The sports lexicon is littered with clichés. Some work only for certain sports, like 'on any given Sunday,' or 'he's got a good touch for a big man'. Others such as 'give 110%' and 'you're only as good as your last game,' transcend multiple sports.

Poker is a game that some consider a sport and if the last of those clichés was put through the poker translator it'd (probably) come out as 'you're only as good as your last tournament.' Well, if that's the case there's a lot of poker players who've gone from hero to zero (enough with the clichés, Ed.) here in Malta today.

At the EPT11 Grand Final, which took place in May of this year, Adrian Mateos and Charlie Carrel won the Main Event and the €25,000 High Roller respectively, within minutes of each other for a combined €2,196,000. Here in Malta they were hit with the rough end of the stick, busting out a few hands apart (although Mateos has since re-entered).

First to feel the icy hand of lady variance on his shoulder was Carrel when he got involved in a pre-flop raising war with Nick Petrangelo which the American won. The cut off versus button battle ended with Carrel five-bet shoving with [A][9], for a shade under 60 big blinds, and Petrangelo snap calling with [Ks][Kd]. No outdraw was forthcoming and Carrel was on his way.

Whilst Carrel's exit was akin to ripping off a band-aid - swift and mostly painless - Mateos' exit saw the plaster stretched off the skin a centimetre at a time. He, Scott Seiver and Mike McDonald were all involved when the [Ac][9s][6h] flop hit the felt, but after a 5,000 bet from Seiver McDonald ducked out to leave the pot heads up. The [3s] turn card didn't look like it would cause the flurry of action that followed but after Seiver bet 13,200 Mateos responded by moving all-in for 46,500.

Seiver had earlier regaled the table with the hand history of the big Mateos versus Johnny Lodden hand from the EPT11 Grand Final so certainly knew what the Spaniard was capable of. He got a count, grimaced, weighed it all up, made the call and showed [Ad][Jc]. His reticence was unfounded as Mateos opened [Qs][Ts] for a flush draw which missed on the [8h] river.

In poker though there are always 'plenty more where they came from' all willing to take their shot at being the next hero, the next champion. Indeed, as Carrel and Mateos exited Piotr Franczak and Jose Carlos Garcia were buying in. The latter has already come mighty close to a major title on the EPT having finished fifth in the event that Mateos won and fourth in the Estrellas Main Event at EPT12 Barcelona. They're both trying to keep this title in Poland as it was won last time out by some guy called Urbanovich. Whatever happened to him?

We've got all the usual coverage on the EPT Malta page on PokerStars Blog, including the IPT Main Event which is fast approaching the money and don't forget you can 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

There's a sort of pleasing element to the start of the High Roller event. With only a couple of tables in action, alongside the busier IPT Main Event, it would be easy to miss. For right now it doesn't look like a poker tournament, more like a social club, albeit an exclusive one.

The Malta Poker and Social Club

That said its members are familiar and it's hard to think of another group of people who are prepared to pay so much to enjoy each other's company and get close to those considered the best in the business. A political fundraiser perhaps, with five figure fee for a "plate" and a handshake with the candidate? Or maybe court side seats in an arena somewhere.

But there's something appealing about this small corner of the EPT Malta tournament room. For while this event starts slowly, with fewer than two tables full, it will soon come alive. Already there are four tables. A fifth is on the way.

Social club regular: Mike McDonald

Standing alongside and watching, the reasons for its appeal seem obvious. For one thing it looks like a fun, pleasant place to be (seriously, it makes the IPT field look like a room full of grown men sitting a math exam). But there's something else, a kind of magnetic pull. If you're poker player without a capped budget you have to play. Who could bear to be left out?

Sure, the social element might fade at some point (although it never completely evaporates), and thoughts will turn to business. But not today. Instead this is a day to play what at least looks like care free high stakes poker. So care free in fact that a single re-entry will put right any mistake you might make, and takes those cares away.

So come along and join in. There's a seat waiting for you. Maybe even tea and cake.

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Ten years ago the poker landscape was very different from today. Many poker players claimed that online poker players were the "value" and that most of the game's sharks operated in the live arena. Make your own mind up whether or not that was true.

Today, the online poker has grown significantly and is deemed to be a lot tougher as the standard of play has improved over the years. The live poker scene has also seen big growth and many, in this day in age, see it the softer of the two.

Some people just play live, some just online but most play both. It's got us wondering. What motivates players who mainly play online to turn up to live events these days? Time to hunt out some players who started out online and ask them why they started coming to live events.

Shaun Deeb, "When I first started coming to live events it was to to meet people. I also always felt like there was more money in live tournaments because the prize pools were bigger but I don't know it that was true looking back on it.

"Now, I live in the (United) States and I don't get to play that often so I go to a live stops to play online while I'm here and play a few of the high buy ins that are floating around."

Charlier Carrel, "I think the main motivation I play live events is down to the longterm EV of money, which I hate to say. It's just because the game is softer (than online) and there's more breadth to it. There's more room for improvement; there's a bigger edge to be found and I find myself slowly moving away from the online world because so much of it is about learning software and learning how to use programs that other people have made, which is not really working of your own merit. Basically, anyone can do it if they put time into it but I'm sure other people can do it better (than me)."

Adam Owen, "I used to watch live events on TV and they looked a lot of fun so I come to have that sort of fun. I also come to make money as I find live events to be a lot easier although completely different to playing online."

Vicente Delgado, "My motivation of playing live is for the glory. Online you can play more tables and have a better hourly (earnings) but I play live for the titles!"

David Lappin, "I spoke to a good friend of mine, Fintan Hand , who's an Irish pro living here in Malta for the last couple of years and he looks at it very differently. I always say I like to balance in a little live action - four or five tournaments in a month - because I think it's good for my life balance and gets me out of the house playing poker, it gets me interacting with people and I don't get bored and sick of it as quickly. Fintan says when he thinks about travelling to events he doesn't want to play poker, he just wants to hang out and socialise. All his life balance comes from parties and enjoying his life when he's not sitting at a computer. He just doesn't enjoy the pace of live poker, it doesn't suit him."

The most common theme is that live poker seems to be an easier game to beat than online poker these days but, for many, it's also about the travel, social aspect and a change from the usual online grind. Come a to a PokerStars event to work hard but also play hard.

So it's worth getting yourself a PokerStars account if you don't have one. Come and join the fun!

Main Event update

The first two levels of the day have passed and the exits (as normal at the beginning of a Day 2) have been coming thick and fast. Almost 100 have been eliminated and included are names such as: Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari; EPT London champion Sebastian Pauli; online heads up specialist Kellyann Hefferan; Italian cowboy Alfonso Amendola; Scottish businessman/poker player Fraser MacIntyre; the man, the myth, the legend that is Salvatore Bonavena; former ultra marathon runner Dara O'Kearney; former November Niner Antoine Saout and Irish poker player of the year Dermot Blain.

At the other end of the scale, Andreas Chalkiadakis has lost the chip lead he came into the day with as he's dropped back to 270,000 which is still good for a top-ten stack. He had a difficult start before recovering yesterday so he won't be getting down-hearted.

The top five at the first break (according to Pagano events):

Yohan Cohen (Israel), 452,000
Henry Broens (Netherlands), 326,000
Denis Strebkov (Russia), 310,000
Loius Cartarius (Germany), 290,000
Francesco Lombardo (Italy), 290,000

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.

Mr Payne (Dazed and Confused), "Men! Fifty of you are leaving on a mission. Twenty-five of you ain't coming back."

Troops going out to battle in the Vietnam war had a 50% of coming back and the same odds await the 270 players that are returning for Day 2 of the IPT Main Event. A minimum cash of €1,810 awaits the 135 last standing poker troops, and the bubble should burst at some point during the second half of the day.

Andreas Chalkiadakis stormed his way to the Day 1A lead yesterday with 337,400 and that's good for the overall lead coming in to today. After a shaky start, the man from Greece said he had one of those days where everything worked for him. Danut Chisu, Alessio Russo, Alessio Peciarolo and Massimo Di Cicco had similar day (most likely) and are over a quarter of a way to a million chips.

Pier Paolo Fabretti (161,400), Luca Pagano (131,900), Mickey Petersen (79,100), Matthias De Meulder (49,000) and Andre Akkari (24,200) are still representing the red spade of PokerStars today, albeit it with very different prospects.

The levels will be 60 minutes long from here on in and ten of them are scheduled for today. They'll be a 75-minute dinner break after eight levels (approx. 9:15pm) and play will end around 12:15 am.

Day 2 chip counts
Day 2 seat draw

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

Not got a PokerStars account yet? Join the world's biggest site now!

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