€10,300 High Roller
Day 1 Started
2015 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Malta
€10,300 High Roller
Day: 1
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2015 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Malta
Buy-in
€10,000
Prize Pool
€2,979,200
Entries
304
Level
30
Blinds
80,000 / 160,000
Ante
20,000
The High Rollers Continue Their Battle Today!
The European Poker Tour Malta Poker Festival continues today with the €10,000 High Roller event, and what an event this will be! After a very successful €25,000 High Roller, which was won by Dzmitry Urbanovich who beat a field of 63 entries and collected €572,300, the expectations for this event are very high. As a guideline for what is possible for today's event we've listed the previous €10,000 High Roller events of this EPT season.
| Festival | Winner | First Prize | Entries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barcelona | Ihar Soika | €747,200 | 295 |
| London | Andrew Chen | £394,200 | 127 |
| Prague | Andrey Zaichenko | €487,190 | 233 |
| PCA | Ilkin Garibli | $1,105,040* | 200 |
| Deauville | Josip SImunic | €309,170 | 102 |
* Denotes a $25,000 buy in
Of the players that won High Roller events this season we've spotted all expect for Zaichenko this week, and the expectation is that all the others will partake today.
The Main Event in Malta was a huge success with 895 players and as there are just 56 remaining in that event we expect all the top pros to enter this event today.
Reigning WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson, third-place finisher Jorryt van Hoof, GPI No 1. Ole Schemion, Big One for One Drop finalist Tobias Reinkemeier and EPT champions Mike McDonald, Ruben Visser, Dimitar Danchev and Martin Finger are among the expected players in today's event.
The €10,000 High Roller is a three-day event that you can follow live exclusively on PokerNews.com. We will bring you all the live coverage all throughout this event.
Level: 1
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 25
Shuffle Up and Deal!
Level 1
: 100/200, 25 ante
The cards are now in the air in the €10,000 High Roller tournament. All levels are one-hour in length, there's a short break after every second level and a 75-minute dinner break after the sixth level. The plan is to play 10 levels today.
Who's Who
Level 1
: 100/200, 25 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
The Great Name Debate: Ignat Liviu or Liviu Ignat
Level 1
: 100/200, 25 ante
There are some truly great online players out there better known by their screen names than their given names. Take "Isildur1" for example. For years he was online poker's most notorious player, but no one knew who he was. Eventually PokerStars rolled back the curtain and revealed him to be none other than Sweden's Viktor Blom.
Another moniker famous in the virtual realm is that of "0Human0," a Romanian player who cut his chops playing no-limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha on PokerStars. Like "Isildur1," the man behind the screen name remained a mystery for a good long while, but eventually it was revealed to be former engineering student Ignat Liviu. So it remained until today.
You see, in Romania it's traditional for one to give their family name first. So when you first meet the man behind "0Human0 " — who doesn't speak much English — he'll more than likely introduced himself as Ignat Liviu. As it happens, Ignat is among the 56 players returning to action in the EPT Malta Main Event today (follow updates from that event by clicking here), and he's actually been seated at the feature table. That means he'll get some airtime, and so the TV crew needed to be 100% on his name, which was listed as "Liviu Ignat" on his PokerStars ID.
A similar situation happened with Ionel Anton, who was reported the other way around for many years before making the final table of the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, where he eventually finished fourth for $675,000. He too was from Romania, so that was the first clue.
Still, when it came to Ignat, HendonMob and past reports had him as "Ignat Liviu," and he never corrected those who wrote it that way – we even did it in an interview with him back in 2012. Well, just because everyone is doing it doesn't make it right. It's been confirmed that Ignat is indeed his family name, meaning when it comes to spelling it out, it should be Liviu Ignat.
Now that his name has been sorted out, let us tell you a little more about "0Human0." Rather, we'll let Ignat tell you.
"I started playing poker about four years ago," Ignat previously told PokerNews. "At the end of 2007, I deposited $250 at Full Tilt and lost it. Then I deposited $250 at PokerStars and began playing $0.10/$0.25 no-limit hold’em and moved up in stakes using standard bankroll management.
"In January 2008, I was playing $0.50/$1.00, then in the summer $2/$4, and by the end of the year $5/$10. In 2009, I started playing $10/$20 NLH and then $25/$50, and in 2010 and 2011 I played any stake at NLH I could. I even started $25/$50 pot-limit Omaha too."
According to highstakesdb.com, Ignat’s biggest outright win came in $100/$200 PLO on February 23, 2012. In the hand, action was five-handed when “MaiseE” ($50,291.26) opened for $400 under the gun, Ilari “Ilari FIN” Sahamies ($99,135) three-bet to $1,700 from the cutoff and Ville Wahlbeck ($19,120) four-bet $6,000 from the button. Ignat ($37,925) made the call from the small blind, both “MaiseE” and Sahamies came along for the ride, and it was four-way action to the 
flop.
Ignat was first to act and checked, opening the door for “MaiseE” to fire out $13,300. Sahamies got out of the way, Wahlbeck called off his remaining $13,120 and Ignat woke up with a check-raise all in for $31,925. “MaiseE” made the call and the board completed 
and 
on the turn and river respectively. Ignat rolled over 
for Broadway, and it was good enough to pull in the $101,245 pot.
In addition to playing online, Ignat has padded his résumé with $220,545, with his biggest cash being $80,335 for a 14th-place finish in the EPT Prague Main Event back in December 2011.
Liviu “0Human0” Ignat’s Notable Live Tournament Results
| Date | Event | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 5, 2011 | EPT Prague €5,000 Main Event | 14th | $80,335 |
| January 31, 2012 | EPT Deauville €5,000 Main Event | 12th | $65,757 |
| May 6, 2013 | EPT Grand Final Main Event | 78th | $32,334 |
| October 21, 2011 | EPT San Remo €4,600 Main Event | 67th | $20,681 |
"I really like playing the EPT's. I try to play most of them, it’s like a nice holiday, and something else different from the daily routine," said Liviu, who began today 37th in chips with 312,000. Ignat has shown he knows how to go deep in EPT Main Events, but he's still looking for his first final table. Will it happen here in Malta? We'll definitely be keeping an eye on Ignat Liviu, errrrr we mean Liviu Ignat, in the Main Event.
Aggressive Start by Farrell
Level 1
: 100/200, 25 ante
Niall Farrell just raised before the flop from the hijack to 525 and Shannon Shorr three-bet from the button to 1,500. Both blinds folded and Farrell made the call.
The flop showed 
and Farrell checked to Shorr who bet 1,700. Farrell check-raised to 5,200 and with that raise he picked up the pot.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
55,000 | 5,000 |
|
|
39,000 | -11,000 |
More Familiar Faces
Level 1
: 100/200, 25 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
|
50,000 | 50,000 |
The First Five-Bet of the Day
Level 1
: 100/200, 25 ante
Sorel Mizzi opened under the gun for 500 and action folded to Joao Vieira in the cutoff who made it 1,600. Tomasz Cybulski in the big blind thought for some time before four-betting to 4,100. Mizzi knew enough and almost instantly folded. Vieira wasn't so eager to release his hand though, he five-bet to 10,100 and Cybulski folded.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
64,000 | 14,000 |
|
|
49,000 | -1,000 |
|
40,275 | -9,725 |
Sweet Start for Silver
Level 1
: 100/200, 25 ante
The player on the button raised to 600 and Juha Helppi called from the small blind after which Max Silver three-bet from the big to 2,700. Both the button and Helppi called creating three-way action on the flop.
The flop brought out 
and Helppi lead out for 4,500 and Silver was the only player that called.
On the turn the 
hit and Helppi checked to Silver after about 30 seconds and the Brit bet 7,200. Helppi tanked for several minutes before calling and the river was the 
.
Helppi checked again and this time Silver, after about a minute, opted to check behind. Helppi had to show first and showed 
, after which Silver took down the pot with 
.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
83,000 | 33,000 |
|
|
36,500 | -13,500 |