Category Live Updates

Level 4: 200/400 (400)
Entries: 187/211

Jan Erick Iversen jammed for 25,500 into a pot of around the same with the 5♠5♣9♦3♣ on the board after the turn.

Jonathan Butters put his hands on his head before counting his chips. A few times it appeared he could be ready for a call. A couple of minutes later, he folded his hand to award Iversen the pot to get back to starting stack.

Meanwhile, Tibor Hegedus, Kamil Skawinski, Daniel Hopkins, Mattia Baccassino, Tony Vandenbulcke, Andrea Giovanneti, Jan Jensen, Rune Epsedal, Melke Ilgun, Koen Mulewijk, Tomas Luthi, Markus Kenzler, and Darren Nolan all hit the rail for the first time, while Maciej Toma busted for a second time.

Toma was among the players to re-enter, but for him, it was his third and final bullet. If this one goes as the others have, he will need to wait until Day 1d or later to re-enter the Grand Event.

Jan Erick Iversen – 50,000
Jonathan Butters – 35,000

Level 4: 200/400 (400)
Entries: 185/200

Tomas Flanagan already had more than double a starting stack when he had fun with the table that included local hero Mark Vella, Germany’s Annamaria Hemmert, Emanuele Napolitano, Mattia Baccassino, Edward Thompson, Congliang Lyu and the always-smiling Samuel Debege.

Flanagan fired out for 10,000 into a pot of around the same with the [invalid notations] on the board after the turn and was snap-called by Lyu.

The Q♥ paired the board on the river and Flanagan attempted to win all of Lyu’s stack with an effective jam. Lyu, who had 45,000 back, went into the tank for about a minute before he tossed his hand into the muck.

Flanagan showed the Q♣J♦ for some flair and laughs with multiple people seemingly enjoying his hot start.

Tomas Flanagan – 140,000
Congliang Lyu – 45,000

Players are on their first break of Day 1c. The action will resume in 15 minutes with blinds at 200/400 along with a 400 big blind ante.

Level 3: 200/300 (300)
Entries: 170/179

Stig Eketrapp opened for 700 from the cutoff before Seamus Doherty three-bet to 1,900 from the button. Christian Saltalamacchia and Arnasalon Chengalanee called from the blinds before Eketrapp called to complete the preflop action.

All four players checked the 3♣9♠10♠ flop. Saltalamacchia and Chengalanee both checked the 5♣ turn before Eketrapp fired out for 4,500. Doherty quickly folded before the other two players called to see the 6♥ river.

Saltalamacchia fired out for 8,000. Chengalanee went into the tank for about 30 seconds before he let go of his hand as well for Saltamacchia to win a decent-sized pot.

Meanwhile, Paolo Rando and Kelly Gall were the latest players to head to the rail before the first break.

Christian Saltalamacchia – 65,000
Seamus Doherty – 50,000
Stig Eketrapp – 45,000
Arnasalon Chengalanee – 40,000
Kelly Gall – 0
Paolo Rando – 0

Level 3: 200/300 (300)
Entries: 168/175

The Day 1c has grown to 175 entries and counting. This means it is all but a lock it will surpass the 188 entries on Day 1b to become the largest opening flight thus far at the 2023 Malta Poker Festival Autumn Edition €550 Grand Event.

Despite the deep stacks, several more players hit the rail before the first break including Brian Taylor, Tom Leleu, Ashley Walkey, and Jan Jensen.

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