The PokerStars festival liner has sailed back into Saint Julian's Bay, Malta for a second time this year. The stop proved so popular back in March that there has been little or no chance of leaving it off the schedule, this time around.

The European Poker Tour Main Event kicks off in few days time leaving all eyes gazing upon the penultimate leg of Season 7 of the Italian Poker Tour and the plethora of side events on offer today, in addition to over the following few days.

Can you notice the following IPT champion down there?

Casino Barcelona might be still recovering from the record-breaking numbers that tested their foundations to the limit back in August and the Portomaso Casino - host for the 11-day poker festival - could be hoping for a similar rigidity, or we'll all be sliding into the Mediterranean sea

There are seven tournaments proper, and two satellite tournaments going down today, with the main target being at the IPT Main Event Day 1A. The tournament has two starting flights and an excellent chance of attracting greater than the 1,285 entries who participated back in March (still Season 7 at the IPT).

Georgios Zisimopoulos took down that title and the €142,200 that came with it. He deserved every cent of that prize as he needed to navigate his well past such a lot of players and sharks in the course of the latter stages of the tournament.

Georgios Zisimopoulos - the reigning champ

Day 1A's field is anticipated to incorporate Team Pros Mickey Petersen, Luca Pagano and Matthias De Meulder in conjunction with notables akin to Kenny Hallaert, Joao Simao, Morten Mortensen, Rupert Elder, Tom Hall and Jason Wheeler. There is a couple of EPT title-holders to be found amongst that lot.

Cards are because of be within the air at 12pm CET. Regulate the blog for all goings-on from the IPT Main Event, and we'll remember to bring you news from any major happenings within the side events..

For full details of the festival, click here.

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

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