The Race to the Money on Day 3 of the EPT 11 Malta Main Event
After 14 levels and two days of tournament poker, the PokerStars European Poker Tour Malta Main Event has seen its field of 895 entries whittled down to just 186 hopefuls with the top 127 spots getting paid at least �9,120 for their efforts.
Day 3 is typically the money day and the bubble is expected to burst within the first three levels. As of today and until the end of the tournament, the level duration increases to 90 minutes each and Sam Chartier is leading the field with 465,500 in chips.
He is closely followed by Germany's Moritz Dietrich (460,000), Javier Rodriguez (442,300) and Ismail Kalkan (426,900) whereas UK's super star Sam Trickett completes the top five with a healthy stack of 380,100.
Plenty of other notables have made it through: Noah Vaillancourt (285,000), Sergio Aido (272,500), Valentin Messina (253,500), online beast Ignat "0Human0" Liviu (248,100), Alec Torelli (216,500), Mateusz Moolhuizen (211,400) and Giuliano Bendinelli (207,300) all bagged up above-average stacks.
Several EPT champions are still in as well: Jannick Wrang (237,100), PokerStars Sponsored Player Dominik Panka (197,300), Robin Ylitalo (196,000), Benny Spindler (149,400), PCA champion Kevin Schulz (127,000), David Vamplew (76,600), Sotirios Koutoupas (62,700) and Team PokerStars Pro Jake Cody (58,000). 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion and Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel also returns to the table after bagging up 77,500 chips.
Play resumes in half an hour from now at 12:00 p.m. local time with level 15 and blinds at 1,500 - 3,000 and a running ante of 400. After each level there is a break of 20 minutes and Day 3 is expected to bag and tag around 20:45 local time. Make sure to tune into the PokerNews live reporting to find out who makes the cut, has to leave empty-handed and will remain to become the first EPT Malta champion on Saturday!