Day 1B – MPF Spring 2024

Day 1A
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Taylor Stamps Out Stampe First on Day 1b

Level 1: 100/300 (300)
Entries: 145/147

Michael Stampe was the first player out on Day 1b. Thomas Jakobsen was kind enough to recap the hand.

Stampe flopped Yahtzee with six-trey on a five-four-deuce flop with Simon Taylor holding pocket fives for the top set. Some chips went in with more following after Stampe was drawing dead to Taylor’s full house after a deuce paired the board on the turn.

The big action happened after a king completed the board on the river. Stampe bet 6,000 before calling off his stack facing a jam by Taylor.

Shortly after, Thomas O’Neill also hit the rail during the final few hands of Level 1.

Simon Taylor – 100,000
Michael Stampe – 0
Thomas O’Neill – 0

Simon Taylor

Field Growing Quickly

Level 1: 100/300 (300)
Entries: 132/132

The Day 1b field has already grown to 132 entries and counting. In addition to the previously mentioned Alex O’Brien, many other recognizable names are in action including Betsson’s Jostein Groedum, Mark Attard, Cory Desmond, and the red-hot James Paris.

Late registration is open for 10 levels, so expect many others to continue to join in on the action on Day 1b of the 2024 Malta Poker Festival Spring Edition €550 Grand Event at Portomaso Casino.

Bad Beats Out of the Way for Alex O’Brien

Level 1: 100/300 (300)
Entries: 120/120

We caught up with Alex O’Brien before the start of Day 1b, where she is battling it out in the early moments on Table 11. O’Brien is well-known not only as a women’s poker advocate but also as a fierce poker player herself.

Her book “The Truth Detective: A Poker Player’s Guide to a Complex World” deserves tons of love as it shows how learning concepts in poker can also be applied to the real world which also boasts tons of uncertainty like poker does.

O’Brien played in the €200 Betsson One Bullet yesterday and shared she got her bad beats out of the way. She shared that she opened up from early position with Q5 and four players called.

Two clubs came on the flop. O’Brien continued and the first player to call pre-flop was the only player to call the flop before another club came on the turn to complete O’Brien’s flush. After some deliberation about what her opponent might have had, she shared she three-bet jammed the turn and was shocked that her opponent called with KK with an overpair and a king-high flush draw.

Her opponent completed a better flush on the river and O’Brien shared that she wasn’t disappointed as she feels she got the bad beats out of the way.

O’Brien also shared that she would prefer a table free of Hippodrome players as she would prefer not to play today against friends. We wish her the best of luck along with the rest of the field.

Alex O’Brien

Cards in the Air

Level 1: 100/300 (300)
Entries: 114/114

Cards are in the air to start Day 1b after preliminary announcements by Malta Poker Festival founder Ivonne Montealegre and Ludos Academy CEO Danilo De Berardinis.

The field is already over 100 players and is on track to be larger than Day 1a which attracted a tasty field of 177 entries.

Best of luck to all of the Grand Event players on Day 1b.

Day 1b Kicks Off at 1 PM

Indre Stanaityte & Elvijs Kuceruks

Welcome back to the coverage of the 2024 Malta Poker Festival Spring Edition at the luxurious Portomaso Casino from April 22-29. The festival boasts many amazing events with deep structures across a variety of games and buy-ins along with cash games running around the clock and the fun off-the-felt activities to showcase a bit of what the beautiful island of Malta has to offer.

Our coverage will resume on Thursday, April 25 at 1 p.m. when cards are in the air for Day 1b of the €300,000 guaranteed Malta Poker Festival €550 Grand Event powered by the Unibet Deepstack Open. The guarantee is on track to be smashed with yesterday’s Day 1a attracting a banner field of 177 entries.

United Kingdom’s Indre Stanaityte set the gold standard on Day 1a after parlaying her 50,000 chip stack into a monstrous pile of 858,000 in chips to lead the 27 survivors while Latvia’s Elvijs Kuceruks wasn’t too far behind with 807,000.

The MPF Grand Event is a deep-stacked affair with players starting each of the six opening flights from April 24-28 with 50,000 in chips. The first four opening flights boast 40-minute blind levels including today’s Day 1b with Day 1e and Day 1f speeding along with a turbo-structure of 20-minute blind levels.

Players can re-enter up to two times per flight during the first 10 levels of any opening flight providing players plenty of opportunities to bag a big stack. Each opening flight will conclude when the field is trimmed down to 15 percent with all surviving players already in the money for at least a €900 min-cash heading into Sunday’s Day 2.

Day 1a Structure

LevelSmall BlindBig BlindAnte
1100 300 300 
2200 400 400 
3300 600 600 
15-Minute Break
4400 800 800 
5500 1,000 1,000 
6600 1,200 1,200 
15-Minute Break
71,000 1,500 1,500 
81,000 2,000 2,000 
91,500 3,000 3,000 
102,000 4,000 4,000 
60-Minute Break (Late Registration Closes)
113,000 5,000 5,000 
123,000 6,000 6,000 
134,000 8,000 8,000 
15-Minute Break
145,000 10,000 10,000 
156,000 12,000 12,000 
168,000 16,000 16,000 

Thursday also boasts the €230 Bounty Hunter Days Malta at 4 p.m., which is expected to draw an amazing field alongside a €70 satellite to the Grand Event at 7 p.m. and a €300 satellite to Friday’s €2,500 Super High Roller at 9 p.m.

Check out our blog throughout the week for all of your updates and stories about the Grand Event, side event winners, and more.

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