Josip Simunic raised under the gun plus one to 1,200 and a player in late position three-bet to 2,800. The action folded back to the EPT Deauville High Roller winner, who's sporting his Slyde watch, and he made the call.
The flop brought out and Simunic check-called 3,000. On the turn the hit and this time Simunic opted to surrender his hand after he was faced with a bet of 7,600.
Simunic has had a day filled with swings so far, his peak being 45,000 and his low 8,000, on a tough table with Griffin Benger and Carlos Chadha.
Ivan Luca defended his small blind to see a flop of and the Argentinian as well as Christopher Andler invested 3,550 chips to see the turn. Luca fired 7,575 and was called by Andler to check the river.
Andler pushed his blue chips forward and Luca called off for around 13,000 chips with . The Swede had that beat with and scored the knockout.
JC Alvarado managed to get three streets of value with pocket aces to swap places in the counts with Balasz Botond.
He raised to 1,500 from the hijack and the Eureka Prague champion defended his big blind to see an flop come down. Alvarado continued for 1,600 and Botond check-called to the turn where he did the same for another 3,400. The completed the board and Botond paid off another 12,000 but mucked upon seeing his Mexican opponent's .
Suddenly Bjorn Wiesler appeared on table 19 and now shares the table with Fabio Sperling. Both Germans had been on the final table of the EPT Prague Main Event this past December and Wiesler just won a big pot off Emil Patel to renew his hopes of another deep run.
The board was already complete and Patel had checked. Wiesler asked the dealer to spread the pot and then bet 15,000, which was just over pot size. Patel stared at the board and his opponent, gave it some more thought and called. Wiesler then flipped over his for a set and that won the pot.
Vanessa Selbst was in the tank on the river. She was in the under the gun seat and facing a 9,000 bet from Leonardo Romeo two seats along. The board read and the Team PokerStars Pro seemed at a loss what to do.
All of a sudden she seemed to come to her senses and flicked in the call and was shown by Leonardo Romeo. She opened , scooped in the pot and said to her neighbour, "I don't get to hit that card and fold!"
Gabi Livshitz finished runner up in last December's €330 Eureka Prague Cup with 1,546 entries. The €44,560 he picked up in Prague wasn't the only reason we had him on our radar ever since, the Israeli is known for talking a whole lot at the table as well.
Up until a couple of minutes ago we hand't spotted him yet, but just now he did attract out attention. It wasn't because of his talking, it was because we heard the 'all in and a call' from one table over. Livshitz got his chips in good with kings against ace king, but an ace popped up on the board to send Livshitz back home.
The EPT Malta Main Event is in full swing, but before getting to this point, dozens of other players won "Spadies" in the long list of side events. In case you didn't know, the EPT Malta is playing host to 69 events total, more than any other EPT festival in history.
Urbanovich Captures 2nd, then 3rd, Titles of EPT Malta Festival
Dzmitry Urbanovich, the €25,000 High Roller champ, took down his second tourney of the EPT Malta Poker Festival, the €1k NL Deepstack Turbo Big Ante for €35,200. While waiting for his winner pic to be taken, Urbanovich was busy playing the PokerStars Sunday Million on his iPad. Urbanovich is also a man who, after winning €572,300 in the High Roller, entered a €500 buy-in event and made the final table.
There were 156 players in the Deepstack Turbo Big Ante creating a €151,320 prize pool with 22 paid. Frenchman Massou Cohen seemed pretty happy with his second place finish; EPT Deauville champion Ognyan Dimov min-cashed the event for €1,750.
Event #31 €1,000 NL Deepstack Turbo Big Ante
Buy-in
Entrants
Prize Pool
€1,000 + €100
156
€151,320
Dzmitry Urbanovich
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Dzmitry Urbanovich
Poland
€35,200
2
Massou Cohen
France
€23,800
3
Ranno Sootla
Estonia
€15,900
4
Giulio Astarita
Italy
€13,000
5
Roberto Morra
Italy
€10,400
6
Marios Eracleous
Cyprus
€8,170
7
Domenico De Francesco
Italy
€6,000
8
Jean Montury
France
€4,400
9
Salvatore Crapanzano
Italy
€3,500
As if that wasn't enough, less than an hour ago the youngster from Poland captured his third title (and he hasn't even entered the Main Event yet.
Here's how PokerStars officials described his most recent victory:
Last night, after official EPT photographer Neil Stoddart had finished taking Dzmitry Urbanovich’s second winner pic of the festival, the 19-year-old Pole said: “See you soon!” Well “soon” has turned out to be the very next day as Urbanovich has just beaten Jack Salter heads-up to win today’s €5,000 NL Turbo for €110,000. This is now the third EPT trophy that Urbanovich has picked up at the EPT Malta Poker Festival and it’s still only Day 1b!
Urbanovich started his incredible performance by defeating some of the best players in the world in the special €25,000 High Roller for €572,300. A relatively early finish in that last on Friday meant he had to time to enter the €500 Midnight Turbo – he made the final. Yesterday he won the €1,000 NL Deepstack Turbo Big Ante for €35,200 and just now he banked another €110,000 for winning the €5,000 NL Turbo. You might think it was about time Urbanovich thought about entering the Main Event – but no, he’s going to play the €2,000 NL Turbo first – that started a couple of hours ago and he was impatient to get in to it.
Johnson Takes Down the IPT High Roller
Eureka Prague champion Keith Johnson won the Italian Poker Tour €2,000 High Roller at the EPT Malta Poker Festival after cutting a heads-up deal with German player Oliver Weis. The Brit snagged €144,500 for his victory after carving his way through a very tough field on the final day.
Among those who cashed in the event, which attracted 473 players with a €917,620 prize pool, were three-time WSOP bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche (4th for €63,320, Artur Koren (5th, €13,850), Pierre Neuville (6th, €39,200) and Ludovic Geilich (10th, €13,850). There were 63 players in the money including Andrea Benelli, Mike Watson, Team PokerStars Pro Christophe De Meulder, Michel Abecassis, Tom Hall, 2014 WSOP ME champion Martin Jacobson and Sergio Aido.
Event #18 €2,000 IPT High Roller
Buy-in
Entrants
Prize Pool
€2,000 + €200
473
€917,620
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Keith Johnson
UK
€144,500*
2
Oliver Weis
Germany
€144,500*
3
Grzegorz Wyraz
Poland
€80,000
4
Dominik Nitsche
Germany
€63,320
5
Artur Koren
Germany
€50,000
6
Pierre Neuville
Belgium
€39,200
7
Zhapar Sultanov
Kazakhstan
€29,300
8
Noah Vaillancourt
Canada
€20,900
9
Daniel Erlandsson
Sweden
€16,700
*Denotes heads-up deal
Garzon Finishes as the Last Woman Standing
Rosario Garzon came all the way from Madrid to play the €200 Women’s Event and her victory made it all worthwhile. Before taking down the €200 event for a lifetime best cash of €4,000, the 64-year-old, who was being railed by her husband throughout the tourney, said she was surprised at how aggressively the women played.
"I didn’t think it would be like this!," she said. She beat Canadian EPT regular Elizabeth Bennet-Martin heads up to snag her first-ever trophy. There were 70 entries in the tourney creating a €13,580 prize pool with nine paid. EPT London Women’s Event winner Jackie Cachia bust the event, but her partner Lina Teuma finished fourth for €1,400.
Event #19 €200 Women's Event
Buy-in
Entrants
Prize Pool
€200 + €20
70
€14,000
Rosario Garzon
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Rosario Garzon
Spain
€4,000
2
Elizabeth Bennet-Martin
Canada
€2,800
3
Eleonora Stefano
Italy
€1,850
4
Lina Teuma
Malta
€1,400
5
Johanna Jackli
Finland
€1,100
6
Tsveterina Pavlova
Malta
€850
7
Dalila Chaouch
France
€660
8
Julie Alexander
UK
€520
9
Oluwashola Akindele
USA
€400
Quintas Reigns Supreme in Hyperturbo
Portugal’s Jose Quintas the €500 Midnight Hyperturbo at the EPT Malta Poker Festival. The EPT regular snagged the trophy and €23,490 first prize after beating Italian Luca Fiorini heads-up. There were 229 players in the event creating a €111,065 prize pool with 31 paid. Others who cashed included Mikhail Korotkikh, Jan Bendik, George Tavoularis (who has already won two Flipout events at the festival), Lasse Frost and Bernard Boutbol.
Event #25 €500 NL Midnight Hyperturbo
Buy-in
Entrants
Prize Pool
€500 + €50
229
€111,065
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Jose Quintas
Portugal
€23,490
2
Luca Fiorini
Italy
€15,810
3
Mikhail Korotkikh
Russia
€11,150
4
Jan Bendik
Slovakia
€9,040
5
Gal Fridman
Israel
€7,150
6
Francesco Delfoco
Italy
€5,430
7
Sergey Sergeev
Ukraine
€3,965
8
Felix Trau
Germany
€2,900
9
Vitalii Grekul
Ukraine
€2,400
Behr Takes the Senior's Crown
Sweden’s Peder Behr took down the €200 Seniors event at the EPT Malta for €6,000. The 52 year old from Orebro is a recreational player but has a string of good results including winning the Swedish Championship in 2013. His €6,000 cash last night now takes him over the $100,000 mark in live tournament winnings. He beat a 122-strong field which included Britain’s Simon Fuller, Maria von Perger and Costa Rica veteran Luis Jaikel. Others who competed included EPT Prague winner Salvatore Bonavena, EPT Prague finalist Mickey Norinder and EPT Kyiv runner-up Alexander Dovzhenko. In all, 17 players took a share of the €23,668 prize pool.
Event #28 €200 Senior's Event
Buy-in
Entrants
Prize Pool
€200 + €20
122
€23,668
Peder Behr
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Peder Behr
Sweden
€6,000
2
Elias Moukawem
Lebanon
€4,000
3
Andreas Vlachos
Greece
€2,600
4
Angelo Gaetano Censabella
Italy
€2,118
5
Simon Fuller
UK
€1,750
6
Alexander Orlov
Russia
€1,350
7
Giovanni Palella
Italy
€1,050
8
Natale Barilla
Italy
€800
9
Martin Johnson
UK
€600
Jansson Emerges as Junior Champ
Swedish player Karl Jansson won his first live tournament trophy after taking down the €200 Juniors Event for €2,070. The 20 year old beat a 26-strong field including fellow 20-year-old Nicolo Serlenga from Italy who was runner-up. Five players in all took a share of the €5,044 prize pool.
Event #29 €200 Juniors Event
Karl Jansson
Buy-in
Entrants
Prize Pool
€200 + €20
26
€5,044
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Karl Jansson
Sweden
€2,070
2
Nicolo Serlenga
Italy
€1,360
3
Felix Trau
Germany
€860
4
Danilo Vena
Italy
€554
5
Alfonso Baccari
Italy
€200
Here's a look at various other results from the EPT Malta festival:
EPT Madrid champion Frederik Jensen was talking to Lasse Frost in a manner a little bit too comfortablem he didn't seem to be worrying about missing any hands. He either had at least twice the average stack, or he was eliminated. It turned out to be the latter.
Jensen told us an Italian player, who had shown a huge bluff earlier, opened for 1,000. Jensen had made the call on the button and the big blind came along as well.
The flop came with two hearts and Jensen called the 1,500 continuation bet that followed. The big blind folded and so the two of them were heads up to the turn: not completing the flush draw. The initial raiser checked, and called Jensen's 3,700 bet. The river was an off suit and the pre flop aggressor checked once again. Jensen bet 11,200 with 7,000 behind and was unpleasantly met with an all in shove.
Jensen made the call with but his set could hit the muck soon enough, his opponent had for the nuts and send Jensen packing.
and Simunic check-called 3,000. On the turn the 
hit and this time Simunic opted to surrender his hand after he was faced with a bet of 7,600.
and the Argentinian as well as Christopher Andler invested 3,550 chips to see the 
turn. Luca fired 7,575 and was called by Andler to check the 
river.
. The Swede had that beat with 
and scored the knockout.
turn where he did the same for another 3,400. The 
completed the board and Botond paid off another 12,000 but mucked upon seeing his Mexican opponent's 
.
board was already complete and Patel had checked. Wiesler asked the dealer to spread the pot and then bet 15,000, which was just over pot size. Patel stared at the board and his opponent, gave it some more thought and called. Wiesler then flipped over his 
for a set and that won the pot.
and the Team PokerStars Pro seemed at a loss what to do.
with two hearts and Jensen called the 1,500 continuation bet that followed. The big blind folded and so the two of them were heads up to the turn: 
not completing the flush draw. The initial raiser checked, and called Jensen's 3,700 bet. The river was an off suit 
and the pre flop aggressor checked once again. Jensen bet 11,200 with 7,000 behind and was unpleasantly met with an all in shove.
for the nuts and send Jensen packing.