Tuesday was the first day of the inaugural European Poker Tour (EPT) Malta Main Event in which the entire remaining field was unified, as 512 players returned from the two starting flights (plus a handful of late entrants) to compete on Day 2. Six 75-minute levels were contested with Samuel Chartier heading the 186 survivors with 465,500 chips.
One of Chartiers bigger (and, to be honest, lucky) hands came during Level 12 when he was up against Russia’s Ivan Soshnikov. Soshnikov raised pre-flop to 3,300 chips and called Chartier’s re-raise to 8,200 to see a flop of 4♦-6♣-9♥. Soshnikov checked, Chartier bet 8,600, and Soshnikov called. It was the same action again when the K♣ came on the turn, this time for 14,000 chips. The river 8♣ prompted Soshnikov to check one more time, but this time Chartier moved all-in. Soshnikov called, likely very happy to flip over pocket Eights for a set, but Chartier had A♣-2♣, good for the runner-runner flush. Seemingly disgusted, Soshnikov was eliminated from the tournament.
Samuel Chartier has never won on the European Poker Tour, but he has cashed a number of times, most notably for €178,000 ($253,908) when he finished seventh at the 2009 EPT Barcelona Open. His biggest cash, though, came six months later when he won the World Series of Poker Circuit Caesars Palace Championship Event for $322,944. He has made one final table in both the World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour, the latter coming just this past November at WPT Montreal.
With the impressive field of 895 entrants paying the €5,000 + €300 to play in this event, the prize pool totals €4,340,750, a wonderful number for the first-even European Poker Tour stop on Malta. 121 players will make the money, meaning Day 3 is a big one; only 65 more eliminations are needed for the money bubble to burst. The winner will nab €810,400, which amounts to nearly USD $900,000 and the top seven players will receive six-figure payouts.
Five more 90-minute levels will be contested on Wednesday as the field narrows its way to the final table.
2015 European Poker Tour Malta Main Event – Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Samuel Chartier – 465,500
2. Moritz Dietrich – 460,000
3. Ismail Kalkan – 426,900
4. Javier Rodriguez – 415,000
5. Filippo Lazzaretto – 348,100
6. Sam Trickett – 345,000
7. Nandor Solyom – 335,700
8. Francois Billard – 320,000
9. Koray Aldemir – 312,100
10. Jean Montury – 300,000
* Tournament updates courtesy PokerNews.com.
