It is now all glitter and shine, and quality poker action at Portomaso Casino in St Julian’s, Malta, where the EPT is currently celebrating the game with another thrilling festival. The €25,750 High Roller, the highest buy-in tournament on the schedule, began on October 21 to provide an arena for some of the world’s most prominent high rollers. The event’s six-handed final table is set to be played today with New Zealand’s David Yan heading the remaining survivors.
Yan joined the EPT festivities fresh from a WSOP International Circuit Main Event victory at Spielbank Berlin in the German capital. The player collected €124,635 and a shiny WSOP gold ring for his triumph from earlier this month. The payout was added to his overall tournament winnings of more than $2.5 million to affirm his position as his home country’s most profitable player of all-time.
Several months ago, Yan finished runner-up to American poker prodigy Pratyush Buddiga in the EPT Season 13 Barcelona €25,500 No-Limit Hold’em Single Re-Entry. The player now has a good chance to improve his performance in one of the EPT’s highest buy-in tournaments.
The €25,750 High Roller drew 46 unique players and 19 re-entries. That generated an overall prize pool of €1,592,500 which was to be distributed among the top 9 finishers. The bubble burst on Day 2 of the event and Spain’s Adrian Mateos, a former EPT Grand Final Main Event champion, was the first player to leave the high roller tournament with a payout. He collected €46,180 for his ninth-place finish.
Patrick Leonard from the UK was eliminated in 8th place for €60,500. Belgian poker pro Davidi Kitai busted in 7th place, thus missing the chance to join the elite company of the six finalists. Kitai was eliminated by Yan himself, adding €78,050 to his bankroll.
Many prominent high rollers joined the event, with EPT regulars Steve O’Dwyer, Stephen Chidwick, and Scott Seiver being few of those. However, they all could not make it to the money.
The €25,750 High Roller’s final table is set to be played today at 2 pm local time. Yan will be joined by Oleksii Khoroshenin, Mikita Badziakouski, Max Silver, Ole Schemion, and Ramin Hajiyev for an exciting international six-handed clash. Yan heads the final table with 887,000 in chips.
