Welcome to Day 4 of the 2016 PokerStars.com EPT13 Malta Main Event
Today it’s Day 4 of the €5,300 Main Event of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour here in Malta. The hunt for the title is on, with only 30 players remaining in this second-to-last EPT Main Event. The battle for one of the last prestigious EPT Main Event trophies continues at 12 p.m. local time, which is in about two hours.
Tomas Macnamara was our overnight chip leader and he returns to the Portomaso Casino with 1,028,000 in chips. The Brit is the one to catch today and he has a decent advantage over the rest of the field. Second in chips is Dmitry Yurasov who bagged 844,000 in chips and he’s followed by the last woman standing, Sarah Herzali (769,000).
They are all in contention for that first prize of €355,700 but have to deal with a ton of big names that are still in the field. These players are all guaranteed of €15,540 out of the total prize pool of €2,269,800 but they’re aiming for more.
Three of the remaining players know how it feels to lift that EPT Main Event trophy. Davidi Kitai (627,000), Frederik Jensen (481,000) and Dominik Panka (368,000) all have won before. But loads of others have a lot of experience in the final stages of big tournaments.
For example, Aliaksei Boika (688,000), Benjamin Pollak (665,000), Ole Schemion (613,000), Martin Nikolov (531,000) and Brian Altman (333,000), are some of the strong contenders is this tournament.
The 30 players return to play a maximum of five 90-minute levels today. There is a break of 20 minutes after each level. Yesterday, the tournament was halted after four levels because of the field size, so that means that they’ll start with level 19 today. It’s very well possible that play will stop after four levels or when there are only 16 players remaining.
| Level | Small Blind | Big Blind | Ante |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 1,000 |
| 20 | 6,000 | 12,000 | 2,000 |
| 21 | 8,000 | 16,000 | 2,000 |
| 22 | 10,000 | 20,000 | 3,000 |
| 23 | 12,000 | 24,000 | 4,000 |
As said, play begins at 12 p.m. local time here in Malta and the PokerNews live reporting team will be here all day to bring you all the excitement from the floor. Be sure to tune in and don’t miss a thing as we’re heading to the final stages of this event.
The seating for the start of the day is as follows:
| Table | Seat | Name | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Daniele Colautti | Italy | 230,000 |
| 1 | 2 | Davidi Kitai | Belgium | 627,000 |
| 1 | 3 | Dmitry Yurasov | Russia | 844,000 |
| 1 | 4 | Chi Zhang | UK | 563,000 |
| 1 | 5 | Ismael Bojang | Germany | 147,000 |
| 1 | 6 | Peter Ockenden | UK | 251,000 |
| 1 | 7 | Xixiang Luo | China | 230,000 |
| 1 | 8 | Brian Altman | USA | 333,000 |
| 2 | 1 | Yury Gulyy | Russia | 378,000 |
| 2 | 2 | Benjamin Pollak | France | 665,000 |
| 2 | 3 | Frederik Jensen | Denmark | 481,000 |
| 2 | 4 | Sarah Herzali | France | 769,000 |
| 2 | 6 | Tomas Macnamara | UK | 1,028,000 |
| 2 | 7 | Louis Cartarius | Germany | 480,000 |
| 2 | 8 | Marco Bartolini | Italy | 260,000 |
| 3 | 1 | Walter Treccarichi | Italy | 182,000 |
| 3 | 2 | Armin Mette | Austria | 298,000 |
| 3 | 3 | Guillaume Valle | France | 552,000 |
| 3 | 5 | Mats Karlsson | Sweden | 559,000 |
| 3 | 6 | Usman Siddique | UK | 215,000 |
| 3 | 7 | Elie Saad | Lebanon | 397,000 |
| 3 | 8 | Guillaume Diaz | France | 560,000 |
| 4 | 1 | Dong Zhao | China | 640,000 |
| 4 | 2 | Dominik Panka | Poland | 368,000 |
| 4 | 3 | Bastian Dohler | Germany | 635,000 |
| 4 | 4 | Aliaksei Boika | Belarus | 688,000 |
| 4 | 5 | Sergey Sergeev | Russia | 176,000 |
| 4 | 6 | Ole Schemion | Germany | 613,000 |
| 4 | 7 | Martin Nikolov | Bulgaria | 531,000 |
| 4 | 8 | Konrad Abela | Malta | 367,000 |