Jean Montury Wins First Ever EPT Malta Main Event

Day 5 of the European Poker Tour Malta €5,300 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event attracted an impressive field of 895 entries which built up the prize pool of €4,340,750. The final 23 of an 895-player field returned to battle down to the final six in the main event, and each of these players were firmly eyeing the €810,400 prize and the title of first-ever EPT Malta champion.

Finally, it was 40-year-old French player Jean Montury who topped the field of 895-entry, and emerged victorious seizing his first EPT title and the €687,400 first-place prize. This is former billiards pro already has two final tablefinishes under his belt in 2015.

34-year-old Valentin Messina was the chip leader on the final table with 7.805 million. Originally from France Messina first came to fame when he beat Freddy Deeb heads-up in the France Poker Tour in 2010 for €131,780.

The heads-up battle was really a long-distance race. 2014 EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event Champion Dominik Panka was eliminated in third place roughly seven hours before the final hand was dealt in this event. Montury had a lower chip stack in comparison to Valentin Messina when heads-up play began. However, both of them agreed to a deal that saw Messina lock up €615,000 and Jean Montury secure €587,000, leaving €100,000 and the title to play for.

There were many strokes in the heads-up play of 147-hand showdown. In the final hand, Montury had a chip lead. With blinds of 300,000 – 600,000 with an ante of 100,000, and Messina open-shoved for 8.7 million with the 55. Montury called with A10 and the board ran out JJ646 knocking off Messina’s pair, and making Montury’s ace kicker the winning hand.

Given below are the final table results: