The €10,200 No-Limit Hold’em Single-Day event was the latest one to be marked as completed on the EPT Season 13 Malta calendar. Despite the turbo format, previous editions of that particular tournament have lasted for much longer than originally expected. However, the winner of yesterday’s event was determined for a little less than 12 hours.
Poland’s Jakub Michalak beat a field of seasoned high rollers and EPT frequenters to collect €178,403 and a spade-like trophy. The player himself is no stranger to the EPT and has taken part in multiple events throughout the poker tour’s past several seasons.
Yesterday’s €10,200 tournament was a single re-entry one. It attracted 64 unique players. As many as 20 of them decided to shoot their only bullet and re-enter the event. That brought the prize pool to €814,800. The money went to the top 11 finishers. Romanian player Pasquale Grimaldi became the unfortunate bubble boy.
Defending champion Steve O’Dwyer, who won that same event at Portomaso Casino about this time last year, was among the players to make it to the money this year. However, finishing 10th, he fell just short of entering the final table. Germany’s Diego Zeiter was the other player to cash in the event but to miss the opportunity to sit at the nine-handed final table. The player took 11th place.
Nine-handed play began with UK’s Charlie Carrel as the chip leader. The player had a substantial advantage over his remaining opponents and was the only one to have passed the 2-million mark. The final table was whittled down to just three players very quickly.
At the time there were only three hopefuls left, the clock was stopped so as for a deal to be discussed. Based on ICM calculations, Carrel received the biggest portion of what had remained of the prize pool as the chip leader at that point. Michalak was second in chips and Italy’s Rocco Palumbo was third. The three players had a €17,475 chunk of the prize pool and the tournament trophy left to contend for.
Soon after three-handed play kicked off, Carrel lost his advantage as he handed a big pot to Palumbo. It was only a matter of several hands for the player to leave the tournament. Eventually, he took home the amount of €170,754.
Palumbo began heads-up with the chip lead in his hands and odds not in his favor. The player first lost a big pot and then several smaller ones to his last remaining opponent to eventually leave in second place with a payout of €138,763 for his efforts.
Orpen Kisacikoglu from Turkey finished 4th for €80,250. US poker pro Scott Seiver took 5th place for €63,550. Behzad Ahadpour from Iran collected €49,700 for his sixth-place finish. Pratyush Buddiga from the USA took 7th place, good for €39,100. Spaniard Adrian Mateos finished 8th for €30,550. Denmark’s Morten Mortensen rounded out the final table for €20,400.
