Jean Montury Wins EPT Malta 2015 for €687,400

Former pool champion Jean Montury has become the first ever EPT Malta champion, taking down the €5,300 event for €687,400. The 40-year-old Frenchman, who runs a hotel and golf complex near Lille, has had numerous results on the tour including three far smaller cashes here in Malta. But his best live result before now was €57,290 for fourth place in the FPS Deauville €2k High Roller.

Montury beat fellow Frenchman Valentin Messina after cutting a heads-up deal. In addition to the trophy and champion’s title, he wins an exclusive “Black and Steel” watch from luxury Swiss brand SLYDE, the Official Watch Sponsor for EPT Season 11 Main Events and High Rollers. Messina took €615,000 for his runner-up finish.

Montury said: “"I know I won a lot of money, but it was not about that. It was more about getting the trophy, winning the EPT. The heads-up was incredible, so long. My opponent won four or five all-ins, so I thought it's almost impossible to beat him. I hope now that I'll win a lot of other tournaments. I will play lots of EPTs and I am also going to Las Vegas in the summer."

Dominik Panka, the 2014 PCA champion, continued his amazing streak by making his second EPT final table within 14 months. After celebrating his 24th birthday on Friday by surviving nine all-ins confrontations, he returned for the final as one of the shortest stacks but managed to finish in third place for €347,300. His Malta performance follows another deep run in Barcelona last August when he was 11th for €77,600.

The final also involved another two EPT finalists: Hossein Ensan, third at EPT11 Barcelona, finished sixth for €153,700 while Antonin Duda, seventh in Barcelona in Season 9, was seventh here too, winning €108,200.

Aside from Panka’s deep run, the other big story at EPT Malta involved fellow Pole Dzmitry Urbanovich. The 19-year-old from Warsaw won four side events at the festival – a feat never before achieved in EPT history. His €720,000 Malta haul including €572,300 for winning the special €25k High Roller and €110,000 for taking down a €5k NL event.

With the festival being held jointly with the Italian Poker Tour and Pagano Events, and Malta lying only 180km away from Italy, it was no surprise that there were more Italians in the field than any other nation. However across the whole festival, it was Polish players who made the real impact. The 55 Polish representatives here averaged winnings of more than €31,000 each, boosted by Panka’s deep run, Urbanovich’s four titles and Piotr Franczak winning a €1k Midnight Hyperturbo. Five Maltese nationals also took part in the event.

There were more than 300 players who won their seats online – and it was Spanish PokerStars qualifier Javier Gomez Zapatero who lasted the longest. He finished fourth – ending Spanish hopes of a first EPT champion but taking €205,300 back to his current home in London. Among the 127 players who cashed in the event were WCOOP champion Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz, who bubbled the final table (finishing ninth for €60,290), EPT London champion Robin Ylitalo, UKIPT London winner Sergio Aido, Canadan pro Sam Chartier, British #1 Sam Trickett and WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson.

The festival got off to a roaring start when WCOOP Omaha champion Georgios "Zisimo7" Zisimopoulos won the record-breaking IPT Malta Main Event for €142,205. The tournament attracted 1,285 entrants generating a €1,246,450 prize pool. Bulgarian player Dimitar Bashov won the inaugural €300 Malta Cup for €51,562 while British pro Keith Johnson defeated a 473-strong field to take down the IPT €2k High Roller for €144,500. Fellow Brit Stephen “stevie444” Chidwck won the €2k NL tourney for €102,100. The prestigious €10k High Roller was won by American David Peters for €597,000.

In all, 2,429 players competed at the festival. There were 11,453 tournament entries and €18,571,450 was awarded in prize money, including more than €2m for the event winners.

One of the highlights of the festival was the Helping Hands tournament which raised €15,000 for PokerStars’ official charity partner Right To Play. Celebrities, poker pros, broadcasters and media plus local Maltese politicians and business leaders were among the 69 players who competed with UKIPT Brighton finalist Sin Melin winning the trophy and iPad for first prize. Other high-profile events during the festival included the inaugural two-day Global Poker Masters, won by Team Italy, and the European Poker Awards on Thursday, during which EPT Vienna won an award along with many EPT regulars and media.

EPT president Edgar Stuchly said: “This is the EPT’s first visit to Malta and we are thrilled that it has gone so well. Players have clearly loved this destination which has so many amenities and is perfectly geared to everything players want at a poker festival – tons of great events, lots of restaurants and bars nearby and great sight-seeing. This is the home of PokerStars.eu and we’ve loved being here; we’ll certainly be looking into returning here in the future.”