Category Live Updates

The Hendon Mob Championship ITM

The €250 The Hendon Mob Championship was another success at the Malta Poker Festival with 211 entries getting into the mix on the opening day to create a €44,563 prize pool.

The first day concluded with the 31 players remaining in the money for at least a min-cash of €330. They will be playing for much more tomorrow with a €10,000 top prize on the line, a special The Hendon Mob flag, and two trophies (one from Malta Poker Festival and another from The Hendon Mob).

Ashley Scott is in the driver’s seat seat with a 68 big blind stack of 679,000. He is followed by Manuel Zapf (450,000), Julien Laudat (370,000), Mikael Viggander (345,000), and Patrick Wulf (345,000).

The Hendon Mob’s Hans Kleinsman (121,000) made another run in the money. Check out the photos from The Hendon Mob championship below:

13 Left in the Seniors

The €230 Seniors Event proved to be popular with 151 entries from players at least 50 years of age got into the mix to create a €28,992 prize pool.

There are just 13 players remaining including Canadian Salvatore Villaluz, affectionately known in the poker community as Bingo Buddy. He is joined by Andrew Aldred, Ingo Bluhm, Lawrence Bonnici, Max Eberle, Maria Isabella Freifrau von Perger, Clint Jeffery, Darren Knaggs, Michael Kuczka, Bjarke Matthiesen, Peter Schmitt, Dennis Spacy, and Dane Tallen.

Check out photos from the Seniors Event below:

“It’s a Really Weird Spot”

Level 23: 25,000/50,000
Entries: 61/1,444

Unibet Poker ambassador and The Chip Race podcast host David Lappin ended another deep run here at Portomaso Casino in 62nd place for €1,650.

“It was a really weird spot,” Lappin shared after he hit the cashier.

Lappin shared that a player opened from under the gun with a 15 big blind stack and he defended with fives from the big blind.

“I decided I would go with any non ace-king type of board,” said Lappin. “But then again, he has such a strong range with a min-open from under the gun.”

The jack-jack-four flop with two diamonds was as good as Lappin could hope for without hitting his five. Lappin shared that his opponent fired out a pot-sized bet of 250,000.

“I had so much already in the pot and decided to go for it,” Lappin shared about his jam to 370,000.

Unfortunately for Lappin his opponent had cowboys. But with a ten on the turn and another ten on the river it wouldn’t have mattered what his opponent had as long as he could be a five kicker.

“I might enter the High Roller tomorrow,” Lappin shared. “It won’t be too bad to get in for 17.5 big blinds.”

We wish Lappin the best of luck if he decides to hop into the High Roller.

David Lappin, Jonathan Briscoe White, & Ann-Roos Callens

Eliminations During Level 22

PlacePlayerPrize
70Gianmarco Scannapiego€1,530
71Anthony Swain€1,530
72Daniel Gatt€1,530
73Georgios Mellidis€1,420
74Domenico Gala€1,420
75Guillaume Bessolles€1,420
76Charif Akhoun€1,420
77Yan Pelletier€1,420
78Moreno Ferrari€1,420
79Lois Dufouleur€1,420
80Colin Cooper€1,420
81Salvatore Dimartino€1,310
82Giovannidario Bocchicchio€1,310
83Andrea Melluzzo€1,310
Charif Akhoun eliminated in 76th place

High Roller Final Day Seat Draw

The €1,100 High Roller attracted 88 entries on its opening day for a €84,480 prize pool. These figures will grow more as late registration will remain open for the first two blind levels of Day 2.

Luigi D’Alterio leads the way with 189,500 in chips. Check out the final day seat draw along with their chip counts below:

11Luca Beretta41,00021
12Sylvere Paillot131,00066
13Lanh Van Bui41,00021
14Garry Spinks41,00021
15Henri Piironen39,00020
16Koen Meutstege39,50020
17Vanessa Webley59,50030
21Nuno Oliveira80,00040
22Tomasz Brzezinski92,00046
24Rami Awad98,00049
25Xavier Zuczkowski66,00033
26Joshua Stewart104,00052
27Richard Williamson118,00059
31Samuel Tebege51,00026
33Arnoud Capellen101,50051
34Biagio Sereno59,00030
36Oliver Molyneaux114,00057
37Jason Riley66,00033
38Giuseppe Gallo18,0009
41Steinar Utland124,00062
42Yvonne Horning100,00050
43Luigi D’Alterio196,50098
44Robert Sampat36,00018
46Jasper van Moorsel27,00014
48Nicolas Broudic28,00014
51Patrick Thurner12,5006
52Manuel Blaschke87,00044
54Mehdi Rebai22,50011
55Alex Montgomery40,00020
56Martin Wolff70,00035
58Kristian Dahl75,00038
62Konstantinos Chionidis139,00070
64Rolands Norietis138,00069
65Christina Read47,00024
66Maxime Chilaud14,5007
67Alexandre Jourdain89,50045
68Petter Redemo43,00022

Pagliaro Ousts Swain

Level 22: 20,000/40,000 (40,000)
Entries: 70/1,444

Anthony Swain got his short stack in with QJ on a Q510 flop and was up against the KQ held by Gianluca Pagliaro.

No save came on either the 3 turn or the 2 river and Swain was out of gas and on the rail in 71st place for €1,530.

Gianluca Pagliaro – 1.2 milion
Anthony Swain – 0

Gianluca Pagliaro

Kontkanen Dispatches Cooper

Level 22: 20,000/40,000 (40,000)
Entries: 80/1,444

Robert Kontkanen was busy stacking up his 3.6 million chips or so as Table 11 just broke up. But not before he sent Colin Cooper to the rail when his ace-king proved to be good against jacks.

The room got a little quieter with Cooper no longer in the field as he was generating tons of friendly banter while often being quite loud himself at times regardless of whether he was in the hand or not.

That being said, we still have plenty of animated players left in the field, so expect some fun while players are competing for a huge pile of moolah.

Robert Kontanen racking up zillions of chips

“Ten Big Blinds and a Dream” for Kassouf

Level 22: 20,000/40,000 (40,000)
Entries: 81/1,444

Every time we walk past Table 11, William Kassouf’s stack appears the same. Although he does have some pep in his step again with some friendly table chatter, he is by far not even the loudest at the table as fellow British player Colin Cooper easily takes that honor.

Kassouf was at 400,000 at break for exactly 10 big blinds.

“Ten big blinds and a dream!” Kassouf shared. “I have been hovering between six and 15 big blinds all day and still hanging around.”

There was no “nine-high like a boss” like we witnessed yesterday. In fact, we haven’t witnessed Kassouf involved in any serious pots but he shared he did have a couple of amazing spots where he doubled.

“I doubled up twice with the coconuts,” Kassouf said.

In Kassouf talk, coconuts mean rockets. In my talk, rockets mean aces. You get the idea, Kassouf doubled with aces twice and now is just two blind levels away from advancing to the final day with already €1,310 locked up.

Ten big blinds and a dream for William Kassouf

Players Eliminated During Level 21

PlacePlayerCash
84Noam Fater€1,310
85Tayfun Rodoplu€1,310
86Candido Cappiello€1,310
87Arthur Israel€1,310
88Kevin Quinlan€1,310
89Niel Adams€1,310
90Bartolo Truglio€1,310
91Bo Torstensson€1,310
92Antonio Scala€1,310
93Miguel Martinez€1,310
94Igor Bukowsi€1,310
95William Johnstone€1,310
96Karl-Heinz Metz€1,310
97Ronald Zapantis€1,210
98Adam Bromley€1,210
99Carmelo Polimeni€1,210
100Wiesebrock Fernandez€1,210
101Antonio Brancati€1,210
102Francesco Biribao€1,210
103Giorgio Bellanca€1,210
Ronald Zapantis eliminated in 97th place
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