Category Day 1C

Martin Vltavsky and Mark Matthew chopped the first event on Tuesday in the €230 Crazy Pineapple for €2,550 and €2,240 respectively. The event attracted a decent field of 59 entries to create a €11,328 prize pool.

The €170 Texas Special was the other event to take place on Tuesday. Germany’s Herbert Seitz defeated Norwegian poker beast Thomas Harnes heads-up to win the €3,270 top prize with the event attracting 76 runners for a €10,944 prize pool.

Check out photos from both of these opening day events below:

Level 2: 100/200 (200)
Entries: 151/154

Maciej Toma was the first player to hit the rail. He was soon followed by Attila Erdei and Morten Bremseth to bring three players out in a hurry.

Toma’s hand was an interesting one, especially with the dynamic that if not for a card accidentally flipped over he would have had a queen in his hand.

Miguel Cuevas Fernandez opened the action from under the gun before Toma three-bet before Salvatore La Vardera four-bet to 7,000. Fernandez got out of the way before Toma five-bet jammed in around a starting stack. La Vardera snapped it off and turned over aces.

Toma showed kings and the board ran dry for the cowboys to send Toma out first on Day 1c.

“It was interesting as he would have had king-queen and not been involved in the hand,” shared a couple of players at the table.

That’s poker sometimes as cards are accidentally exposed at every table at every event big or small. What happens usually is that the card is shown to the table and then included as the burn card before the flop. The card that would have been a burn card, in this case a king, is substituted in. It is perfectly random and just unfortunate for Toma that it improved him to the second-best starting hand in hold’em only to run into La Vardera’s best starting hand.

Salvatore La Vardera – 100,000
Maciej Toma – 0
Attila Erdei – 0
Morten Bremseth – 0

Level 2: 100/200 (200)
Entries: 143/143

All players remained in their seats during Level 1 and the Day 1c field grew to 143 entries to start Level 2.

Tomasz Brzezinski was among the players to already chip up with the following hand assisting along in the path.

Stribor Gruicic opened for 700 from under the gun and was called by Andrea Giovanneti from one seat over. A few players folded before Tomasz Brzezinski three-bet to 3,000 from the small blind. Lars Larsson cold-called from the big blind. Gruicic paused for a few moments before he folded and Giovanneti quickly folded as well to bring two players heads-up to see the 3♣8♥K♥ flop.

A raising war began. First, Brzezinski bet 2,600. Larsson jacked it up to 7,500. Brzezinski tanked for about 20 seconds before he raised to 13,000.

Larsson wasn’t sure this was a legal raise size. The dealer ran through the action and correctly determined that it was. The entire table including the two players in the hand were happy with the ruling and shortly after Larsson folded for Brzezinski to take down the pot.

Tomasz Brzezinski – 65,000
Lars Larsson – 40,000

Level 1: 100/100 (100)
Entries: 127/127

Per-Helge Gaassand and Roai Flotre both checked the 8♠A♣Q♥ flop before Markus Ganglbauer bet 700. Gaasand called and Flotre called.

Both Gaassand and Ganglbauer checked after the Q♠ paired the board on the turn before Gaassand fired out for 1,500 on the [6h] river.

Gaassand immediately tabled the Q♦J♦ for trips and won the hand after Ganglbauer mucked his cards.

Per-Helge Gaassand – 55,000
Markus Ganglbauer – 45,000

Level 1: 100/100 (100)
Entries: 118/118

Players are 500 big blinds deep during the first blind level with a starting stack of 50,000. Despite the deep stacks, there is some action at some of the tables including Table 10.

Garry Woods fired out for 2,500 into a pot of around 4,000 with the Q♥7♠8♥6♣4♠ on the board. Thomas Hansen paused for a few moments before he called.

Woods immediately turned over the A♣Q♦ for the top pair. This was good enough until the river as Hansen tabled the 7♥4♥ to win the hand with two pair.

Thomas Hansen – 55,000
Garry Woods – 45,000

Level 1: 100/100 (100)
Entries: 111/111

Players continue to file into their seats for the start of Day 1c. Ann-Roos Callens, Morten Bremseth, Peter de Bruin, Samuel Biland, Sascha Manns, Yves Farges, Garry Spinks, and Garry Woods are among the early entries.

Level 1: 100/100 (100)
Entries: 102/102

Cards are in the air for Day 1c after some announcements welcoming the players by Malta Poker Festival founder Ivonne Montealegre and MPF tournament director and Ludos Academy CEO Danilo De Berardinis.

The action began with already a sizeable field of 102 entries. This figure will continue to grow with late registration not closing until the beginning of Level 9, during which time players can re-enter twice per opening flight if they so choose.

Best of luck to all of the players!

Welcome to the 2023 Malta Poker Festival (MPF) Autumn Edition at the luxurious surroundings of Portomaso Casino for a week of thrilling poker action.

The highlight of the festival is easily the €500,000 guaranteed MPF €550 Grand Event powered by the Unibet DeepStack Open (UDSO).

While the focus of our coverage will be on the Grand Event, we will provide updates along the way from the side events as well. The coverage officially kicks off today at 2 p.m. with Day 1c but we will provide vital statistics and ending chip counts from the first two opening flights as well.

The Grand Event boasts seven opening flights from October 24-29 with surviving players battling it out for two more days on October 29-30 until the latest winner is crowned.

Main Event Day 1c Structure

Check out the blind structure for Day 1a through Day 1d below. Players are allowed to re-enter up to two times during each opening flight until the start of Level 9.

Place	Small Blind	Big Blinds	Big Blind Ante	Duration
1	100	100	100	40 min.
2	100	200	200	40 min.
3	200	300	300	40 min.
Break				15 min.
4	200	400	400	40 min.
5	300	600	600	40 min.
6	400	800	800	40 min.
Break				15 min.
7	500	1,000	1,000	40 min.
8	600	1,200	1,200	40 min.
9	1,000	1,500	1,500	40 min.
Break				75 min.
10	1,000	2,000	2,000	40 min.
11	1,500	2,500	2,500	40 min.
Break				15 min.
12	1,500	3,000	3,000	40 min.
13	2,000	4,000	4,000	40 min.

Stay tuned at the Malta Poker Festival website for all of your updates.