Malta Poker Festival 2018 Results

Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT) are hugely excited to confirm the first ever visit to Malta 5th-6th Nov 18 to host the Maltese Amateur Poker Championship, a 2-day NLHE MTT with €120 buyin, 20k stack and a 45 minute clock with a capacity of 400 players as part of The Malta Poker Festival.

Malta Poker Festival 2018 € 500,000 GTD PORTOMASO CASINO The Malta Poker Festival Grand Event €550 buy in – 1366 players MPF Win The Cross € 110 buy in – 216 players APAT Championship € 120 buy in – 338 players IPC Championship € 225 buy in – 183 players Hendon Mob Championship €250 buy in – 491 players. Tel.: +356 2787 7705 www.showshappening.com info@maltafest.eu. Tel.: +356 2559 5750 www.mcc.com.mt.

Tom Brady, APAT Operations Director responsible for the APAT live tour, says “we’re hugely excited to be paying our first visit to Malta, and to be involved with Ivonne Montealegre as part of the Malta Poker Festival 2018, where our players can look forward to not only the traditional APAT National Championship quality event being run over 5th and 6th November 2018, but also get involved in the MPF from 1st November, where our partners have created a hugely exciting schedule for the week in a paradise destination that all poker players will no doubt revel in – sometimes poker comes second!”

Portomaso’s Geneneral Manager, Gianfranco Scordato adds: “Our casino is ready for a wonderful week in November. We are pleased to bring the recreational player the opportunity to experience a professional “big tour” play, with such a low buy-in. Playing quality poker alongside with our beautiful location is our mission and MPF also adds the friendly atmosphere that characterizes the operation.”

The MPF takes places 1st-6th Nov at the Portomaso Casino in the stunning setting of St Julians on the island of Malta, which lies virtually at the centre of the Mediterranean. With superb sunny weather, attractive beaches, a thriving nightlife and 7,000 years of intriguing history, there is plenty to enjoy and a great deal to see and do at the MPF, and beyond.

The MPF consists of a €550 Main Event with a €500k guarantee, and in addition to the APAT Maltese Amateur Poker Championship, is supported with main event live satellites, Ladies event, High Roller, Hendon Mob Championship, Players’ Choice, NLHE and PLO MTTs and even a Blackjack tournament to spice things up.

Thursday 1^st November 2018

Friday 2^nd November

Saturday 3^rd November

Sunday 4^th November

Monday 5^th November 2018

Tuesday 6^th November 2018

An APAT Online Holding tank, and the APAT Eventbrite reserve-a-seat facility, will both be available for players to guarantee their seat in advance, and an online Satellite programme will run for both ‘event only’ and ‘event/hotel packages’.

Malta Poker Festival is the brand new congregation heating up the field in the island country well-known for its gaming offerings. Portomaso Casino is the premium venue which saw the rich schedule of the poker festival in its entirety. The last event called €550 Grand Event is set to see its Final Table this Tuesday. For the time being, eight returning players are led by Fabian Gumz with a dominating chip count of 9,845,000.

This premium event comes as the logical conclusion to the entire poker festival with a generous buy-in and even more generous cash prizes. It featured a total of three starting flights attracting the needed player pool for the event. Day 1a brought as many as 302 participants willing to make it far in the structure of the poker tournament.

Malta Poker Festival 2018 Results Ez2

At the end of the day, the leading position on the daily rank list was taken by Ondrej Jakubcik from the Czech Republic who had some 462,000 to his name and reserved a spot among the leaders on Day 2.

Three Starting Flights Bring Many Entries

The daily chip leader is proficient in live poker tournaments, as he managed to climb all the way to the throne at the €550 No-Limit Hold’em The Poker One Main Event which took place at this very same casino venue. This feat guaranteed him a premium cash prize of €100,000 further motivating him to register in upcoming poker events. However, in the structure of this MPF Grand Event, he could not make it further than the 141st position eventually bagging €1,000.

This first day also drew poker pro Eyal Bensimhon coming straight from WSOP Europe in Rozvadov, the Czech Republic. Gumz also entered the run via Day 1a taking place on 1st November. Friday saw the second starting flight bringing the second batch of players to the overall player pool. A total of 451 players made it in through this second flight but at the end of the day, there were only 78 remaining. Domenico Gala was the player who climbed all the way to the top of the rank list with 329,000 in chips.

Day 1c managed to bring the largest pack of players adding 613 individuals to the overall number of tournament entries. A total of 13 hours were needed for them to make it to the other side, leaving only 118 of them still in the game. Laurens Can De Sype was in possession of the largest chip stack of 334,500. This is how Day 2 of the poker festival welcomed back a total of 260 participants, all aiming to showcase their poker skills to the fullest and potentially bag one of the top cash prizes of the Grand Event.

Final table time, baby! 🙏We have about €15k locked up right now, and if we climb to the top we will get to take home €150,000 + the 🏆! The final table will be streamed live on https://t.co/1AdEKnQrNY from 14.30 CET – link in bio! 📺@UnibetPoker@the_malta@UnibetNorgepic.twitter.com/elYUY4wRFp

— Espen Uhlen Jørstad (@UhlenPoker) November 6, 2018

Overall Prize Pool Reaches €662,510

The overall prize pool after 1,366 entries generated reached €662,510 which is the amount divided among the top 151 players. The chip leader at the end of Day 2 was none other than Borge Dypvik from Norway with a chip count of 3,120,000. Throughout the day Bensimhon managed to climb all the way to the runner-up position with 2,500,000 to his name.

Ladies and gents!

The stream of the final table of the #MPFGrand goes live in two hours at https://t.co/1RRgnQnGJd

Press “follow” and select to be notified when we go live!

Who will take that €150k top spot…?

❤️♣️♦️♠️

— The Malta Poker Festival (@the_malta) November 6, 2018

Poker action on Day 3 of the Grand Event was a heated battle among the 24 participants who claimed a spot at one of the last phases of the poker fight. Their ultimate goal was to reduce their number to 8 players only, as this is the number of seats available on the Final Table. Steven Iglesias from Norway is the player with the shortest chip stack at the moment, as he dropped to 975,000 in chips. Dypvik claimed the fourth position on the temporary leader board with some 3,645,000 in chips.

Malta Poker Festival 2018 Results 2019

This first edition of the poker festival is definitely going to be a memorable one and players are further motivated by the prestige of claiming the trophy which has already been showcased. Whoever claims it will receive the title of Malta Poker Festival Grand Event Champion. First-place prize reaches €150,000 whereas the minimum cash payout of this Final Table reaches €14,710. Eight remaining players will return for Level 31 of the Grand Event which commences at 2 p.m. local time this Tuesday.