EPT Malta: Final table player profiles
Here’s some more information about the final five players at the EPT Malta Main Event final table.
Play will resume at 12.30pm local time, with 15 hands left in level 28 (Blinds 40,000-80,000 80,000 big blind ante).
Seat 1: Mykhailo Ostash, 25, Ukraine – 9,870,000 chips
Mykhailo Ostash
Mykhailo Ostash is a bona fide wild card on this star-studded final table, giving little away even in his pre-game media interview. The 25-year-old from Lviv is playing his first EPT Main Event.
Ostash had never appeared on the tour before coming to Malta, and, strangely enough, he did not give any specific reason why he chose this stop for his debut. “I just felt like it,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
It’s been a fine debut for Ostash, whose previous live tournament earnings totaled just under $20,000 and will now balloon to six figures. He plays mostly online, though, and gives poker his all. “No other hobbies, only poker,” he said.
Sporting the Ukraine Poker Federation hoodie, Ostash may become the nation’s second EPT winner. Only Oleksii Khoroshenin has previously gone all the way, and that was back at EPT Vienna in 2014. He’ll want to emulate Khoroshenin rather than the four other Ukrainians who have finished runner-up, including Amir Kokhestani earlier this year in Monaco.
Seat 2: Alex Boika, 37, from Belarus, lives in Slovenia – 7,035,000
Alex Boika
Malta and Alex Boika have always gone together well. His first reported live tournament score came on this island – a modest €3,000 payday from 15 years ago. But while a lot has changed since then, one thing has remained constant: Boika continues to thrive on this Mediterranean island.
In 2016, Boika won the EPT Main Event the last time Malta hosted the tour. It means that Boika is undefeated in EPT Main Events on the island in nine years, and is now close to recording the strongest title defence at the same venue in EPT history. Only Mike McDonald, at EPT Dortmund in 2008 and 2009, has returned to the same final table as defending champion. McDonald finished fifth in that defence; Boika has already made it to the same spot, and has the stack to go deeper.
Boika banked €355,700 when he took down the title in 2016, but he smashed that total in a high-stakes Triton event in Jeju this year. Thanks to that $1.3 million prize, plus a few more six-figure cashes through 2025, his total career winnings now sit close to $6 million, a mark he will break tomorrow.
But it is the run itself that might see Boika achieve something truly unprecedented in the EPT’s 21-year history. Nobody has reached the EPT top spot twice in the same live event location, let alone in two consecutive editions. Boika is now close to changing that.
Seat 3: Adria Calonge, 27, from Barcelona, Spain, lives in Andorra – 3,525,000
Adria Calonge
Adria Calonge may only have $17,000 on his live event resume, but it would be short-sighted to underestimate his experience. The 27-year-old has been a professional poker player for about seven or eight years. But until recently, he’d played almost exclusively online. That’s why he moved from Barcelona to Andorra.
Calonge first dipped into live events a few years ago when he went to Las Vegas. But he didn’t like the city and returned to the virtual realm after that trip.
Things changed this year, though. Having moved up the stakes a bit, Calonge decided to give the live scene another chance and attended EPT Barcelona. He cashed in the EPT Main Event and EPT Mystery Bounty, and, more importantly, loved the experience.
“I like how EPTs are organized,” he said, and added he would be coming to more stops in the future. Malta was next up, so he didn’t hesitate to show up here.
Not only has he now made it to the final table, but he also had the chance to compete against countrymen Juan Pardo and Adrian Mateos along the way, players he’d looked up to for much of his career. “I’m used to playing against them online, but when I sat down and looked at Juan, I realized I’ve made it,” Calonge says.
Despite meeting and facing off against his Spanish hero, Calonge admitted he’d expected to be more stressed by the magnitude of this live event achievement. Instead, he’s able to focus on his top game, something that’s in his DNA.
“I’ve always been very competitive, be it in sports or anything else,” Calonge said. “Poker has allowed me to do that for a living. It is never only about the money; I like the competition.”
Seat 4: Tom Bedell, 65, from Norway, lives in Spain – 1,140,000
Tom Bedell
Tom Bedell has been playing poker for many, many years, but has enjoyed a spectacular breakout EPT event here in Malta—at the grand age of 65.
Bedell has been irresistible during this tournament, involved in some of the biggest hands and almost always sitting behind the biggest stack. He bagged overwhelming chip leads heading into both Days 4 and 5, before booking his place in the last five players to play the final day.
Originally from Norway, he is now based principally in Benidorm, Spain, which he first visited in 1967. He is now retired, but previously owned a hotel and seven restaurants in the resort town. Travel remains a passion, and when he’s not playing poker, he divides his time between Spain, Norway and Ecuador. He also visits numerous destinations every year for the card game he loves.
He considers PLO to be his main game, and his biggest results have all come in the four-card variant. He even claimed not to really know how to play hold’em, despite this incredible run. (And despite a fourth-place finish in a $25K High Roller Hold’em tournament at the PCA.) He has more than $5 million in documented tournament winnings.
Bedell has a wife supporting him via the stream, and says his two daughters also occasionally watch him play. He is also a proud grandfather to one grandson.
Seat 5: Tomasz Brzezinski, 37, from Poland, lives in Malta – 5,380,000
Tomasz Brzezinski
Tomasz Brzezinski is now one of only 11 players who have reached final tables in two consecutive EPT Main Events. That speaks volumes considering the tour’s rich history spanning 21 years.
Brzezinski first came to the spotlight less than two months ago at EPT Barcelona, where he maneuvered his stack to a fourth place worth €493,250. Now he’s guaranteed to bolster his resume with another six-figure score.
His back-to-back run is even more impressive when we consider the fact that Brzezinski does not call himself a poker pro. He works in the sports-betting industry, which is why he moved from his hometown Leszno to Malta ten years ago.
With that in mind, Brzezinski had already planned to play this EPT Main Event before his success in Barcelona. But it’s not just about the big buy-in events for the two-time finalist. Between the two EPTs, he squeezed out a massive €19,000 return on a €400 investment in a local event.
“It’s amazing to be back, especially in Malta where I live and have a lot of friends and support,” Brzezinski said. “My girlfriend will probably come tomorrow, even if she doesn’t want to jinx it. I also have friends visiting from Poland, they will probably come.”
He added: “I don’t have any pressure. There were a lot of players better than me today. In the end, I could have played a lot of hands differently, for really different results, so i’m really happy to be into the last day with this chip count.”
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