Samuel Chartier Bags Biggest Stack On a Day Filled with Eliminations
Day 2 of the European Poker Tour Malta Main Event saw six players take advantage of the late-registration period. That brought the total field to 895 players and created a prize pool of €4,340,750 that will be distributed to the top 121 finishers with a hefty €810,400 going to the eventual winner. After six 75-minute levels of play, the field was reduced from 512 down to 186 with Samuel Chartier and his stack of 465,500 leading the way.
Others who survived the day with big stacks were Germans Moritz Dietrich (460,000) and Ismail Kalkan (426,900), and Italian Filippo Lazzaretto (348,100).
Eliminations were the order of the day, and that included Marvin Rettenmaier. The two-time World Poker Tour champ fell in Level 9 (400/800/100) when Diego Zeiter opened from early position and Rettenmaier three-bet to 6,500 from the small blind. Zeiter four-bet to 14,000 and then called when Rettenmaier shoved all in.
Zeiter: 
Rettenmaier: 
The board ran out 
, and the German star made his exit. He'd soon have company on the rail.
Jorryt van Hoof, Martin Finger, Philipp Gruissem, Dzmitry Urbanovich, Ole Schemion, Fabian Quoss, Dominik Nitsche, Ami Barer, and Day 1b chip leader Max Silver were among those to fall on Day 2. Likewise, Team PokerStars Pro members Theo Jorgensen, Jan Heitmann, George Danzer, Marc-Andre Ladouceur, Vanessa Selbst, Marcin Horecki, Leo Margets, and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier all took their leave, as did Full Tilt Poker Ambassador Dermot Blain, who celebrated his 31st birthday yesterday.
For a thorough look at the history of poker in Malta, check out our feature post titled EPT Malta Shakes Up Portomaso Casino's All-Time Money List.
As for the chip leader, Chartier, he got some of his chips in Level 12 (800/1,600/200) by eliminating EPT Prague High Roller champ Ivan Soshnikov. It happened when the Russian raised to 3,300 and called Chartier's three-bet to 8,200. On the 
flop, Soshnikov check-called a bet of 8,600 and checked again on the turn. Chartier tossed in three blue T5,000 chips and announced to the dealer "14," meaning a bet of 14,000. Soshnikov took off his earphones for a second to confirm the amount and called, heading to the 
on the river.
Again the Russian checked and had put his earphones back in. Chartier moved all in and the red triangle flew in front of the Canadian. Soshnikov called and Chartier flipped over the 
for a flush. The Russian let out some curse words in his native language before flashing the 
and heading for the exit.
Others returning for Day 3 include online star Ignat "0Human0" Liviu (248,000); high-stakes pro Alec Torelli (216,500); reigning World Series of Poker champ Martin Jacobson (67,700); Team PokerStars Pro members Jonathan Duhamel (77,500) and Jake Cody (58,000); and PokerStars-sponsored player Dominik Panka (197,300).
"At the beginning of the day, I won three pots then I had ace-king versus tens," Panka told PokerNews about his Day 2. "The other player had 30 big blinds and I turned a king. After that, I just steadily increased my chips and all the three-bets I did — which weren’t too many — were working. So, yes, it’s been a pretty good day."
Day 3 will kick off at 12 p.m. local time on Wednesday, and the plan is to play five 90-minute levels. The PokerNews Live Reporting team will be there every step of the way.
While you wait, check out this video of Sarah Herring getting her feet nibbled on by fish. Yes, you read that right.