*
3	Nicolino di Carlo	€119,585*
4	Michael Feil	€101,260*
5	Frederik Reusch	€97,675*
6	Georgi Abuladze	€39,000
7	Ezio Nisoli	€29,800
8	Julian Track	€21,000

_{*Denotes a five-way deal.}

The huge turnout meant 191 players would be paid, and the money bubble was reached late in Day 2 of the tournament. Some big names registered cashes, including Ismael Bojang (174th), Jan Heitmann (158th), David Vamplew (145th), World Series of Poker Main Event champ Martin Jacobson (117th), Griffin Benger (114th), Matthias De Meulder (71st), Hugo Lemaire (33rd), Steve O'Dwyer (22nd), JC Alvarado (17th), and Bryan Paris (10th).

Julian Track, champion of European Poker Tour Prague in Season 10, was in solid shape to add an IPT title to his bag of trophies as he entered the final table in third place with 4.375 million in chips, however he was the first to go. According to coverage, with blinds at 40,000/80,000, Track three-bet to 365,000 after a Feil open to 165,000. Zisimopoulos woke up with a cold four-bet to 755,000 in the big blind, which was enough to chase away Feil but not Track, who responded by jamming for about 5 million. Zisimopoulos snap-called as he had A♣A♥ and saw his opponent turn over 5♣3♣ for a failed five-bet bluff. A pair of clubs on the flop gave Zisimopoulos a sweat, but the former EPT champ ended up with a mere pair of fives after all of the community cards came.

That pot left Track short-stacked, and he busted soon after. Ezio Nisoli followed him out the door in seventh when he shoved his last four big blinds in with K♦8♥ and was unable to improve against the 10♣10♦ of Sikora. It was Sikora scoring the next elimination as well when he called the 13 big blind under-the-gun shove of Georgi Abuladze, who held A♣7♠. Sikora had him dominated with 7♥7♣, and no help came for the Estonian online qualifier.

Play continued until the break, at which point an hour-long negotiation period took place before the aforementioned deal was reached that turned the remainder of the tournament into a winner-take-all.

That prompted Reusch to jam his last 3.7 million at 100,000/200,000 with 3♦3♠ only to be snapped off by Sikora's K♥K♠. No improvement came for Reusch.

Zisimopoulos made his surge three-handed, first picking off a bluff from di Carlo for a massive pot after leading third pair tiny and then calling a massive raise, then getting 10♥9♠ in on a 4♠9♥5♦ flop against Feil's A♦9♣ and spiking a ten on the river to bust the German. Those two pots left the Greek player with two-thirds of the chips, and he was able to roll his advantage into a win after winning a race to eliminate di Carlo and then getting lucky with A♥4♦ against Sikora's A♦K♦ in a preflop all in.