The EPT Season 13 Malta has kicked off with big poker names chasing for big money. Portomaso Casino in St. Julian’s is playing host to the penultimate festival in EPT history. It is slated to run from October 18-29 and will feature a plethora of exciting tournaments and side events.
It is on a rare occasion that a player dominates play throughout a whole tournament (or the greater part of it) and eventually gets to win it. Champions usually face multiple ups and downs on their road to victory. They lose a small battle or two to win the war. However, that was not the case last night when German poker player Dietrich Fast bested a field of 60 entries to win the opening EPT Season 13 Malta €10,300 No-Limit Hold’em Single Re-Entry event.
It is not that Fast had a cloudless experience at the poker table during the tournament, but the player finished as the chip leader on Day 1 and Day 2, and really stroke as the one with the most serious claims to the title. The German collected €174,600 for his triumph last night, a sum he added to his previous live tournament winnings of $1,917,079.
The €10,300 No-Limit Hold’em Single Re-Entry event was played over three days, October 18-20. As mentioned above, the eventual champion started both Days 2 and 3 of the tournament as the one holding the most chips.
Although he overwhelmed the greater part of the final day and the event as a whole, Fast had a burdensome hurdle to overcome on Day 3. The player spent what seemed like an hour as the short stack. He regained his leading position carefully and did his best to eventually win the trophy and the largest share of the prize pool.
The event attracted as many as 48 players, of whom 12 re-entered it, which brought the final field to 60 entries. That generated a prize pool of €582,000, with the money being distributed to the top eight finishers.
The tournament’s final day kicked off with Fast holding the most chips among all six remaining players. Although there were several EPT regulars with proven track records among the final six, with the likes of Davidi Kitai, Dario Sammartino, and Pratyush Buddiga being among those, Fast eventually faced the relative newbie Viacheslav Buldygin from Russia heads-up.
It was not an easy battle for Fast, despite his opponent’s lack of experience on the live poker scene. The moment of victory came when the German moved all-in holding [As][3s] against Buldygin’s pocket sixes. An ace appeared on the flop to pair with Fast’s. The turn and the river did not provide the Russian player with the chance to improve so he settled for the second-place prize of €126,300.
Dario Sammartino was the one to take 3rd place in the event. His share of the prize pool totaled €81,480. Pratyush Buddiga finished 4th for €61,690. Ramin Hajiyev collected €47,720 for taking 5th place in the event. Davidi Kitai secured a €37,250 payout for finishing 6th. Vladimir Troyanovskiy took 7th place for €29,680. Orpen Kisacikoglu finished 8th, good for €23,280.
