Connor Drinan Leads for 2015 Final of EPT Malta €25K High Roller

APPT Macau Super High Roller finalist Connor Drinan is chip leader for the final table of the EPT Malta €25k High Roller.

The 25-year-old American is a serial EPT qualifier who has been playing on the tour since he was 18. He is here at the EPT Malta Poker Festival after winning his Main Event online just five days ago. Along with fellow finalist Dani Stern, Drinan is one of scores of American pros who have relocated to Mexico to play online. He has already notched up more than $2.4 million in live tournament winnings – despite suffering what has been described as "the worst bad beat in tournament history" in last year's WSOP's "Big One For One Drop" when his aces were beaten by aces. His fourth place in Macau last November gave him a lifetime best cash of $657,605 and only a few weeks ago he had another monster score in a LA turbo high roller for $371,719. His best result in Europe was winning a €2k side event at EPT Barcelona last August.

Drinan goes in to tomorrow’s final just 66k ahead of Stern and the pair are virtually neck-and-neck on the USA all time money list as well with Stern just slightly ($10k) ahead in lifetime tournament winnings. Others still in contention for the High Roller trophy and €572,300 first prize include EPT Prague winner Martin Finger, Sam Greenwood and Eureka Rozvadov High Roller winner Dzmitry Urbanovich. Canadian Sorel Mizzi, whose family hails from Malta, bubbled in 14th place after being knocked out by Drinan.

There were a total of 88 entries in the event (68 unique players + 20 re-entries) generating a €2,156,000 prize pool.

Connor Drinan, USA, 893,000 
Dani Stern, USA, 827,000 
Dzmitry Urbanovich, Poland, 734,000 
Piotr Franczak, Poland, 612,000 
Sam Greenwood, Canada, 431,000 
Daniel Dvoress, Canada, 367,000 
Martin Finger, Germany, 358,000 
Nick Petrangelo, USA, 179,000