Poland’s Dominik Panka secured a spot at the final table with 1.6 million chips on his birthday of all days.
Panka, who is most well known for winning the 2014 PCA, is already Poland’s #1 live tournament winner with $1.9 million and he’s going to put even more distance between himself and his countryman wherever he finishes tomorrow.
He will have to contend with chip leader Valentin Messina, however, who finished with 7.8 million chips.
France has a very good shot at an EPT title with Messina holding the chip lead and fellow French pro Jean Montury in second with 7.1 million.
Fedor Holz Just Misses Final Table, Goes Out in 9th
German Fedor “CrownUpGuy” Holz has been on a live tournament tear lately but he can’t quite lock down a final table appearance.
Earlier this month Holz finished 11th in WPT Vienna, which is actually where he lives right now, and is also leading the global online tournament leaderboard on PocketFives.
Holz looked primed to make the final table in Malta but had the misfortune of running pocket aces into a set of fives so he’ll have to wait another day to claim that coveted final table seat. He picked up 60,290 for coming in ninth.
They actually played right passed the final table bubble in an effort to speed up the tournament. Polish pro Remi Wyrzykiewics and former chip leader Antonin Duda busted in eighth and seventh place respectively.
The rest of the final table includes Germans Stefan Schillhabel and Hossein Ensan as well as Spaniard Javier Gomez Zapatero.
The final table begins at noon tomorrow with a livestream with hole cards set to start up one hour later.
Here are the final table chip counts:
1. Valentin Messina - 7.8 million 2. Jean Montury - 7.1 million 3. Stefan Schillhabel - 5.5 million 4. Jeavier Gomez Zapatero - 3.8 million 5. Dominik Panka - 1.6 million 6. Hossein Ensan - 865,000
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