As Day 1A of the Main Event commences, there is fervent activity elsewhere as two of the festival's most popular events will play to their conclusions.

The €2,000 IPT High Roller resumed at 1pm with Keven Stammen in a commanding chip lead. Stammen, who has a WPT title and a WSOP bracelet to his name, bagged 674,500 chips last night, which was nearly double the total of anyone else in the room.

However, neither Stammen nor the 67 players remaining from the 403 who entered are guaranteed any return on investment just yet. The bubble bursts when 55 players remain, which should be one or two levels into the day. (First prize is €151,670; a min-case is €3,835.)

Stammen faces stiff competition from a field of similar quality to any in the week's festivities. Jorryt van Hoof (269,000), Steve O'Dwyer (205,500), Michael Tureniec (180,000), Ondrej Vinklarek (162,500), Ari Engel (159,500)D, Dermot Blain (135,000), Ismael Bojang (110,500), Martin Finger (81,500), Ariel Celestino (63,500), Connor Drinan (53,000) and Yann Dion (51,500) are also still involved. Leo Margets flies the Red Spade alone after the late-night elimination of Theo Jorgensen. Margets has 112,500.

The Malta Cup resumes at 3pm, with 11 players remaining. That one wrapped up pretty late last night, but Neil Ryder heads the field. The British player is a regular around England's casinos, where he has a string of cashes in smaller buy-in events.

But he is on course to smash his highest tournament cash. There's nearly €50,000 on offer for the winner of the Malta Cup and, having outlasted a field of 894 to get there, it will be richly deserved.

Here are the survivors:

Neil Ryder, UK, 3,240,000
Ludovic Heinry, France, 1,800,000
Andras Stumpf, Hungary, 1,375,000
Guillaume Diaz, France, 1,365,000
Michael Michaelides, Cyprus, 1,335,000
Grzegorz Wyraz, Poland, 915,000
David Breitfuss, Austria, 850,000
Roman Skudar, Ukraine, 755,000
Benny Taieb, Israel, 735,000
Boris Kolev, Bulgaria, 535,000
Antonio Wehbe, Spain, 520,000

A quick recap of what went on late last night:

Benjamin Chiss, of France, achieved the best result of his live poker career when he beat Yury Gulyy to win the €500 NL Hyper Turbo event. The two remaining players cut a deal heads up, with Chiss taking €16,670 and Gulyy €15,000 for second place. There were 176 entries creating a €85,360 prize pool.

In the women's event, Caroline Pillet picked up the trophy, beating Jen Shahade into second place and earning €3,360 for her troubles. Pillet finished 12th in the Women's event in Barcelona and continued her fine run of form. Shahade, the PokerStars Mind Sports Ambassador, won €2,430 while Sabina Hiatullah, who was chip-leader for much of the final, finished fourth for €1,170. There were 55 entrants.

Nearly 100 players competed in yesterday's three €100 "Flipout" tournaments with two Italians and a Japanese player taking the top honours. Raffaele Gaetano and Alessio Peciarolo both defeated 32-strong fields to win €1,055, while Japan's Tsugunari Toma scored his first ever cash in Europe when he outlasted 34 players in the first Flipout of the day to win €1,120.

Toma has a string of results in Asia - including sixth in the APPT 2012 Asia Championship of Poker - but is new to EPT competition.

Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, the action from the Main Event is on the Main Event page. All the hand-by-hand coverage of the €25,000 High Roller is on the €25,000 High Roller page and everything from the IPT Main Event is on the IPT Main Event page.

No really, begin plotting your own bid for EPT glory by downloading the PokerStars client and having a crack. Follow this EPT event via the EPT app. There you will get all the latest news, chip counts and payouts. You can download it on Android or IOS

2:52pm: Garp hits back at Brammer
Chris Brammer found a bigger ace in another raised pot with Tobias Garp but played it very different and, to be fair, probably lost the minimum.

Garp raised to 160,000 from under the gun with [ad][kh] and Brammer called from the cutoff with [ah][jh]. The board came [ac][6c]]8d][3d][td] and Garp bet 150,000, 200,000 and 1.3 million all in on each street. Brammer called the firs two bet but folded quickly to the river shove.

Garp - 2,600,000
Brammer - 3,090,000

2:40pm: Brammer applies pressure on Garp
Chris Brammer and Tobias Garp have (apparently) butted heads a lot playing online at PokerStars. Both have been quite through the early stages.

Garp opened to 160,000 from mid position with [kd]td] but folded to a three-bet from Brammer out of the small blind with [ac][8h].

These two players seemed to steer clear of each other yesterday so it'll be interesting if Brammer, for instance, has a different plan for Garp today.

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LEVEL UP: BLINDS 40,000/80,000, ante 10,000

2:23pm: Chip counts

2:10pm: Grogan doubles
James Grogan, the second shortest stack at the start of play, made his move and doubled up.

He was shortest with 620,000 when he moved all in from the small blind and was called by Natan Chauskin in the big blind.

Grogan: [ah][5c]
Chauskin: [kc][5c]

The board ran an Irish flavoured [4s][8c][4c][ac][qh]. He moved up to 1,320,000 and Chauskin dropped to 9,600,000 after he had passed ten million earlier.

2pm: Metaal still hot
Govert Metaal's good start to the final table has continued at the expense of David Gomez.

The latter raised to 125,000 from under the gun and Metaal called from the big blind. The flop fanned [ts][qs][td] and Metaal check-called 125,000 before both players checked the [3s] turn. Metaal then led the [2h] river for 230,000 and Gomez called.

Metaal opened [as][5s] for a flush and Gomez mucked his [kh][qh].

Gomez - 908,000
Metaal - 2,800,000

1:45pm: Metaal doubles up on the third hand
It didn't take long for the first all in and call of the final table.

Govert Metaal moved all in for 740,000 on the first hand but got no callers. On the third hand, he raised to 130,000 and then called all in after David Gomez moved in for 2,405,000. Metaal called all in for 920,000.

Metaal: [as][ks]
Gomez: [9c][9s]

The board ran [5d][kc][5d][qs][7h]. Just what the dutchman needed.

Gomez dropped to 1.4 million and Metaal jumped up to third with 2.35 million after winning a small pot, with pocket queens, the hand after.

1:35pm: Shuffle up and deal
Introductions are done and cards are in the air!

1:25pm: Final table about to begin
Welcome back for the last day of the IPT Malta Main Event. The final table was set early evening yesterday after an unfortunate bustout out for Franco Arlotta in ninth place. The hand enabled Natan Chauskin to gain a firmer grasp on today's final table. As you can see from the table below, he's going to be a hard man to stop:

The final table is being streamed on PokerStars.tv on a one-hour delay but only in Italian. If that tongue suits you feel free to watch, if not, stick here with us all day as we'll be bring you all the key hands and exits. Cards are due in the air at 1:30pm CET.

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For full details of the tournaments on offer, and when you can register for them, click here.

Updates provided by Marc Convey, with photos coming from René Velli and Tomáš Stacha.

So here we are, back in Malta for a second time in a calendar year. Or more accurately back for the start of the second EPT Main Event here in a calendar year. The fact that the flagship event is tournament #32 on a 76 event schedule tells you that plenty of action has already occurred in Malta already.

Two of the biggest amuse-bouche's reach their climax today with the IPT Main Event and €25,000 High Roller final tables starting at 12.30 CET.
There are, as normal, two opening flights: Day 1A today and Day 1B tomorrow. Entry costs €5,000+€300, players begin with 30,000 in tournament chips and the plan is to play eight 75-minute levels, with a dinner break after level six (approximately 8.10pm).
It should all be done and dusted by about midnight, before we rinse and repeat tomorrow.