The Malta Poker Festival: Dmitri Dan Leads Grand Event With 21 Left
Twelve levels of 50 minutes were played on Day 2 of the €550 Grand Event at The Malta Poker Festival. In what proved to be a hectic day from the start, the 274 survivors out of 1,324 entries were reduced to a mere 21 hopefuls left to battle it out for the lion share of the amazing €642,140 prize pool. The winner will eventually walk away with the first-place prize of €150,000 and the pretty MPF trophy.
The eliminations were coming in hot and heavy from the start as the announcement came in that 143 players would be in the money for at least €1,000. By the time the first break came around, more than 120 players had already busted from the tournament.
Shortly after the break, the tournament clock had been paused for what proved to be a long bubble with two players left to bust. During several rounds of hand-for-hand, nine times the all-in player doubled up. Valter Affatato finished in 145th place when he had flopped top pair and the chips went in on the turn. Unfortunately for him, Barny Boatman was ahead from the start as he had flopped the nut flush.
One more player doubled up before Stuart Bell, Frederick Field, and Marcus Larsson were all eliminated. As the bubble boy would get a special prize, a package to the Golden Series Cyprus, they had to play an all-in flip for it. In the end, it would be Bell who would walk away with a trip to another sunny island while both Field and Larsson pocketed a €1,000 min-cash.
The bubble lasted almost 90 minutes and when it had burst, the eliminations came in at a rapid pace. Almost 50 players were knocked out during one level and when it was time for the second break, only 75 players were left. And another three levels further, the field was reduced to almost half of that again. At the end of the day, Dmitri Dan managed to collect the most chips as he put 6,410,000 into a bag for Day 3.
Dan had a late surge and eliminated Shawn Morales and Simone Lombardo in the last two levels of the day. With more than 100 big blinds, Dan is going into Day 3 with a very comfortable chip lead. Dan is followed by Leendert Marcus also known as Paul by his friends. Marcus bagged 3,500,000 and was steadily building up his stack all day long. Third in the chip counts is Oskar Wedde who was doing the same and will take 3,195,000 with him on Day 3.
Tomas Sujeta, Michel Vat, Dario Marinelli, and Teijo Sinervo have all bagged an above-average stack. Linda Nguyen couldn’t participate in the Ladies Event as she is running deep in the Grand Event and was near the top of the chip counts for quite a large part of the day but lost a few pots at the end to bag 1,510,000 for Day 3.
Mark Vella scored a big double up but lost a big pot against Mario Manara just before the final three tables redraw. Nicolaj D’Antoni finished in third place last year and will be trying to better that result but he’s got some stiff competition with the remaining players left in the field.
The Malta Poker Festival €550 Grand Event - Day 3 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Martyn Frey | 1,100,000 | 18 |
| 1 | 2 | Peter de Bruin | 785,000 | 13 |
| 1 | 3 | Dario Marinelli | 2,315,000 | 39 |
| 1 | 4 | Salvatore Cultraro | 590,000 | 10 |
| 1 | 5 | Giovanni Piccione | 1,450,000 | 24 |
| 1 | 6 | Quentin Lecomte | 1,255,000 | 21 |
| 1 | 8 | Mario Manara | 1,825,000 | 30 |
| 2 | 1 | Samuel Quesada | 1,050,000 | 18 |
| 2 | 2 | Domenico Tortomasi | 1,365,000 | 23 |
| 2 | 3 | Craig Smith | 1,125,000 | 19 |
| 2 | 5 | Leendert Marcus | 3,500,000 | 58 |
| 2 | 6 | Nicolaj D'Antoni | 1,000,000 | 17 |
| 2 | 7 | Teijo Sinervo | 2,185,000 | 36 |
| 2 | 8 | Oskar Wedde | 3,195,000 | 53 |
| 3 | 2 | Tomas Sujeta | 2,855,000 | 48 |
| 3 | 3 | Dmitri Dan | 6,410,000 | 107 |
| 3 | 4 | Mark Vella | 1,465,000 | 24 |
| 3 | 5 | Michel Vat | 2,500,000 | 42 |
| 3 | 6 | Pasquale Gregorio | 1,510,000 | 25 |
| 3 | 7 | Jacopo Achille | 870,000 | 15 |
| 3 | 8 | Linda Nguyen | 1,510,000 | 25 |
Day 3 will start at 2 p.m. local time here in the Portomaso Casino with Level 27. Play will continue until there are nine or eight players left and level duration will increase to 60 minutes. The PokerNews live reporting team will be around as the players play down to the final table so make sure to return when it gets down to the nitty-gritty.
