Welcome back for Day 1b of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Main Event. If the breakfast buffet at the neighbouring Hilton Hotel is anything to go by, today promises to be very, very busy. The field is hoped to be at least double that of the 260 who entered yesterday.
After eight 75-minute levels, 142 made Day 2 from yesterday’s Day 1a field with Evangelos Tsairis the overnight chip leader after he amassed 180,300. Other notables who finished with top-ten counts included Ingnat Liviu (161,900), Alec Torelli (133,100), Thomas Muehloecker (121,200) and John O’Shea (114,200).
The Global Poker Masters came to a thrilling conclusion last night after underdogs Team Italy stormed through to win the maiden World Cup. Their members, plus most of the other competitors – if they didn’t late-reg yesterday – should be in today’s field.
Confirmed players we can expect to see today include Team PokerStars Pros Jake Cody and Leo Margets; Steve O’Dwyer, Emil Patel, Kitty Kuo, Griffin Benger, Max Silver and Niall Farrell.
Cards will be in the air at Noon CET so join the PokerNews reporting team back here then.
The PokerNews MyStack App is available for players here in the EPT Malta Main Event, allowing players to directly update their chip count on the PokerNews Live Reporting page for their friends and family to see.
You can download the app absolutely free for iPhone or Android now to get started. Then, create a new PokerNews account or update your current one to start updating your status immediately. Your followers can see all the live action that you're involved in.
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Celebrating birthdays alone is never fun. Fortunately, for those who will get a little bit older during the European Poker Tour Malta, they're never alone. That's because those on the EPT, from players to staff, have become an auxiliary family of sorts. Granted, it may not be as intimate as celebrating with either real family or childhood friends, but the EPT crew will do in a pinch.
"I've been lucky enough to be playing these for five years now, so I know a lot of staff and international players," Full Tilt Poker Ambassador Dermot Blain says before the start of Day 1b. "There's always someone to go have a drink with, to party with. It's my actually birthday. I'm turning 31. I was pretty depressed on turning it too, but I just need to deal with it, you know."
So what is it like spending one's birthday playing a poker tournament? Furthermore, with two starting flights to choose from, why did Blain opt to play on his actual birthday as opposed to playing Day 1a?
"I'm kind of happy to play today. I'm a big Man U fan, and yesterday they played Liverpool and we won," Blain explains. "So I had the choice to watch that or play. It's just another day at the office."
But what if he busts Day 1, that'd surely ruin his birthday, right?
"I wouldn't be happy," Blain admits. "I haven't had a run in these for a while, so it hasn't been going great. I'd certainly like to get through Day 1, but it wouldn't ruin my birthday. Probably go party. It's a good place to party here in Malta, so probably go out and drink some alcohol."
Indeed, Malta has proved a great place to party, which was evidenced last week on St. Patrick's Day. As fate would have it, Blain is Irish.
"It was crazy. I thought it was just us who went nuts on St. Paddy's day," says Blain. "This place was just carnage, I couldn't believe it. Drinks everywhere. It looks like everyone loves an excuse to drink. It's a great place to party here."
Speaking of the Irish, another person celebrating his birthday at the EPT Malta is noted poker photographer Danny Maxwell, who will turn 33 tomorrow.
"This will be my second one. Last year I had it in Vienna, and it was pretty trippy to be celebrating it in an actual palace," says Maxwell. " Last year the day ran late so I didn't have a chance to do so much. Just work, work, work, though during the day there was a surprise birthday cake, which was pretty nice."
As we all know, all work and no play can make one a dull boy, but Maxwell plans to combat that by taking advantage of the kind schedule in the EPT Malta Main Event.
"With tomorrow, Day 2 will finish early," Maxwell explains. "This time I'll be celebrating in Malta. Fingers crossed there will be some sunshine tomorrow. It should be pretty sweet. We'll get out to have a bite to eat and one or two drink."
Like Blain, Linda Goldmanova is celebrating her birthday today, but like Maxwell, she is busy working.
"It's my birthday today. I don't mind to be at work actually," says Goldmanova, who is manning the PokerStars Live registration desk. "It's nice. If you have friends, they come with presents [laughs]. Cake, presents, everything. I won't celebrate tonight I guess, but we'll definitely find time to go for a drink [later in the week]."
PokerNews did a little research to see if any other players would be celebrating their birthdays during the EPT Malta, but came up empty. That said, there are some notable poker birthdays on the horizon including:
David "Devilfish" Ulliott (April 1)
Jason Wheeler & Carter Swidler (April 2)
Max Greenwood (April 3)
Brandon Shack-Harris (April 5)
Sander Lyloff (April 7)
Fabian Quoss (April 9)
Athanasios Polychronopoulos (April 10)
Joe Ebanks (April 11)
Jonathan Roy (April 12)
Leo Fernandez (April 13)
On behalf of PokerNews, happy birthday to all those celebrating in the coming weeks.
As we arrived, Dario Sammartino had all of his chips in the middle already and the black and red all in triangle was present as well. Sammartino, seated in the big blind, had fired his chips in the pot with the board reading . His opponent was Israeli Ori Miller on the button.
Steven van Zadelhoff told us that Sammartino had three bet before the flop and Miller had called. Sammartino then fired on the flop and turn, and shoved all in on the river.
Miller thought long and hard and still had 13,375 behind. He eventually did call.
Sammartino frowned, kind of wanted to muck, but was forced to show his . Miller tabled and took it down. The 'ooohs' and 'aaahs' after the call from the table could be heard in the entire room.
Sammartino was left with just ten big blinds, and lost those not much later. Sammartino won the Global Poker Masters World Cup with his team last night, but came up empty handed here in the Main Event.
More often than not poker is about winning money, but every now and then it serves as a vehicle for something more altruistic. You see, Poker and charity have gone hand in hand for years. Tens of millions of dollars has been raised for various charities, from large-scale operations like the One Drop Foundation to smaller, localized programs like Tia's Hope.
On the European Poker Tour, one of their charitable endeavors has been the Helping Hands Charity Tournament, events that raises funds for PokerStars' charity partner, Right To Play. The events, which are held at various EPT stops, have proved so successful that it received a Charitable Initiative of the Year nomination in the 14th Annual European Poker Awards, which will be held on Wednesday. It really comes as no surprise as PokerStars' parent company, Rational Group, has a long and storied history involving charitable activities.
The latest Helping the Hands Charity Tournament took place on March 21 during the EPT Malta here at the Portomaso Casino in the Hilton Malta. The event, which boasted a €100 buy-in, began with a drink and canapé reception, which attracted a long list of poker luminaries including EPT President Edgar Stuchly; Head of Poker Communications at PokerStars Lee Jones, who was busy teaching newbies how to play at the training table; Miss Finland Sara Chafak and her better half Tuomas Varesvuo; and Team PokerStars Pros Liv Boeree, Theo Jorgensen, and Jake Cody, as well as PokerStars Sports Star Fatima Moreira De Melo.
"I think it's great for the image of poker," said Cody, who had flown in from the UK earlier in the day. "It definitely brings a lot of new people into the game by giving it a great image that brings people who might not have played before. It really gives them a chance to play for the first time."
Cody was one of 69 players to join in the fun that evening. Also in action were World Series of Poker bracelet winners Barny Boatman and Chad Holloway; Right To Play’s Neil Child-Dyer; Sue Hammett – Head of Corporate Giving at PokerStars; as well as the US ambassador to Malta, luminaries from the Maltese business world, and local politicians. As a result a total of €15,000 was raised for the PokerStars official charity, which as previously mentioned uses the power of sport and play to transform children’s lives.
As fate would have it, Cody made it all the way to heads-up play against UKIPT Brighton finalist Sin Melin. The two actually started at the same table, but took two very different routes to the final. Cody was short stacked right off the bat, while Melin chipped up and never looked back. In one hand just before the first break, she even scored a double elimination after hitting her gutshot straight draw on the river. She coyly checked, and Holloway bet with trip nines. Another player called, and then both ended up calling off when Melin check-raised all in.
"I had loads of chips, and he didn't have many chips," Melin told PokerNews about reaching heads-up play against Cody. "We only played one hand. I had queen-ten, and I think he had jack-six. He just went all in and I called. I don't even remember what the board ran out. All I remember is that I won the hand and got some bragging rights that I beat Jake Cody heads up. It was pretty cool."
For her efforts, Melin took home an iPad Air and had her victory immortalized with a winner's photo:
"It's helping children all across the world, so it's a good cause," Melin concluded. "It was really great. I met some really cool people — some people from PokerStars, some from the charity — and I had a lot Team Pros at my table, which wasn't easy but was good fun. I had a really good time, really enjoyed it."
According to their mission statement, Right To Play is a global charity using sport and play to educate and empower children and young people to overcome the effects of poverty, conflict and disease in disadvantaged communities around the world. For more information, click here.
For more on the Helping Hands Charity Tournament, check out PokerNews' highlight video:
Tobias Reinkemeier three-bet an open raise of Benjamin Pollak from 900 to 2,400 and then moved all in via five-bet shove once the Frenchman had clicked it up to 5,300. Pollak snap-called for 21,000 with pocket aces and Reinkemeier was caught with the fingers in the cookie jar, turning over his .
However, the flop produced three clubs and Pollak was drawing dead after the turn. Just to rub it in even more, the last ace in the deck fell on the river.
If you’re not friends with Jason Wheeler on Facebook then unlucky you. He’s been entertaining friends with tales of his adventures and travels for the last year or so, under the handle "JD’s World."
Poker players who travel the circuit, like Wheeler, spend an awful lot of time either in the air or at airports. A lot of them experience delays every now and again, but few suffer the way Wheeler did it trying to get here to Malta. His tales had a very different tone during this time but he still managed to make them humorous.
PokerNews caught up him during a break here on Day 1b, where he’s playing, and got him to explain the full story:
“The actual journey of the trip started back in December because I flew back from Prague and I almost always book one-way back home because I’m never sure of the exact date I’m coming back (to Europe) in the spring. But when I flew back the ticket was really expensive so I actually had bought a round trip, with the return date of Friday, March 13th. The problem is that I forgot and didn’t find out about it until March 13th, two hours after the flight had left. So that’s the first ticket!
“I had already bought another ticket as I didn’t know about the March 13th ticket, and that had me leaving on Monday the 16th. I woke up and I go to the (Mexico/US) border and I have this border-crossing card that lets you cross quickly.They have this sick thing where you can go to this website and look at the wait times for the border and look at cameras at the border. I look and the wait is not so long and it’s perfect timing so I go, but the border agents had decided to change shifts - like all of them – and it held everybody up in the line. I looked at the camera and there was no one there but when I get to the border 15 minutes later, there’s at least 100 people there and they kept us waiting over an hour.
“I’m in line and realize I’m probably going to miss my flight when I get a text from the airline saying that my flight’s delayed, which puts my connection in jeopardy. That all meant they’d probably rebook me, so I get out of line and go back home. Had I went to the airport I would’ve made it as they busted ass and got the flight out in time. I called them and the only rebooking they could get for me was for Thursday (19th).
“The really annoying thing was that my original ticket (13th) was booked for Amsterdam, my usual stop off in Europe. I would’ve gone for the weekend, got used to the acclimation and then hopped on a short flight to Malta. Now I was supposed to be on a Monday three-hop thing that’s turned into a Thursday three-hop. I got up in Mexico at 3:00 a.m. and fly out to JFK (airport) and have a few hours layover, but as we’re about to get on the plane they start offering people money to bounce to the next day’s flight, as it’s too full. It gets up to a $1,300 offer and I actually considered this as I have some friends in New York and there wasn’t much going on here (Malta) on Friday, but I had already been on this odyssey for four days so I said no; I want to get to Malta.
“We get to Rome and I get off the plane thinking I have an hour-and-twenty minute flight and I’m in Malta, but no, it turns out the Italians are unhappy and they – the air controllers – want to strike! Nobody told me anything; there’s nothing on the board and no one said anything on the plane. There are 200 of us standing at this desk trying to figure it all out. It took me three hours to get a new flight but it has to fly through Sicily that night where I have to pay for a hotel on my own before flying on to Malta the next day. I say no and after more arguing, they agree to put me on an Air Malta flight the next day. I say awesome, can I have my ticket? They say it’s not possible as they’re not a partner of ours and their desk doesn’t open again until 6:00 a.m., but you are booked.
“I go off and enjoy Rome, eat dinner etc. before giving Air Malta a call to make sure everything’s okay. They don’t have me in the system [laughs]! I call Delta back and they tell me I’m booked on it but, as they’re not a partner, they can only ask for a seat and then a seat is released for me, but they haven’t released it yet. I call Air Malta back and they have one seat left so I beg them to hold it and get back on to Delta who tell me they can’t call international numbers from their call center. Basically they have no way of figuring this out and I’m so over it now that I hang up, call Air Malta back and book another ticket. If I hadn’t taken that last seat there wasn’t another flight for two more days and you can’t play online in Rome.
“Three tickets, several layovers, bumps and everything that could have happened, happened! And, I could’ve taken that $1,300 and stayed overnight in New York and had a nice meal with friends.”
“I almost run perfect when travelling normally, but I have a routine. I always go through the same city, Amsterdam mostly as a hub, or London, where I’m familiar with the layouts, the policies etc. I’m smart, I almost always fly to London first and if I get stuck, there’s almost flights every two hours to Amsterdam or wherever - I almost never get stuck there a long time."
What a journey for Wheeler, it could almost take up a whole chapter in a book, if he ever decides to write memoirs of this period of his life. He had a lot of steam to blow off once he made it and hinted that he’s be taking it out on the tables.
“I’ve definitely been playing my 'not-folding' game and I’ve been doing pretty well so far. I’ve been playing aggressive live and online, but it’s starting to get out of my system now. But I’m definitely taking it to people today!”
As the Main Events nears dinner break on Day 1b, Wheeler’s stack has dropped to below the 5k-mark. If he busts, watch out for him in the side events as he’ll be coming for you!
The EPT Malta Main Event is in full swing, but before getting to this point, dozens of other players won "Spadies" in the long list of side events. In case you didn't know, the EPT Malta is playing host to 69 events total, more than any other EPT festival in history.
Urbanovich Captures 2nd, then 3rd, Titles of EPT Malta Festival
Dzmitry Urbanovich, the €25,000 High Roller champ, took down his second tourney of the EPT Malta Poker Festival, the €1k NL Deepstack Turbo Big Ante for €35,200. While waiting for his winner pic to be taken, Urbanovich was busy playing the PokerStars Sunday Million on his iPad. Urbanovich is also a man who, after winning €572,300 in the High Roller, entered a €500 buy-in event and made the final table.
There were 156 players in the Deepstack Turbo Big Ante creating a €151,320 prize pool with 22 paid. Frenchman Massou Cohen seemed pretty happy with his second place finish; EPT Deauville champion Ognyan Dimov min-cashed the event for €1,750.
Event #31 €1,000 NL Deepstack Turbo Big Ante
Buy-in
Entrants
Prize Pool
€1,000 + €100
156
€151,320
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Dzmitry Urbanovich
Poland
€35,200
2
Massou Cohen
France
€23,800
3
Ranno Sootla
Estonia
€15,900
4
Giulio Astarita
Italy
€13,000
5
Roberto Morra
Italy
€10,400
6
Marios Eracleous
Cyprus
€8,170
7
Domenico De Francesco
Italy
€6,000
8
Jean Montury
France
€4,400
9
Salvatore Crapanzano
Italy
€3,500
As if that wasn't enough, less than an hour ago the youngster from Poland captured his third title (and he hasn't even entered the Main Event yet.
Here's how PokerStars officials described his most recent victory:
Last night, after official EPT photographer Neil Stoddart had finished taking Dzmitry Urbanovich’s second winner pic of the festival, the 19-year-old Pole said: “See you soon!” Well “soon” has turned out to be the very next day as Urbanovich has just beaten Jack Salter heads-up to win today’s €5,000 NL Turbo for €110,000. This is now the third EPT trophy that Urbanovich has picked up at the EPT Malta Poker Festival and it’s still only Day 1b!
Urbanovich started his incredible performance by defeating some of the best players in the world in the special €25,000 High Roller for €572,300. A relatively early finish in that last on Friday meant he had to time to enter the €500 Midnight Turbo – he made the final. Yesterday he won the €1,000 NL Deepstack Turbo Big Ante for €35,200 and just now he banked another €110,000 for winning the €5,000 NL Turbo. You might think it was about time Urbanovich thought about entering the Main Event – but no, he’s going to play the €2,000 NL Turbo first – that started a couple of hours ago and he was impatient to get in to it.
Johnson Takes Down the IPT High Roller
Eureka Prague champion Keith Johnson won the Italian Poker Tour €2,000 High Roller at the EPT Malta Poker Festival after cutting a heads-up deal with German player Oliver Weis. The Brit snagged €144,500 for his victory after carving his way through a very tough field on the final day.
Among those who cashed in the event, which attracted 473 players with a €917,620 prize pool, were three-time WSOP bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche (4th for €63,320, Artur Koren (5th, €13,850), Pierre Neuville (6th, €39,200) and Ludovic Geilich (10th, €13,850). There were 63 players in the money including Andrea Benelli, Mike Watson, Team PokerStars Pro Christophe De Meulder, Michel Abecassis, Tom Hall, 2014 WSOP ME champion Martin Jacobson and Sergio Aido.
Event #18 €2,000 IPT High Roller
Buy-in
Entrants
Prize Pool
€2,000 + €200
473
€917,620
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Keith Johnson
UK
€144,500*
2
Oliver Weis
Germany
€144,500*
3
Grzegorz Wyraz
Poland
€80,000
4
Dominik Nitsche
Germany
€63,320
5
Artur Koren
Germany
€50,000
6
Pierre Neuville
Belgium
€39,200
7
Zhapar Sultanov
Kazakhstan
€29,300
8
Noah Vaillancourt
Canada
€20,900
9
Daniel Erlandsson
Sweden
€16,700
*Denotes heads-up deal
Garzon Finishes as the Last Woman Standing
Rosario Garzon came all the way from Madrid to play the €200 Women’s Event and her victory made it all worthwhile. Before taking down the €200 event for a lifetime best cash of €4,000, the 64-year-old, who was being railed by her husband throughout the tourney, said she was surprised at how aggressively the women played.
"I didn’t think it would be like this!," she said. She beat Canadian EPT regular Elizabeth Bennet-Martin heads up to snag her first-ever trophy. There were 70 entries in the tourney creating a €13,580 prize pool with nine paid. EPT London Women’s Event winner Jackie Cachia bust the event, but her partner Lina Teuma finished fourth for €1,400.
Event #19 €200 Women's Event
Buy-in
Entrants
Prize Pool
€200 + €20
70
€14,000
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Rosario Garzon
Spain
€4,000
2
Elizabeth Bennet-Martin
Canada
€2,800
3
Eleonora Stefano
Italy
€1,850
4
Lina Teuma
Malta
€1,400
5
Johanna Jackli
Finland
€1,100
6
Tsveterina Pavlova
Malta
€850
7
Dalila Chaouch
France
€660
8
Julie Alexander
UK
€520
9
Oluwashola Akindele
USA
€400
Quintas Reigns Supreme in Hyperturbo
Portugal’s Jose Quintas the €500 Midnight Hyperturbo at the EPT Malta Poker Festival. The EPT regular snagged the trophy and €23,490 first prize after beating Italian Luca Fiorini heads-up. There were 229 players in the event creating a €111,065 prize pool with 31 paid. Others who cashed included Mikhail Korotkikh, Jan Bendik, George Tavoularis (who has already won two Flipout events at the festival), Lasse Frost and Bernard Boutbol.
Event #25 €500 NL Midnight Hyperturbo
Buy-in
Entrants
Prize Pool
€500 + €50
229
€111,065
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Jose Quintas
Portugal
€23,490
2
Luca Fiorini
Italy
€15,810
3
Mikhail Korotkikh
Russia
€11,150
4
Jan Bendik
Slovakia
€9,040
5
Gal Fridman
Israel
€7,150
6
Francesco Delfoco
Italy
€5,430
7
Sergey Sergeev
Ukraine
€3,965
8
Felix Trau
Germany
€2,900
9
Vitalii Grekul
Ukraine
€2,400
Behr Takes the Senior's Crown
Sweden’s Peder Behr took down the €200 Seniors event at the EPT Malta for €6,000. The 52 year old from Orebro is a recreational player but has a string of good results including winning the Swedish Championship in 2013. His €6,000 cash last night now takes him over the $100,000 mark in live tournament winnings. He beat a 122-strong field which included Britain’s Simon Fuller, Maria von Perger and Costa Rica veteran Luis Jaikel. Others who competed included EPT Prague winner Salvatore Bonavena, EPT Prague finalist Mickey Norinder and EPT Kyiv runner-up Alexander Dovzhenko. In all, 17 players took a share of the €23,668 prize pool.
Event #28 €200 Senior's Event
Buy-in
Entrants
Prize Pool
€200 + €20
122
€23,668
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Peder Behr
Sweden
€6,000
2
Elias Moukawem
Lebanon
€4,000
3
Andreas Vlachos
Greece
€2,600
4
Angelo Gaetano Censabella
Italy
€2,118
5
Simon Fuller
UK
€1,750
6
Alexander Orlov
Russia
€1,350
7
Giovanni Palella
Italy
€1,050
8
Natale Barilla
Italy
€800
9
Martin Johnson
UK
€600
Jansson Emerges as Junior Champ
Swedish player Karl Jansson won his first live tournament trophy after taking down the €200 Juniors Event for €2,070. The 20 year old beat a 26-strong field including fellow 20-year-old Nicolo Serlenga from Italy who was runner-up. Five players in all took a share of the €5,044 prize pool.
Event #29 €200 Juniors Event
Buy-in
Entrants
Prize Pool
€200 + €20
26
€5,044
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Karl Jansson
Sweden
€2,070
2
Nicolo Serlenga
Italy
€1,360
3
Felix Trau
Germany
€860
4
Danilo Vena
Italy
€554
5
Alfonso Baccari
Italy
€200
Here's a look at various other results from the EPT Malta festival:
A loud shout from Gilbert Diaz alerted the bloggers and he celebrated, having laying in front of him. What had happened?
Diaz opened to 1,600 and Lee Taylor raised to 4,000 from one seat over before Antonio Luft flat-called from the button. Diaz now shoved for 50,000 and Taylor had about as much and moved all in as well. Luft tanked for quite some time and called off with .
Taylor had the third premium pocket pair in but was sent to the rail after a board.
Oleksandr Gnatenko informed PokerNews after yesterday's Global Poker Masters shenanigans that he would be retiring from tournament poker after the EPT Malta Main Event. He just busted to Heinz Kamutzki in a hand where the German tanked for 10 minutes on the turn. If this was his last tournament he went out on a great hand.
Kamutzki opened to 1,400 from the cutoff before Gnatenko three-bet to 3,100 from the next seat along. Patrick Leonard was in the big blind and called along with Kamutzki.
The flop spread and Gnatenko's 3,700 bet was only called by Kamutzki. The turn came as the and Kamutzki checked to face an all in in bet of 20,575. Ten minutes later, Leonard called the clock on Kamutzki but what happened before then was a joy for the table and the small crowd that gathered as the minutes wore on.
Basically the two talked on-and-off about what Gnatenko could have in that spot and what Kamutzki could call with. Obviously, Gnatenko never revealed his hand but Kamutzki admitted he had a jack, in an attempt to extract vital information.
It was hard to make out exactly what Gnatenko was saying but he had some table mates highly amused. Kamutzki came out with some of the following lines:
"Why all in my friend?"
"Sure you want to go out like that?"
"With the king of hearts I'd already be calling!"
"Even if I'm wrong I can still suck out right?"
After the clock was called he made the call with for top pair and was ahead of the semi-bluffing Gnatenko who opened for second pair and flush draw. The river was the and Gnatenko left tournament poker, maybe.