Nick Petrangelo Leads Final 19 Heading into the Final Day
Ten full levels were played on the second day of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Malta €10,300 High Roller, and in the end it was Nick Petrangelo who bagged up the overnight chip lead with 1.66 million chips. Nothing is set in stone yet, though, as 17 other players are still in contention for the title, the €597,000 first-place prize, and a unique SLYDE watch.
This event drew a total crowd of 304 entries, creating a prize pool just shy of €3 million and 39 places would get paid. Most of the players that showed up, however, would go home empty-handed, as 157 started the day.
Registration for this event closed right before the start of Day 2, and there were 15 new entries for the day. Out of those 15 new players, none managed to make it to Day 3. Team PokerStars Pro Online Marc-Andre Ladouceur, who had reentered before the start of play on Day 2, was among the first to get knocked out, together with teammate Isaac Haxton.
Others who busted short of the money included Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Selbst, Liv Boeree, and Eugene Katchalov, as did top pros Stephen Chidwick, Martin Jacobson, Benny Spindler, Tobias Reinkemeier, and Marvin Rettenmaier.
As the money got closer, Jorryt van Hoof was lost after he ran ace-queen into Mike McDonald's ace-king. Griffin Benger lost ace-queen to Rui Ferreira's nines, and Frederik Jensen also went home early. The fast pace continued after the dinner break when Andrew Chen and Olivier Busquet were knocked out, followed by Alex Bilokur and Carlos Chadha. Walid Bou Habib was the eventually the "bubble boy," after which the pace picked up even more.
Max Silver was the Day 1 chip leader, but was knocked out in 37th place, cashing for €20,500. Silver was followed by Timothy Adams (36th), Connor Drinan (33rd), and Fabian Quoss (32nd), who all received the same payout.
In the final level of the night, the last Team PokerStars Pro was knocked out when George Danzer could not win a crucial coin flip against McDonald with pocket tens against king-queen. Danzer finished 29th for €23,300, and Daniel Dvoress (28th) and Adrian Mateos (26th) followed shortly after that.
Austrian pro Thomas Muehloecker was the last player to get knocked out before the end of the night. He fell with pocket jacks to Petrangelo's pocket queen, and this hand helped boosted Petrangelo into the chip lead.
In second place to finish the night was Sylvain Loosli, who had a stellar day in his own right. The Frenchman held the chip lead for most of the day and finished on 1.471 million.
Daniel Ghionoiu, in fifth heading into Day 3, played one of the biggest pots of the day against Simon Higgins, and his trip aces held up against Higgins' flush draw. Higgins, however, is still in, although one of the short stacks to return.
The remaining 18 players are playing for the following payouts, as a winner will be crowned at some point on Saturday night, CET.
| Position | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1 | €597,000 |
| 2 | €397,000 |
| 3 | €290,500 |
| 4 | €234,500 |
| 5 | €183,800 |
| 6 | €139,000 |
| 7 | €102,000 |
| 8 | €75,000 |
| 9 | €62,200 |
| 10 - 11 | €52,100 |
| 12 - 13 | €45,600 |
| 14 - 15 | €41,100 |
| 16 - 17 | €36,700 |
| 18 | €32,300 |
Make sure to tune back in with PokerNews at 12 p.m. local time as we will bring you all the live updates from the epic conclusion of the EPT Malta €10,300 High Roller.