It turns out Day 1a of EPT Malta was just a warm-up for a massive Day 1b that saw 629 players crowd into the Hilton in Portomaso.

England’s Max Silver scored the overall chip lead of the day with 176,100 chips but Noah Vaillancourt (146,100), Moritz Dietrich (135,500) and Sam Trickett (134,900) all made it into the top 10 chip counts.

The 629 players from Day 1b brought the overall total number of entries in the inaugural tournament to 887, which is already good enough for a prize pool of €4.3+ million.

Registration will remain open until the start of Day 2 tomorrow so that number could still get a slight boost.

Trickett Hits Stunning Two-Outer to Stay Alive

Sam Trickett may have finished in the top 10 chip counts but nearly found himself out of the tournament midway through the day.

The famed English pro, who has $20m in lifetime live tournament earnings, was all-in with pocket nines against his opponent’s pocket queens and ended up spiking a nine on the river.

“I think I just won my first all-in of the year!” said an exuberant Trickett on Twitter after the hand. “Get ready for the heater.”

Trickett made good on that statement by amassing 134,900 chips before play concluded for the evening.

He was hardly the only big name pro to punch his ticket to Day 2 with Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Leo Margets, Vanessa Selbst, George Danzer and Jonathan Duhamel also making it through.

Action resumes at the Hilton tomorrow at noon with the remaining 639 players from both starting days returning to the felt.

Here are the top 10 chip counts to end Day 1b:

• 1. Max Silver – 176,100
• 2. Kyle Hendry – 155,000
• 3. Nir Levy – 150,000
• 4. Noah Vaillancourt – 146,100
• 5. Matthieu Rodriguez – 139,700
• 6. Rudolf Zintel – 135,000
• 7. Moritz Dietrich – 135,000
• 8. Sam Trickett – 134,900
• 9. Bernardo Dias – 131,800
• 10. Gilbert Diaz – 130,800

One Champion, One Orbit – Julian Track

Julian Track won EPT Prague in 2013 at one of the fastest final tables in EPT history.

Since then he’s only played in a handful of live events and made final tables in Melbourne, Berlin and in Malta today where he finished 4th in the IPT high roller event.

He jumped straight into the main event and we approached his table in level 3. The blinds were 150/300/25 and the average stack was 33,333. Track held about 40k.

It turned out to be an incredibly tight table where the players were folding to the extent that we saw two walks in only nine hands.

Track was in middle position when we started watching him. He folded the first three hands and then got involved from UTG.

Track raised to 675. The two players to his left calle, as did the player on the button.

The flop fell      

It was checked to the player in last position who bet 3,400. Only Track called and the turn fell  

Track checked, the opponent bet 8,000 and after some deliberation Track released his hand.

Action from the Hijack

Track folded the next three hands without a raise before him, even from the small blind. From Actithe hijack Track finally announced a raise again and pushed 675 into the middle.

The big blind called and we went to the flop of      

Check from the big blind, who called Track’s bet of 900. The turn A♥ was checked by both players and on the river 8♥ Track bet again, this time 1,600.

His opponent thought it over for a while and then eventually called with T-J without hearts for a straight.

Track only had pocket threes to show and lost the hand. The former champion lost both the hand he played here and lost 7,300 chips, disregarding the blinds and antes.

That brought him down to chip average but without much harm done. Just shows that, as they say, poker is a marathon, not a sprint.

Decision of the Day

George Danzer registered late today and took his seat at the table of Vanessa Selbst.

After about 20 minutes, and after he had just won a large pot with pocket aces, somebody tapped him on the shoulder and said, “you’re sitting in my seat.”

Danzer checked his seat card and realized he was indeed sitting at the wrong table. We posed this situation to floorman Nicholas and this is how he would have dealt with the situation:

“The player has to take his chips and move. There will be no reverse action. The player can’t stay because otherwise players would look for ‘easy’ tables and try to get away with it.

It makes no difference if the player at the wrong table has lost or won chips and it doesn’t matter how long he’s been sitting there.”

Danzer explained with a big smile: “I’ve been sitting at Vanessa’s table in so many events, it just felt natural to sit down next to her.”

The table numbers in question were 26 and 28, which explains why even the dealer didn’t notice the mistake.

They do look pretty similar, and apparently Danzer acted with the air of a man who knows exactly what he’s doing.