2015 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Malta

€5,300 Main Event
Day: 4
Event Info

2015 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Malta

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
a10
Prize
€687,400
Event Info
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€4,340,750
Entries
895
Level Info
Level
38
Blinds
300,000 / 600,000
Ante
100,000

Duda Leads Final 23; Fedor Holz & Dominik Panka Still in Contention

Level 24 : 12,000/24,000, 3,000 ante
Antonin Duda
Antonin Duda

At the start of Day 4, just 56 players remained in the European Poker Tour Malta Main Event, but after five 90-minute levels of play, the field was culled down to the final 23. The man best positioned to make a run at the €810,400 first-place prize is Antonin Duda, who bagged up the chip leader with 3,476,000.

The 28-year-old poker pro hails from the Czech town Jablonec nad Nisou. To date, his biggest cash was €125,950 for a seventh-place finish in the EPT9 Barcelona. Duda, who qualified for the EPT Malta on PokerStars, has a decent March so far having won two major tournaments on Full Tilt Poker for over a combined $62,000.

Others who've navigated the 895-player field to make it through to the penultimate day are 2014 WCOOP Main Event champ Fedor "CrownUpGuy" Holz (3,146,000), EPT10 London champ Robin Ylitalo (972,000), and 2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure winner and PokerStars-Sponsored Player Dominik Panka (391,000).

The plan for the day was to play down to the final 16 players, but action didn't allow for it. Still, plenty of players saw their hopes of becoming the first-ever EPT Malta champion come to an end including Steven Watts (€14,750), Mortiz Dietrich (46th - €14,750), Yann Dion (43rd - €14,750), JC Alvarado (38th - €17,100), and Liviu "0Human0" Ignat, who was the center of a great name debate at the beginning of the day.

Another player to fall was Sam Chartier, who fell in the last level of the night when Mateusz Moolhuizen, who qualified via the very last EPT Malta Main Event satellite, opened for 55,000 under the gun and was met by a three-bet to 120,000 from Valentin Messina, who was to his direct left. Chartier then four-bet jammed for 358,000 from the hijack. Moolhuizen looked him up and Messina got out of the way.

Moolhuizen: {k-Hearts}{k-Spades}
Chartier: {a-Diamonds}{a-Spades}

It was a cooler of a hand, but Chartier was on the good end. The tables were turned when the {8-Diamonds}{k-Diamonds}{7-Diamonds} flop delivered Moolhuizen a set, though Chartier at least picked up a flush draw. The {2-Hearts} turn was no help to Chartier, and neither was the {Q-Clubs} river. With that, Chartier bowed out in 26th place while Moolhuizen chipped up to 1.2 million.

George Danzer won Poker Ambassador of the Year at the 14th Annual European Poker Awards. Check out what he had to say about it by clicking here.

Others joining Moolhuizen on Day 5 are Hossein Ensan (2,639,000), Sergio Aido (1,187,000), and Jorma Nuutinen (870,000), just to name a few. Here's a look at the remaining players:

TableSeatPlayerChips
Feature1Carlo Citrone525,000
Feature2Glib Kovtunov372,000
Feature3Bjorn Lundgren237,000
Feature4Hossein Ensan2,639,000
Feature5Bart Kuiper361,000
Feature6Remigiusz Wyrzykiewicz2,104,000
Feature7Dominik Panka391,000
Feature8Robin Ylitalo972,000
    
11Antonin Duda3,476,000
12Valentin Messina909,000
13Javier Gomez Zapatero1,877,000
14-empty-N/A
15Jacek Ladny445,000
16Sergio Aido1,187,000
17Jorma Nuutinen817,000
18Julien Duveau737,000
    
21Mateusz Moolhuizen1,249,000
22Rudolf Wilhelm Zintel780,000
23Koray Aldemir1,667,000
24Bruno Volkmann248,000
25Stefan Schillhabel900,000
26Jean Montury1,363,000
27Fedor Holz3,146,000
28Dennis Kaj Smit342,000

Action will recommence at Noon local time on Friday, and the plan is to play down to the final six players. Of course the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there every step of the way. While you wait, check out this comprehensive video of the 14th Annual European Poker Awards:

Tags: Antonin Duda