Day 1B – MPF Spring 2024

Jens Voertmann Wins €230 HORSE (€3,050)

Back in 2008, Jens Voertmann earned a WSOP Bracelet for shipping the $3,000 HORSE event for $298,253. The German mixed-game guru now has a Malta Poker Festival title in the same variant after defeating a field of 43 entries to win the €3,050 top prize in the €230 HORSE 5-Mix hosted by Jeanne David.

While Voertmann may not have won close to what he did during the WSOP, one might argue this was an equally if not more difficult field with many gifted players in action including runner-up Stefan Eggenberger, third-place finisher Carlo Braccini, fourth-place finisher Timothee Marlin, fifth-place finisher Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk, and min-casher Daragh Davey.

Franke not only cashed in the HORSE event on his second bullet but was multi-tabling the €200 Betsson One Bullett at the same time which he also found a cash.

Unfortunately, none of the American or Australian visitors with heaps of talent were able to make it into the money including Aussie Tatiana Fox.

“I busted out first in Razz,” shared Fox. “I did the walk of shame to the rebuy counter but was unable to get enough going on the second bullet either”

Congrats to Voertmann and all of the players that cashed in the €230 HORSE for a share of the €8,256 prize pool.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Jens Voertmann	Germany	€3,050
2	Stefan Eggenberger	Switzerland	€2,041
3	Carlo Braccini	Italy	€1,225
4	Timothee Marlin	France	€825
5	Martin von Zweigbergk	Sweden	€615
6	Daragh Davey	Ireland	€500

First Break

Players are on their first break of Day 1b. Blinds will increase to 400/800 with a 800 big blind ante when the action resumes. We will update with some of the bigger stacks from around the room when the action resumes.

Meanwhile, the field has already grown to 223 entries with 203 players still in their seats.

Early Photos From Day 1b

Over 200 Entries on Day 1b

Level 3: 300/600 (600)
Entries: 190/201

The top level tournament arena is filling up with already more than 200 entries in the field on Day 1b. It can only get bigger from here but the €300,000 guarantee is already more than halfway fullfilled. Now, it is just a matter of how big the Grand Event will grow.

Phillip Harrington Wins €200 Betsson One Bullet (€9,040)

Congrats to Phillip Harrington for winning the third trophy of the 2024 Malta Poker Festival Spring Edition for €9,040 after defeating Dirk Gerth heads-up.

The event took nearly 11 hours from start to finish with Fabian Bartuschk, the popular Wilhelmine Connolly, Vikram Digpal, Rachid Cardenas, Maria Koutsouki, Michael Stewart, and Oliver Mihajlovski all cashing for four figures at the final table.

The event brought us back to old-school poker as it was a pure freezeout affair with 314 entries creating a €41,216 prize pool. Check out the payouts from the €200 Betsson One Bullet below:

Place	Player	Prize
1	Phillip Harrington	€9,040
2	Dirk Gerth	€6,100
3	Fabian Bartuschk	€4,296
4	Wilhelmine Connolly	€3,280
5	Vikram Digpal	€2,735
6	Rachid Cardenas	€2,240
7	Maria Koutsouki	€1,740
8	Michael Lee Stewart	€1,330
9	Oliver Mihajlovski	€1,015
10	Tobias Bollmann	€830
11	Peter Reimann	€830
12	Amber Sullivan	€730
13	Scott Rogers	€730
14	Thomas Lange	€630
15	Michael Strauch	€630
16	John Sande	€530
17	Giacomo Kermanchahi	€530
18	Adrian Gehring	€440
19	Igor Bukowski	€440
20	Herbert Seitz	€440
21	Grant Alexander	€440
22	Nan Che	€440
23	Dan-Cristian Dorobantu	€440
24	Keith Smith	€360
25	Oyvind Stangnes	€360
26	Jakub Chmelensky	€360
27	Benjamin Rathjen	€360
28	Beverly Nicholson	€360
29	Giulio Spampinato	€360
30	Klaus Bauer	€360
31	Massimiliano Bottone	€360
32	Timothy Cox	€310
33	Jonathan Willis	€310
34	Martin von Zweigbergk	€310
35	Ugo Buttazzo	€310
36	Roberto Zuffo	€310
37	Emil Ulleberg	€310
38	Thor Soraa	€310
39	Sjoerd Nikkels	€310

Bad Beats and Coolers Not Out of the Way for O’Brien

Level 2: 200/400 (400)
Entries: 160/164

The bad beats and coolers weren’t finished yesterday for poker author and player Alex O’Brien as she hoped as Rune Kjoren sent O’Brien to the rail on her first Grand Event bullet as the seconds were winding down in Level 1.

O’Brien shared that she opened with queens from under the gun to 800. She was three-bet by Rune Kjoren from middle position to 3,100.

“My opponent just had kings the hand before and otherwise he was active. I wanted to know where I was at,” O’Brien shared about some of her thoughts before opting to four-bet to 15,000.

Kjoren four-bet to 35,000 which sent O’Brien to the tank for three-minutes. O’Brien shared all the possibilities she thought her opponent had which included the possibility of aces. She got her 53,000 stack in and unfortunately for O’Brien she did run into Kjoren’s pocket rockets.

“Off to re-enter,” O’Brien said.

We wish her the best of luck on her second bullet and hope she got all the bad beats and coolers out of the way.

Rune Kjoren – 115,000
Alex O’Brien – 50,000