2015 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Malta

Day 3 of the European Poker Tour Malta Main Event saw 186 of a 895-player field return for five 90-minute levels of play, during which time the money bubble burst and the top 127 earned a piece of the €4,340,750 prize pool. By the time players bagged and tagged for the night, just 56 remained in contention for the €810,400 first-place prize.

After the dust had settled, it was Spain's Javier Gomez Zapatero and his stack of 1.698 million leading the way.

Gomez Zapatero began his ascent in Level 15 (1,500/3,000/400) when he opened under the gun and then four-bet to 35,000 after Nandor Solyom three-bet to 15,400 from the cutoff seat. A call was made, the flop fell , and Gomez Zapatero continued for 33,000. Another call followed and Gomez Zapatero fired another 54,000 on the turn. Again Solyom called, and then the river saw both players check. The Spaniard showed the for a pair of fives, and surprisingly it was good as Solyom mucked his cards. From there, Gomez Zapatero just continued to build.

Over the first two levels of the day, 59 players hit the rail without a penny to show for it including Artem Litvinov, Jan Bendik, Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody, Sotirios Koutoupas, Sami Shetta, Senh Ung, and EPT Grand Final runner-up Jack Salter, who became free to attend the European Poker Awards, for which he is a "Breakout Player of the Year" nominee, later in the evening.

In Level 16 (2,000/4,000/500), Bulgarian Atanas Kavrakov, winner of the World Poker Tour National Cyprus back in January, was eliminated from the tournament in 128th position. It happened when he shoved his last 36,000 holding the and Brazil's Bruno Volkmann called with the . The flop gave Kavrakov an added flush draw to go with his overs, but he blanked as the turn and river were running sevens, thus guaranteeing the remaining players at least €9,120.

From there, the in-the-money eliminations came at a rapid pace and included EPT Malta €25,000 High Roller runner-up Connor Drinan; EPT veteran Dan Smith; Olivier Busquet, who was just a part of a One Drop poker delegation; Shark Cage winner Griffin Benger; high roller Sorel Mizzi; Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel; former EPT champ Benny Spindler; the UK's Sam Trickett; and reigning World Series of Poker champ Martin Jacobson.

For a thorough look at the history of poker in Malta, check out our feature post titled EPT Malta Shakes Up Portomaso Casino's All-Time Money List.

While many fell, some notable players punched their ticket to Day 4 including Jorma Nuutinen (1.121 million), Sergio Aido (833,000), Antonin Duda (681,000), Noah Vaillancourt (629,000), Sam Chartier (536,000), former EPT London champ Robin Ylitalo (487,000), Fedor Holz (422,000), Ignat "0Human0" Liviu (312,000), JC Alvarado (274,000), and PokerStars-Sponsored Player Dominik Panka (176,000).

Day 4 will kick off at 12 p.m. local time on Thursday, and the plan is to either play five 90-minute levels or down to the final 16 players, whichever comes first. The PokerNews Live Reporting team will be there every step of the way.

While you wait, check out this video of Sarah Herring taking a Jeep tour of Malta:

The table of Dominik Panka took the longest and still had three hands to go when everyone else was already pretty much dong with bagging and tagging. The PokerStars Sponsored Player opened to 17,000 from under the gun and was called three ways including Jannick Wrang in the cutoff and Mateusz Moolhuizen on the button.

On the    flop, the action checked to Moolhuizen and he bet 37,000 to receive calls from Panka and Wrang. On the turn, Moolhuizen then fired 120,000 and that eventually won the pot.

In the penultimate hand, Andrea Cortellazzi limped from under the gun and Panka checked out of the big blind to see a flop of   . Both players checked and Panka's bet of 14,000 on the turn was called. After the river, Panka led for 25,000 and Cortellazzi made the call to win the pot with   versus  .

The very last hand of Day 3 then saw Moolhuizen with a raise to 18,000 and Panka shoved the small blind for 143,000. Moolhuizen counted his stack carefully and the all in was about one fourth of his total stack to call. Two minutes passed by and the Dutchman with Polish roots then mucked to see Panka flash his  .

The World Poker Tour is headed to Amsterdam, and this is huge news for the Netherlands.

Host Remko Rinkema talks with WPT Europe General Manager Hermance Blum and PokerNews.NL leading man Frank Op de Woerd about the exciting news and what this really means for Holland.

You can subscribe to the entire iBus Media Network on iTunes here, or you can access the RSS feed here. The PokerNews family of podcasts is now available on Stitcher.

Nandor Solyom appears to be the last player to join the rail on Day 3 after four-bet shoving for 180,000 into the three-bet of Fedor Holz. The WCOOP champion looked him up with   and Solyom held the  .

The Romanian did make a straight on the river of a      board, but the very same card also gave Holz the nut flush.

The clock has been stopped and the screens show 57 players remaining. Four hands have been drawn and that means bagging and tagging will take place in a few minutes. Stay tuned for any last-minute action, chip counts, and a full recap of the Day 3 action.

Poker is not really known as a team game, except on occasion. But it can be in other ways. For sometimes it’s the people or person behind the player who makes the player, as the PokerStars Blog, prone to a bit of schmaltz, is happy to report.

The betting details of reigning World Series of Poker Main Event champ Martin Jacobson's demise escaped us, but it appeared he three-bet jammed over the top of Jorma Nuutinen's open. The latter player made the call to put Jacobson at risk.

Jacobson:
Nuutinen:

It was a classic race, but Jacobson was the one that needed to improve to stay alive.

The flop was as dry as could be, and the turn didn't do him any favors. Jacobson needed either an ace or nine on the river to survive, but it wasn't in the cards as the blanked. Jacobson, who is nominated for "Tournament Performance of the Year" in tonight's European Poker Awards, made his way to the payout desk and confirmed that he will be making an appearance at the award ceremony being held next door in the Hilton Hotel.

A big hand just took place up on the feature table, one that saw the elimination of Sam Trickett.

It began when Trickett opened for 16,000 from early position and Andrey Shatilov three-bet to 41,000 from the cutoff. Action folded back to Trickett, and he thought for well over a minute before four-betting all in for 357,000. Shatilov, who barely had the bigger stack, snap-called.

Shatilov:
Trickett:

As it turned out, Trickett picked a bad spot to shove, and he paid the ultimate price after the board ran out . The stacks were counted down to make sure, and when all was said and done Trickett had been eliminated from the EPT Malta Main Event.