It is Halloween in Malta, as it is across the world, and we can kick right off today with some dastardly intrigue.

Florence Allera, the 2014 Female Player of the Year, enjoyed a sensational run last night in the €200 no limit hold 'em event, which concluded for the day at 1.30am with Allera sitting on an enormous chip-lead.

The lead was so large--she had 1.103 million chips while her closest challenger had 334,000--that we originally thought it may have been a typo. But it wasn't: Allera simply smashed all comers and built her stack beyond all possible expectations. (For context, they re-started today in Level 16, with blinds of 5,000-10,000. Allera therefore had a 110 big blind stack.)

However although Allera's stack made it back to the tables to begin Day 2 today, there was no sign of its shepherd. Allera herself had vanished, leaving the tournament absent of its dominant force.

Tournament organisers have made repeated calls to Allera's phone in an attempt to track her down, with the first concern, of course, for her safety. But it also now appears, according to conversation on the tournament floor, that she did indeed return to the casino today, alive and well, but then disappeared back to the hotel.

The strong rumour is that Allera celebrated the arrival of Halloween, and her mighty stack, by partaking of something approaching a cauldron's fill of witches brew at the tables last night. She may be feeling something wicked in the head this morning.

She has seemingly made a pretty accurate calculation that her stack is so big that it may be better off without her in control. So far, it has navigated through the bubble all right and now into the final eight and she is still in the top two in the counts.

She has only lost 200,000 in blinds so far, even as 12 players have departed. Tournament officials estimate that she could have an average stack five or six handed, depending on how the other players play it out.

I must add that this is simply what is being said on the tournament floor. We haven't heard from Allera herself and naturally hope and assume she is OK. A couple of people are even speculating that she might have had a flight home and is now winging her way back to France allowing her chips to do the work.

Ronny Vik has moved his stack beyond the 1 million mark now and has assumed the overall chip lead. The winner gets €8,080.

Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the €10,000 High Roller is on the High Roller page.

The side event details are on the side events 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

After nine levels of play on Day 2 of the High Roller, including a long bubble period, the field was reduced to 19 players. The bubble burst with 31 getting in the money and by the end of the day, Mukul Pahuja from the United States ended the day as chip leader on 1,488,000. He came 17th in the €10,200 One Day High Roller six days ago but is very well positioned to better that result today.

That's not to say it will be easy for him as there are some "horrifyingly" good players aiming to chase him down. Byron Kaverman is having a great year and motivated by the fact a deep run will really help his quest to become the GPI Player of the Year. Martin Finger has an EPT title, a £50k Super High Roller title along with a €25k High Roller title and just needs a €10k version to complete the set. Kevin MacPhee has an EPT title to his name and has won two bracelets already this year, so has the form to close out a tournament. Then there's sharks such as Bryn Kenney, Roberto Romanello, Sean Winter, David Yan, Dominik Nitsche and defending champion, David Peters to worry about.

Play has gotten underway and the PokerStars Blog will bring you all the day's major talking points. Here's how the players line up at the start of play:

You can watch #EPTLive coverage here, whilst everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.

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

It was a long day for the High Roller players today. Ten levels were scheduled and only nine were played but, due to a long protracted bubble period, the day still lasted 12.5 hours.

The remaining 19 players will return at 12:30pm CET and play this thing out, led by Mukul Pahuja who bagged up 1,488,000 after winning a big pot at the end of the night. He three-bet Mikita Badziakouski with pocket aces and managed to get an extra two streets of value out him (before he mucked on the river) on a board containing two jacks. Vladimir Dobrovolskiy closed the day a close second with 1,389,000. A lot of his chips came in the last level of the night when he flopped two pair versus David Yan and then won a half-million chip pot when eliminating Przemyslaw Piotrowski, his pocket kings surviving against the Pole's ace-king.

The bubble period dominated the period before and after the dinner break. Overnight chip leader Adrian Mateos fell two short of the money when his pocket jacks couldn't stay ahead of Bryn Kenney's king-queen in a 80 big blind pot, then followed a hand for hand play lasted more than two hours.

Tension and tiredness built as there were no all-in showdowns until Brian Roberts bubbled. He was down to less than a big blind when he called all in under-the-gun with ace-ten. He had to get past Sean Winter and Roberto Romanello but couldn't beat the latter's pocket fives and departed.

Two Team PokerStars Pros made the money but failed to make Day 3. Jason Mercier was the second shortest stack on the bubble and was at risk of bubbling a third event of the festival but he just crept into the money (30th for €17,930) and was joined by Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier who was one of the last to bust today (21st for €22,000).

The full overnight chip counts are:

You can watch #EPTLive coverage here, whilst everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.

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

A frustrating bubble period has finally come to an end in the EPT Malta High Roller event. The unfortunate player to bust was Brian Roberts, out after his lost his final few chips to former EPT Champion Roberto Romanello.

In total, the bubble lasted just over two hours with a 75-minute dinner break thrown in the middle for good measure. As ever, hand for hand play started one away from the money after start of day chip leader Adrian Mateos busted in 32nd. The last ten minutes of the level played out with one all in showdown. After the dinner break, the whole of Level 17 passed with out a single all in and call. Then the Tournament Directors decided it was unfair to raise the blinds twice on the bubble, so they paused the clock. Another hour passed without an all in and call before the bubble burst to relief of the visibly drained players.

One reason for the lack of big pots resulting in all ins was the fact that four players were super-short, Roberts and Jason Mercier being two of them. The Team PokerStars Pro had already stone-bubbled three events this festival and was edgy as he must've feared a fourth was a real possibility.

Let's take it all the way back to before dinner and the soft bubble of Adrian Mateos. The Spaniard entered the day as clear chip leader, the only player who had turned his 50,000-starting stack into one worth more than 300,000. He played with confidence today but, once at a tricky table sandwiched Mercier and Felix Stephesen, slid back somewhat. He still had 40 big blinds when he busted though but was in no mood to fold when battling with Kenney, both having big hands on the button and in the small blind respectively.

Kenney raised to 13,000 from the button with [kc][qc] before Mateos three-bet to 40,000 from the small blind with [jc][jh]. Kenney wasted little time in setting his opponent all in for his last 240,000 and Mateos quickly called off but couldn't hold as the board ran [qs][th][5d][tc][ad].

Before the players headed off for dinner, Nick Petrangelo tried to burst the bubble when he had Iacopo Brandi all in but the Italian dominated and doubled. Petrangelo limped in with [ks][qs] and called when Brandi shoved with [ah][kc]. The board ran a blank [3c][jd][jc][8d][4c].

Fast-forward around three hours and Roberts committed his last 6,000 chips (bb 8,000) from under the gun and had customers in Sean Winter and Romanello in the blinds. The flop spread [kc][6h][4d] and Winters check-folded to Romanello's 20,000-bet.

"Wow, great protection!" said a player from another table after the hands were revealed.

Romanello: [5d][5h]
Roberts: [ad][tc]

The [jh] turn opened up more outs for Roberts but he commented, "It's not coming, just give him the chips!" He wasn't wrong as the [2s] river confirmed his exit.

After the hand the players were given a short break to recharge and when they returned to action the TD's told them that, due to the extended nature of the bubble, play would end one level earlier than scheduled. Therefore they would play two more levels, for nine total in the day, bag up and come back to play to a winner tomorrow.

You can watch #EPTLive coverage here, whilst everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the side event coverage can be found here.

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

The list of upcoming events has grown mighty small here in Malta. This is the penultimate day of competition and only tonight's €2,000 hyper-turbo and tomorrow's four one-day events are yet to begin.

Since our last side-events update, two champions have been crowned and three new tournaments have begun, while another event has reached its final table. Here's the last run-down for the night before we pick it all up again tomorrow.

In the completed events, Italy's Luca Beretta emerged triumphant from the crazy pineapple tournament, winning €2,240 for his troubles. That was a really successful event, with 67 players paying the €200 entry fee and players from six different countries earning a payout.

The full results are on the side-event page, but here's a sneak preview:

1. Luca Beretta (Italy) €2,240
2. Olivier Decamps (France) €1,550
3. Martin Noya (Switzerland) €986
4. Aleksandrs Margolis (Latvia) €760
5. Eshed Esh Hadaya (Israel) €600
6. Neil Bergin (Malta) €460

Laszlo Bujtas won the €1,000 PLO, which spilled over into a second day. He takes €18,160 back to Hungary after beating the UK's Peter Charalambous into second place.

They finished:

1. Laszlo Bujtas (Hungary) €18,160
2. Peter Charalambous (United Kingdom) €13,040
3. Lauri Pesonen (Finland) €8,480
4. Adam Milewski (Poland) €6,400
5. Allan Horne (Denmark) €4,960
6. Darie Vlad (Romania) €3,850
7. Peter Eichhardt (Sweden) €3,040
8. Samuli Sipila (Finland) €2,350
9. Olli Kokko (Finland) €1,800

So, to recap what else is going on in the tournament rooms tonight:

The stand-out event is #70: the €1,000+€1,000 turbo bounty, which attracted 176 players. Thirty-seven of them are still alive, including Andrew Chen (135,000), Maria Ho (140,000), Steve O'Dwyer (170,000), Connor Drinan (165,000) and Mike McDonald (60,000).

But they are all being crushed at the moment by Jesper Feddersen, who comes from Flensburg in Germany. According to Robin Scherr, who knows about these things (because he's German), Flensburg is a tiny town but famous across the country as the administrative centre of the German driving authorities, the DMV or DVLA.

If you get yourself a speeding fine in Germany--and that's not that easy on their limit-free autobahns--you have to send your money to Flensburg. True to form of his townspeople, Feddersen is collecting all the fines in Malta tonight and is up to about 480,000 in chips, accumulating seven bounties along the way.

Nine players are left in the sextuple Omaha tournament, where Lloyd Muir is out front with 165,000. Only six players are paid so they're approaching their bubble. There's €6,260 for the winner of this €500-entry tournament.

Vincente Delgado is absolutely destroying the field in the no limit hold 'em six-max, with 540,000 going into the 3,000-6,000 level. There are ten left, so everybody is guaranteed a payout, with €49,420 available for the winner.

With a massive lead and only four other players at his table, Delgado is playing almost every pot. And why not.

There are six players left from 325 in the €300 turbo, which had three starting flights. We'll have the winner details from that one in the morning. Similarly, 188 players showed up for the deepstack hyper-turbo of whom 126 remain.

Everything about EPT Malta is on the main EPT Malta page. More specifically, all the hand-by-hand coverage of the Main Event is on the Main Event page and everything from the €10,000 High Roller is on the High Roller page.

The side event details are on the side events 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

As the theory goes, it's better to tear the band aid clean off, than pull it off gently. None of which will make Daniel Dvoress feel any better tonight.

He busted in seventh place tonight, bringing the day to an end. Short stacked after a long day, he shoved with ace-jack only for Niall Farrell to call with ace-king. The flop gave Farrell trip kings. Dvoress smiled. At least it was quick.

Daniel Dvoress

The result ended play, and gave a clear picture of how things look going into the last day of the EPT Malta Main Event, now led by Alen Bilic, with Farrell's last hand heroics placing him in second.

Bilic took the lead by virtue of another shock hand, this one involving one of the feature players of the week: Alexander Ivarsson.

Chip leader Alen Bilic

It was back in March that Ivarsson departed the Malta main event prematurely after his aggressive style turned round to bite him. In much the same way he met a similar fate tonight, crashing his queens into Bilic's ace-king.

That left Bilic with a stack he could coast with, and the lead with six left going into tomorrow.

Just as Bilic is now turning heads, so too has Jaroslaw Sikora this week. A chip leader throughout the week, he was never too far from the lead, and deserves his spot in the last six. The same goes for Rainer Kempe, who makes back-to-back finals after he finished fifth in Barcelona in the season opener. Then there's Giulio Spampinato. Some doubted he would make it this far, but he nursed his short stack like a man on a budget to make the final day.

Jaroslaw Sikora

Then there were the familiar faces, those of Niall Farrell and Sam Greenwood. Farrell could easily have been leading had Bilic no run into Ivarsson, but has put in another confident performance this week. The same goes for Greenwood, a regular high roller, who now has an opportunity to add EPT Main Event success to his Super High Roller final table back at the PCA in January.

Niall Farrell

Sam Greenwood

It's a line-up that promises a thrilling conclusion.

Of course, as we look ahead to events tomorrow, there was a full day of play today to look back on.

Kitty Kuo was first to depart this afternoon, followed soon after by Darrell Goh, who can still claim a good Malta trip. Antonio Chemi put in a great rearguard display, squeezing every last penny out of a stack that at times looked like disappearing. He left in tenth place, before Ivarsson made way and Nabil Cardoso preceded Dvoress.

Alexander Ivarsson

From 651 players to six. Tomorrow we will find a new champion.

It all starts tomorrow at 13,00 CET, but you can follow it "as live" on EPT Live, with cards up on a one hour delay from 14.00 CET. We'll also have hand for hand coverage and features along the way.

Malta tonight

That's all for now until then, unless you like high roller action. They're o the bubble in that one and ready to play on into the night. You can follow live updates of that event here through to the end.

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