The European Poker Tour is back in action this week with a stop in Malta. The EPT Malta Main Event kicked off Sunday with the first of two starting flights. Day 1A brought in 184 players while Day 1B saw two and a half times as many join the fun (460 to be exact). After a few late entries were added before the start of Day 2, the total field grew to 651. Just 131 survived to Wednesday with Swede Alexander Ivarsson leading the way with 529,200 chips.
Ivarsson has a relatively short live tournament resume, according to TheHendonMob.com, with $332,624 in lifetime earnings. He has three cashes at the World Series of Poker, though two were deep runs, a tenth and a twelfth place finish in the same $2,500 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em event in 2009 and 2010, respectively. He has three cashes on the European Poker Tour, all this year.
The total prize pool for the EPT Malta Main Event is €3,157,350, with 95 players getting paid. A min-cash is worth €9,320 and the winner will pocket €602,400.
Ivarsson didn’t get to the top of the heap by snatching up lots of little pots. Oh, no. He developed a reputation on Day 2 for his aggressiveness and his ability to run hotter than a red-hot nickel ball, knocking out opponents left and right. Some examples:
In one hand pre-flop, he four-bet 2014 WSOP APAC Main Event champ Scott Davies to see a flop of 8-T-5. Davies check-raised all-in for 65,000 with A-T, but Ivarsson insta-called him with pocket Aces. The Aces held up and Davies was out of the tournament.
Once again, Ivarsson wasn’t content to call or even just three-bet pre-flop. He ended up five-betting all-in and got called by Raoul Refos. Some may consider both of their decisions curious, as Ivarsson only had pocket Sixes and Refos put it all on the line (calling, mind you) with A-K. No Ace or King was laid on the board and Ivarsson received another Six for good measure, eliminating Refos and taking his stack up to 520,000 chips at the time.
Ivarsson is the only player to end Day 2 above the 500,000 chip mark. Three more players – Samuli Sipila, Erik Scheidt, and Giulio Spampinato – have more than 400,000. A couple other notable names in the top ten are Faraz Jaka (375,200 chips) and Mike McDonald (314,200).
Day 3 is currently under way; the money bubble has burst and the remaining players continue to battle it out as the big money draws closer.
European Poker Tour Malta Main Event – Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Alexander Ivarsson – 529,200
2. Samuli Sipila – 466,500
3. Erik Scheidt – 447,700
4. Giulio Spampinato – 406,500
5. Faraz Jaka – 375,200
6. Pawel Brzeski – 372,100
7. Andreas Chalkiadakis – 358,600
8. Farid Jattin – 334,700
9. Daniel Dvoress – 321,100
10. Mike McDonald – 314,200