Last weekend, Steve O'Dwyer was in Macau for the Macau Poker Cup 22, which is where he won the HK$20,000 No-Limit Hold'em Event, a three-day tournament that attracted a field of 237 players and created a prize pool of HK$4,138,020.
O'Dwyer was hoping to keep the ball rolling into Malta, but things didn't go according to plan for the perennial high roller. O'Dwyer busted a bullet yesterday and reentered, then bagged up a short stack. In a recent hand, with the board reading , Philipp Gruissem moved all in holding the . O'Dwyer, who held the , called off and failed to get there when the blanked on the river.
On a flop of , back-and-forth action saw Mustapha Kanit get his last 40,000 or so all in from the big blind against Team Online's Isaac Haxton, who was on the button.
Kanit:
Haxton:
Both players had flopped top pair, but Haxton's queen kicker had him well out in front. The turn changed nothing, and neither did the river. Both players held kings and jacks, meaning the kicker made all the difference.
Tobias Reinkemeier moved all in under the gun for 18,000 chips and the action quickly folded to Mikita Badziakovski in the small blind. The Belarusian moved all in for 48,800 and Thomas Muehloecker tanked for a bit from the big blind before calling to put two players at risk.
Reinkemeier:
Badziakovski:
Muehloecker:
The board ran out and the queen on the flop gave Muehloecker the entire pot. Badziakovski, who had re-entered at the start of Day 2, was knocked out within hands of sitting down and Reinkemeier followed his lead to the exit.
Only two players — Vladimir Dobrovolskii and Mikita Badziakouski — opted to late register before the start of Day 2. The former was entering the tournament for the first time, while the later was reentering after having busted Day 1.
It proved a quick affair for Dobrovolskii, who fell 12 minutes into play to Sam Greenwood.
On one of the first hands of the day it was Thomas Muehloecker who moved all in from early position for 24,400 and Tobias Reinkemeier called from the cutoff. The other players folded and the showdown went as following.
Muehloecker:
Reinkemeier:
The board ran out and the Austrian pro doubled through the German.
A total of 67 unique players started this $25,000 High Roller at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Malta yesterday. 19 re entries were made, making for a total of 86 entries for this opening event. Players are able to register till fifteen minutes before the start of Day 2 at 12:30 p.m. local time.
40 players remain after the ten levels of play on Day 1, with Oleksii Khoroshenin leading the charge. The Ukrainian EPT Vienna champion amassed 277,600 in chips, good for 138 big blinds at the start today as the first level will be 1,000/2,000 with 300 ante.
No table draw will be published till registration had closed, to not give newcomers the advantage of knowing which seats are up for grabs.
The structure for Day 2 dictates 10 levels of play, or down to 8 players, whichever is faster. The ten levels are structured as followed:
Level
Small Blind
Big Blind
Ante
11
1,000
2,000
300
12
1,200
2,400
300
20 minutes break
13
1,500
3,000
400
14
2,000
4,000
500
20 minutes break
15
2,500
5,000
500
16
3,000
6,000
1,000
75 minutes break
17
4,000
8,000
1,000
18
5,000
10,000
1,000
20 minutes break
19
6,000
12,000
2,000
20
8,000
16,000
2,000
PokerNews.com will again be your one stop shop for everything EPT Malta today, with interviews, feature articles, photos, and all the updates you can ask for. Live reporting starts in an hour.