Dietrich Fast: Led begin to finish

Wire-to-wire winners of major poker tournaments are vanishingly rare. Even probably the most dominant early chip leader can hit any choice of obstacles in a bid to assert a trophy. There is no such thing as plain sailing on this game.

Tonight in Malta, however, we commence this European Poker Tour festival by crowning a pillar-to-post victor. Dietrich Fast led on the end of the primary day, he led on the end of the second one day, and soon before 8pm he became the primary major champion of the fortnight within the Med. He is taking €174,600 in addition to his trophy--but it was removed from a cruise.

Although Fast tweeted this morning that he felt like "today is usually a good day", he encountered choppy waters from the outset and was actually the tournament short stack for an even hour of play. But he rode it out, gave the impression to pick spots perfectly, after which eventually made his experience pay against Viacheslav Buldygin, his unlikely heads-up opponent.

Fast and Buldygin heads up

Buldygin, who takes €126,300 for second, is a relative newcomer to the live game, playing only his sixth live tournament. But acquitted himself excellently to earn the most important payday of his career, and is certain to be back. Meanwhile Fast now adds an immense title at the EPT to his WPT and WSOP victories. It is not a whole triple crown, but it's getting there.

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After a swift end to proceedings earlier than midnight last night, six men came back to play for the massive money at Casino Portomaso this afternoon. None of them was especially short stacked, giving each of them explanation for optimism. That went double after they all watched Buldygin, the admitted rookie, make all of the early running.

The final six in Malta

Buldygin built his stack steadily with a lot of small pots after which impulsively he won two coolers to vault with reference to the chip lead. The hands also accounted for the primary two knock-outs from the general: Davidi Kitai blasting A♣J♠ into Buldygin's Q♠Q♣ and pocket queens also destroying Ramin Hajiyev's chances, when he shoved with A♠Q♣. Buldygin had Q♦Q♠.

Kitai took €37,250 for sixth and Hajiyev €47,720 for fifth, but both would have preferred the 850,000-strong chip-stack that the pots earned Buldygin. He had started the day with only 328,000 and was suddenly brimming with confidence.

Davidi Kitai: Out in sixth

Ramin Hajiyev: Fifth

By this point, Fast had found himself already on that roller coaster. The stack that had seemed untouchable yesterday was dwindling rapidly today, with most heading to Dario Sammartino. Sammartino is an ideal player to look at when he's within the groove: he makes huge moves when he has to and applies relentless pressure. He isn't afraid to get knocked out, which makes it devilishly difficult to do so.

When they were four handed, Sammartino had greater than double Buldygin's stack, who was his closest challenger. Fast had not up to 1/2 what Buldygin was sitting with.

Pratysuh Buddiga, who's no stranger to the deep stages of high buy-in events, was biding his time on the other end of the table. Having only bought in at the beginning of Day 2, Buddiga had had one day's rest greater than his opponents, but he didn't seem in a position to get anything started on the final.

What looked to be a frustrating few card-dead hours ended at around 3:30pm when his pocket sevens couldn't double his 12 big-blind stack against Buldygin's K♦Q♦. Buddiga won €61,690, while Buldygin continued his record of getting knocked out everyone on the final.

Pratyush Buddiga: Dreaming of what might need been

The three-handed dynamic offered another fascinating period of play. Fast managed to get himself back into it, winning a sequence of pots and adding one million to his stack within the space of about 90 minutes.

Sammartino had plenty too as Buldygin now slipped behind. The 2 EPT veterans looked to be understanding methods to take care of the newcomer so they could decide bragging rights between the 2 of them heads-up.

But the most efficient laid plans don't always come to pass in poker, and Sammartino found himself flailing. Fast won with aces against Sammartino's kings. Then just a little later Sammartino slow-played a flopped set of nines and allowed Buldygin to river a straight. He got the last of his chips in with pocket fours and lost a race to Fast's A♦7♦. Sammartino needed to make do with €81,480 for third.

Third place for Dario Sammartino

The heads-up duel gave the look of being brief. Fast had a seven-to-one chip lead and was by far the more matured live player than Buldygin. However, they quickly established that Buldygin was a heads-up specialist online, and Fast expressed slight dismay that he'd be up against somebody who will "play optimally" without or with the massive stack.

Optimal heads up player: Viacheslav Buldygin

About three minutes later, his fears proved well founded when Buldygin found a come-from-behind double up--K♥9♦ beating A♠T♦--and Fast's advantage was "only" two-to-one. But Fast simply reapplied himself, and kept up the relentless table talk that has characterised his three days on this tournament.

"Sometimes you ought to be tricky," Fast told Buldygin, referencing how he had twice checked full houses to Sammartino today, with the intention to extract the utmost from the Italian. (It only worked once, it is going to be noted.) "Second place is nice for you," Fast added, but Buldygin wasn't convinced.

"Yes, but I NEED to continue, play, play, play," Buldygin said, hugely enjoying his moment within the sun.

It was soon to be ended however, when Fast shoved his big stack in, essentially asking Buldygin to commit his last 12 big blinds. Buldygin found pocket sixes and called, but Fast's A♠3♠ hit an ace at the flop and it sealed the deal for Fast.

The 31-year-old German takes his live tournament earnings past $2 million now--and will hope so as to add more this week. He was multi-tabling the IPT Main Event too today, and you may follow his progress into the night. You too can look back at the blow-by-blow action on this tournament on our live updates page.

Final word goes to Fast. He started the day with that potentially hubristic tweet, but all credit to him for making good at the promise. And he deserves this moment of self-satisfaction too:

Action continues all week in Malta, so persist with us at PokerStars Blog.

€10k NL Hold'em Single Re-Entry

Date: October 18-20, 2016Buy in:€10,000+€300Players: 48 (+ 12 re-entries)Prize-pool (after deductions): €582,000

POS NAME COUNTRY PRIZE

1	Dietrich Fast	Germany	€174,600
2	Viacheslav Buldygin	Russia	€126,300
3	Dario Sammartino	Italy	€81,480
4	Pratyush Buddiga	United States	€61,690
5	Ramin Hajiyev	Azerbaijan	€47,720
6	Davidi Kitai	Belgium	€37,250
7	Vladimir Troyanovskiy	Russia	€29,680
8	Orpen Kisacikoglu	Turkey	€23,280

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: European Poker Tour]