Thursday, 28th March 2024 08:44
Home / Uncategorized / EPT12 Malta: For the glory (and 500k), the happy few high roller finalists return

As the Main Event prepares to start today, the High Rollers, now three days in to their Malta adventure, take centre stage one last time to seek the honour and glory of an EPT win.

It’s a good day to speak of such things, it being St Crispin’s Day, the 600th anniversary of the Battle of Agincourt. For some it’s a day to remember the plucky underdog, the outnumbered archers taking on a superior force of men at arms. Others might prefer simply to speak of Shakespeare and quote Henry V, coveting honour and pointing out how “gentlemen in England now a-bed (enjoying the extra hour) shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here.”

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For we should have a thrilling finish to the festival’s opening high roller, with a happy few of eight finalists back for one more day. Each has previous, turning this into a straight and difficult fight. But the harder the task the greater share of the glory.

Who are those eight?

Seat Player Country Chips
1 Juha Helppi Finland 2,215,000
2 Nick Petrangelo USA 650,000
3 Sam Greenwood Canada 4,775,000
4 Jason Wheeler USA 930,000
5 Sylvain Loosli France 2,065,000
6 Benjamin Pollak France 1,365,000
7 Byron Kaverman USA 2,970,000
8 Mike McDonald Canada 3,500,000

No one on that list is short of a powerful resume.

McDonald might not have won a high roller, but he’s reached countless final tables (as well as winning an EPT). Loosli got his High Roller crown in Barcelona two months ago, while Petrangelo came close in the same festival. Greenwood makes back-to back EPT Malta High Roller final tables, following his seventh place back in March. Juha Helppi has been winning like this since his opposition today were in short trousers (actually some of them are still in short trousers), and while Pollak might not have the High Roller experience he has enough time in the game to handle himself. Same goes for Wheeler. Both however, are more than capable of that Crispian upset.

And so they play on today until we have a winner, one who will take away a first prize just shy of €500,000, and the lion’s share of that glory stuff. Every cut and thrust will be detailed on our live coverage page; there many years from now to remember what feats were done that day.

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Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.

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