Duda Leads Final 23; Fedor Holz & Dominik Panka Still in Contention
At the start of Day 4, just 56 players remained in the European Poker Tour Malta Main Event, but after five 90-minute levels of play, the field was culled down to the final 23. The man best positioned to make a run at the €810,400 first-place prize is Antonin Duda, who bagged up the chip leader with 3,476,000.
The 28-year-old poker pro hails from the Czech town Jablonec nad Nisou. To date, his biggest cash was €125,950 for a seventh-place finish in the EPT9 Barcelona. Duda, who qualified for the EPT Malta on PokerStars, has a decent March so far having won two major tournaments on Full Tilt Poker for over a combined $62,000.
Others who've navigated the 895-player field to make it through to the penultimate day are 2014 WCOOP Main Event champ Fedor "CrownUpGuy" Holz (3,146,000), EPT10 London champ Robin Ylitalo (972,000), and 2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure winner and PokerStars-Sponsored Player Dominik Panka (391,000).
The plan for the day was to play down to the final 16 players, but action didn't allow for it. Still, plenty of players saw their hopes of becoming the first-ever EPT Malta champion come to an end including Steven Watts (€14,750), Mortiz Dietrich (46th - €14,750), Yann Dion (43rd - €14,750), JC Alvarado (38th - €17,100), and Liviu "0Human0" Ignat, who was the center of a great name debate at the beginning of the day.
Another player to fall was Sam Chartier, who fell in the last level of the night when Mateusz Moolhuizen, who qualified via the very last EPT Malta Main Event satellite, opened for 55,000 under the gun and was met by a three-bet to 120,000 from Valentin Messina, who was to his direct left. Chartier then four-bet jammed for 358,000 from the hijack. Moolhuizen looked him up and Messina got out of the way.
Moolhuizen: 
Chartier: 
It was a cooler of a hand, but Chartier was on the good end. The tables were turned when the 
flop delivered Moolhuizen a set, though Chartier at least picked up a flush draw. The 
turn was no help to Chartier, and neither was the 
river. With that, Chartier bowed out in 26th place while Moolhuizen chipped up to 1.2 million.
George Danzer won Poker Ambassador of the Year at the 14th Annual European Poker Awards. Check out what he had to say about it by clicking here.
Others joining Moolhuizen on Day 5 are Hossein Ensan (2,639,000), Sergio Aido (1,187,000), and Jorma Nuutinen (870,000), just to name a few. Here's a look at the remaining players:
| Table | Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| Feature | 1 | Carlo Citrone | 525,000 |
| Feature | 2 | Glib Kovtunov | 372,000 |
| Feature | 3 | Bjorn Lundgren | 237,000 |
| Feature | 4 | Hossein Ensan | 2,639,000 |
| Feature | 5 | Bart Kuiper | 361,000 |
| Feature | 6 | Remigiusz Wyrzykiewicz | 2,104,000 |
| Feature | 7 | Dominik Panka | 391,000 |
| Feature | 8 | Robin Ylitalo | 972,000 |
| 1 | 1 | Antonin Duda | 3,476,000 |
| 1 | 2 | Valentin Messina | 909,000 |
| 1 | 3 | Javier Gomez Zapatero | 1,877,000 |
| 1 | 4 | -empty- | N/A |
| 1 | 5 | Jacek Ladny | 445,000 |
| 1 | 6 | Sergio Aido | 1,187,000 |
| 1 | 7 | Jorma Nuutinen | 817,000 |
| 1 | 8 | Julien Duveau | 737,000 |
| 2 | 1 | Mateusz Moolhuizen | 1,249,000 |
| 2 | 2 | Rudolf Wilhelm Zintel | 780,000 |
| 2 | 3 | Koray Aldemir | 1,667,000 |
| 2 | 4 | Bruno Volkmann | 248,000 |
| 2 | 5 | Stefan Schillhabel | 900,000 |
| 2 | 6 | Jean Montury | 1,363,000 |
| 2 | 7 | Fedor Holz | 3,146,000 |
| 2 | 8 | Dennis Kaj Smit | 342,000 |
Action will recommence at Noon local time on Friday, and the plan is to play down to the final six players. Of course the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there every step of the way. While you wait, check out this comprehensive video of the 14th Annual European Poker Awards: