There are only six players left to contend in the €5,300 Main Event that is set to bring the EPT Season 13 Malta poker festival to a close. Sweden’s Mats Karlsson is leading the international group of survivors for the tournament’s final stage. The player will kick off the event’s last day with 3,795,000 in chips, good for 76 big blinds.
A first place in the Nordic Masters of Poker SEK16,100 Main Event, held in his home country this spring, was Karlsson’s best live poker achievement. The player collected SEK494,300 ($57,548) for his feat. A quick look at his cash history shows that he has frequented Malta’s Portomaso Casino over the years to take part in tournaments held there. Karlsson has also cashed in several WSOP events over his career’s span. The Swede now has a good chance to win his first EPT title. In fact, all six remaining hopefuls have not won an EPT Main Event before.
The EPT Malta €5,300 Main Event is the penultimate Main Event in EPT’s thirteen-season history. The tournament drew 468 entries from different parts of Europe and the world and of different level of poker competence and experience. The overall prize pool generated amounts to €2,269,800 and the top 87 performers are set to receive a share of the prize money. Poland’s Jacek Pustula was the first player to leave the tournament with a payout, a min-cash of €8,070.
Prominent poker professionals like Maria Ho, Dietrich Fast, Stephen Chidwick, Ismael Bojang, Davidi Kitai, Ole Schemion, and Dominik Panka were among those to make it to the money. However, they all missed the chance to secure a place among the final six.
Final-day play is set to commence today at 1 pm local time at Portomaso Casino. As mentioned above, Karlsson is leading the pack with a significant chip advantage over his opponents. All six players will leave the table with no less than €76,790. The winner will receive the amount of €355,700, if no deal that would change the initial payout structure is reached between remaining players.
Here are all six survivors and their respective chip counts:
Mats Karlsson – Sweden – 3,795,000
Dmitry Yurasov – Russia – 2,845,000
Peter Ockenden – UK – 2,300,000
Elie Saad – Lebanon – 2,065,000
Tomas Macnamara – UK – 1,835,000
Aliaksei Boika – Belarus – 960,000
Hilton Prague Hotel in the Czech capital will be the last EPT stop ever. The last festival in the history of Europe’s largest poker tour is set to take place from December 8-19, together with the Eureka Poker Tour.
