The 26-year-old from Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina brings 7,635,000 for the Final Day with six players remaining in contention for the title, coveted trophy and €602,400 first prize.
Bilic will face tough company led by Glaswegian Niall Farrell, who is second in chips with 5,115,000. IPT7 Malta runner-up Jaroslaw Sikora follows in third, the Pole has 2,455,000. The three shortest stacks are separated by only a few big blinds - Sam Greenwood, Rainer Kempe and Giulio Spampinato are all within 1.1 and 1.7 million-chip range.
Kempe has made it to the final table for a second time in a row. The German PokerStars qualfier finished fifth at EPT12 Barcelona for €320,400 two months ago. To seize a bigger prize here in Malta, he'd need to make it to heads-up.
The elimination of Daniel Dvoress in seventh place stopped the clock with nearly an hour left to play in level 28 (10/30/60k). Except for Kempe, all remaining finalists have already clinched their best EPT Main Event result with a guaranteed €125,660 payday.
EPT12 Malta Main Event Final Day seat draw:
Seat 1: Niall Farrell, UK, PokerStars player, 5,115,000
Seat 2: Rainer Kempe, Germany, PokerStars qualifier, 1,515,000
Seat 3: Sam Greenwood, Canada, PokerStars player, 1,605,000
Seat 4: Giulio Spampinato, Italy, Live satellite winner, 1,180,000
Seat 5: Alen Bilic, Bosnia and Herzegovina, PokerStars player, 7,635,000
Seat 6: Jaroslaw Sikora, Poland, PokerStars player, 2,455,000
There were 651 players in the starting field for the €5,300 EPT12 Malta Main Event, creating a €3,157,350 prize pool, with 95 paid. The eventual champion will take home €602,400 along with the title and coveted trophy.
Last season, it was an all-French heads-up as Jean Montury and Valentin Messina cut a deal and then battled long and hard for the first EPT Malta trophy. The former eventually scooped the title along with a €687,400 first prize after beating 895-strong field. Akim Aouine is the last remaining French player in the field this time around but very short-stacked on 250,000.
