PokerStars EPT13 Malta Underway: Big Millions to be Won

Another European Poker Tour event is underway, with millions to be won. The PokerStars EPT13 Malta is no different than other EPT events, in terms of attracting some of the biggest names and offering a rich tournament schedule. We’ve already seen a few big winners, while the €5,300 Main Event is just heating up.

Dietrich Fast gets the ball rolling for EPT13 Malta

German player Dietrich Fast drew the first blood at the PokerStars EPT13 Malta. The €10,000 opening event drew a total of 60 players, generating a prize pool of €582,000. While this isn’t a huge number, it’s definitely not too bad of a start and you wil hear no complaints from Fast about his €174,600 win.

At the start of the day, things didn’t look too bright for the German, but this didn’t stop him from staying positive throughout the play. Coming back from a short stack, Fast managed to outlast rather formidable competition, which included Davidi Kitai (6th), Ramin Hajiyev (5th),  Pratyush Buddiga (4th), and Dario Sammartino (3rd).

Heads up against a specialist

Fast’s last obstacle was Viacheslav Buldygin, who may not be a „big name“ but, as the German quickly found out, the Russian is an online heads-up specialist, which meant that even with a 7 to 1 lead to start the play, he was anything but guaranteed to win.

feels like its a really good day pic.twitter.com/2Hnx5G5NlG

— Dietrich Fast (@2pacnrw16) October 20, 2016

However, Fast’s lucky star didn’t abandon him when he need it the most. Although Buldygin managed to master one double up and started to make a comeback, Dietrich found the way to break Russian’s defenses, taking the last of his chips when his A-3 managed to outrun Viacheslav’s pocket Sixes.

David Yan triumphant in EPT13 Malta €25k High Roller

While Fast won the „smaller“ warm-up event, David Yan set his sights a bit higher, making a great run for the title in the EPT13 Malta €25,000 High Roller. This event attracted a field of 46 players and 19 reentries, creating a prize pool just shy of €1.6 million.

Another formidable EPT13 Malta final table

As one would expect from a tournament of this magnitude, the final table was truly packed. There was Ole Schemion who finished in sixth, then Mikita Badziakouski claiming the fifth place, followed by the UK’s Max Silver and Ukraine’s Oleksii Khoroshenin.

David Yan successfully outlasted all of these great players, however, finding himself heads-up against none other than Ramin Hajiyev who came up short just days earlier, finishing fifth in the €10k opening event.

Although Yan had to start from behind, things simply didn’t go Hajiyev’s way from the very first hand of the confrontation and then a bluff gone wrong sealed the deal. Yan pocketed €465,800 for his triumph, while Ramin Hajivey walked away with €334,400 for his efforts.

EPT13 Main Event kicks off, Dan Shak off to a good start

EPT13 Main Event got underway as other “side” events were wrapping up. The Day 1A saw a total of 134 players join the fun. The players played for eight full levels and the field was cut in half and then some, as 61 of the initial 134 ended up bagging some chips for the Day 2.

Of those 61, it was Dan Shak who was all smiles as he ended up being the chip leader for the day. Shak bagged a total of 185,000 in chips, which will give him a lot of ammunition to work with when he returns for the Day 2. Other notables who bagged decent-sized stacks include Frederik Jensen and Ole Schemion.

Day 1B underway

The Day 1B of EPT13 Malta Main Event is currently underway. We expect to see more entries today, as it is almost a rule that most pros like to buy into the later starting flights if at all possible. European Poker Tour events never fail to bring out some of the best-known players out there and Malta has already demonstrated it will not be a disappointment in that regard, either.