A Look at the EPT11 Malta Side Event Winners - Urbanovich Wins Three Titles
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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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
| 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:
Event #7 IPT Malta Cup
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| €300 + €30 | 1,048 (143 reentries) | €346,581 |
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dimitar Bashov | Bulgaria | €62,000 |
| 2 | Matthieu Rodriguez | France | €36,400 |
| 3 | Salvatore Ritrovato | Malta | €25,600 |
| 4 | Christian Nolte | Austria | €19,200 |
| 5 | Dmitry Shmyrev | Russia | €14,700 |
| 6 | Giovanni Rizzo | Italy | €10,900 |
| 7 | Konstantin Puchkov | Russia | €8,341 |
| 8 | Nedelcu Narcis Gabriel | Romania | €5,900 |
| 9 | Carl Dargren | Sweden | €4,600 |
Event #8 €1,000 NL Turbo
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| €1,000 + €100 | 93 | €93,000 |
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Moritz Dietrich | Germany | €23,950 |
| 2 | Simone Petrini | Italy | €16,650 |
| 3 | Georges Yazbeck | Lebanon | €11,000 |
| 4 | Farid Chati | Morocco | €8,600 |
| 5 | [Removed:30] | France | €6,950 |
| 6 | Pasquale Plevano | Italy | €5,400 |
| 7 | Joao Simao | Brazil | €4,390 |
| 8 | Marton Czuczor | Hungary | €3,340 |
| 9 | Raffaele Castro | Switzerland | €2,430 |
Event #11 €500 NL Deepstack
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| €500 + €50 | 241 | €116,885 |
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matteo Mario Mutti | Italy | €24,700 |
| 2 | Ratharam Sivagnanam | Canada | €16,600 |
| 3 | Carsten Muller | Germany | €11,700 |
| 4 | Iliodoros Kamatakis | Greece | €9,500 |
| 5 | Antonina Anapolska | Ukraine | €7,500 |
| 6 | Jacikas Arturas | Lithuania | €5,755 |
Event #12 €200 PLO High/Low Deepstack Turbo
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| €200 + €20 | 88 | €17,072 |
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bernardo Da Silveira Dias | Brazil | €4,530 |
| 2 | Thiago Crema De Macedo | Brazil | €3,150 |
| 3 | Ville Sissonen | Finland | €2,082 |
| 4 | Stephan van Haasteren | Netherlands | €1,630 |
| 5 | Andre Andrade | Portugal | €1,315 |
| 6 | Jean Montury | France | €1,025 |
| 7 | Charlie Eriksson | Sweden | €810 |
| 8 | Artur Koren | Germany | €630 |
| 9 | Michel Bedos | France | €480 |
Event #13 €100 NL Flipout
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| €100 + €10 | 36 | €3,492 |
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Madis Muur | Estonia | €1,190 |
| 2 | Salvatore Panzera | Italy | €820 |
| 3 | Holger Brock | Germany | €525 |
| 4 | Ranno Sootla | Estonia | €400 |
| 5 | Alessandro di Persio | Italy | €313 |
| 6 | Steven van Zadelhoff | Netherlands | €244 |
Event #14 €100 NL Flipout
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| €100 + €10 | 32 | €3,104 |
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Georgios-Angelos Tavoularis | Greece | €1,055 |
| 2 | Remigiusz Wyrzykiewicz | Poland | €730 |
| 3 | Stylianos Tsolakakis | Greece | €465 |
| 4 | Tai Loi Yuen | Canada | €357 |
| 5 | Tobias Hausen | Germany | €280 |
| 6 | Dimitrios Choulis | Greece | €217 |
Event #15 €100 NL Flipout
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| €100 + €10 | 33 | €3,201 |
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jacob van Wijk | Netherlands | €1,090 |
| 2 | Fernando Brito | Portugal | €750 |
| 3 | Tobias Matuschek | Germany | €480 |
| 4 | Ralph Brueck | Germany | €370 |
| 5 | Florence Allera | France | €290 |
| 6 | Paolo Baroni | Italy | €221 |
Event #16 €500 NL Midnight Hyperturbo
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| €500 + €50 | 183 | €88,755 |
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niclas Adolfsson | Sweden | €19,660 |
| 2 | Tomas Ksenevicius | Lithuania | €13,270 |
| 3 | Joao Vieira | Portugal | €9,135 |
| 4 | Antonio Smeraglia | Italy | €7,445 |
| 5 | Ugnius Simelionis | Lithuania | €5,940 |
| 6 | Daniel Erlandsson | Sweden | €4,565 |
| 7 | Francisco Benitez | Uruguay | €3,325 |
| 8 | Dzmitry Urbanovich | Poland | €2,405 |
| 9 | Ayaz Manji | Portugal | €1,990 |