Natan Chauskin of Belarus Wins IPT Malta Main Event for €149,560

Natan Chauskin from Belarus is the new €1,100 IPT7 Malta2 champion after a final table he led right from the start.

The 27-year-old banked his biggest prize so far, taking a total of €149,560 after cutting a heads-up deal with Govert Metaal and scooping the extra €20k left for the champ.

Just three months ago, Chauskin started the pokerbrothers.by coaching website with his friends Mikolai Vaskaboinikau and Jenya Gavrilovich and it hasn't taken the threesome long to reap benefits from their project: Gavrilovich won the €2k NL tournament at EPT Barcelona - for €75,300 - and now Chauskin has secured another big cash for the team here in Malta. Winning the IPT Main Event title has made Chauskin feeling even hungrier for success. He said: "It's not the amount of money that changes my life. Plus, I don't play just for the money, I play to become a sportstar, because poker is a sport, where the competition is the most important thing. I will play the EPT Main Event tomorrow and win it too."

Metaal, 56, who started today's final table as the shortest stack, made an incredible cameback to finish second. The Dutch veteran is an EPT regular with a string of great results. He was the Netherland's 2013 Player of the Year and had back to back finishes in the PCA $25k High Roller - fifth in 2011 and sixth in 2012.

Chris "NigDawG" Brammer finished in third for €72,660 and after his departure, the Englishman was in a hurry to catch up with PokerStars' online Sunday tournament schedule. He'll be back at Portomaso Casino tomorrow to play Day 1b of the EPT Main Event after earning his seat online.

Three Team PokerStars Pros made the money: Matthias De Meulder (77th), Luca Pagano (87th) and Pier Paolo Fabretti (88th) while Team Online's Mickey Petersen finished in 130th place.

IPT7 Malta2 final table results:

1st - Natan Chauskin, Belarus, €149,560

2nd - Govert Metaal, Netherlands, PokerStars player, €124,000

3rd - Christopher Brammer, UK, PokerStars qualifier, €72,660

4th - David Gomez, Spain, €54,570

5th - Joep Raemaekers, UK, PokerStars player, €42,440

6th - Tobias Garp, Sweden, PokerStars qualifier, €31,420

7th - James Grogan, Ireland, PokerStars qualifier, €22,500

8th - Denis Timofeev, Russia, PokerStars qualifier, €16,030