Who’s Going To Win the 2016 PokerStars.com EPT Malta Main Event?
The penultimate EPT Main Event has come to it’s sixth and final day. Today the winner of the €5,300 2016 PokerStars.com EPT13 Malta Main Event will be crowned. Only six players are still in contention to become the successor of last years winner Niall Farrell. Today, we’ll find out who is going to lift that beautiful trophy and goes home with the big first prize of €355,700. Play will be underway at 1 p.m. local time here in Malta, which is in about one and a half hour. The final table will be streamed with hole cards, so the report will be on an hour delay but PokerNews will bring you hand-for-hand coverage from all the action.
The final six will start with Mats Karlsson in pole position. The Swede is the chipleader with 3,795,000 in chips. There’s one hour and twenty minutes left in level 26. The blinds will be 25,000 / 50,000 with a 5,000 ante when the final day kicks off, which means Karlsson will start the day with nearly 76 big blinds.
Chipwise, Russia’s Dmitry Yurasov is his biggest contender. He bagged 2,845,000 after day 5. Peter Ockenden (2,300,000), Elie Saad (2,065,000) and Tomas Macnamara (1,835,000) are also in the hunt for EPT victory. Aliaksei Boika is the short stack at the table. He lost a three-way all in with Macnamara and 7th place finisher Bastian Dohler in the final hand of day 5. Boika has 960,000 left and starts the final six with less than 20 big blinds.
All finalists are secured of a €76,790 payday but with that first prize of €355,700 up for grabs, there is still a lot to play for. The final six might have figured out some of the strength’s and weaknesses of their opponents as there has been a bit of final table play on day 5.
The last table started with nine players but wasn’t the official final table until Dominik Panka busted in ninth (€41,590). The Pole was the last remaining player with an EPT title under his belt, as he won the PCA in 2014. With the official final table set, two more had to bust before the day would end. It took 29 hands before Chinese Xixiang Luo (€41,590) and €10 Spin-and-Go qualifier Bastian Dohler (€56,520) were eliminated.
Now the stage is set, the final six are ready to get things underway in the hunt fort hat EPT trophy. As said, action resumes at 1 p.m. local time, and the live stream with hole cards will be on a security delay of one hour. The PokerNews.com live reporting team is in Casino Portomaso to cover the action hand-for-hand until the EPT 13 Barcelona Main Event champion has been crowned!
The seat draw, payouts, and player profiles can be found below. All player profiles are courtesy of PokerStars.
Seating and Chip Counts Final Table
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | BB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aliaksei Boika | Belarus | 960,000 | 19 |
| 2 | Mats Karlsson | Sweden | 3,795,000 | 76 |
| 3 | Peter Ockenden | United Kingdom | 2,300,000 | 46 |
| 4 | Dmitry Yurasov | Russia | 2,890,000 | 58 |
| 5 | Elie Saad | Lebanon | 2,065,000 | 41 |
| 6 | Tomas Macnamara | United Kingdom | 1,835,000 | 37 |
Payouts
| Place | Price (EUR) |
|---|---|
| 1 | 355,700 |
| 2 | 261,730 |
| 3 | 192,650 |
| 4 | 141,780 |
| 5 | 104,340 |
| 6 | 76,790 |