Malta Poker Open – Final satellite tournament for August 2010
15 Super satellite tickets given out at August’s final ‘Stage 1’ satellite tournament for the Malta Poker Open – Powered by XLBet.com
The ‘Stage 1’ satellites for the Malta Poker Open – Powered by XLBet.com have been received with great acclaim by the local poker community with a growing increase week upon week. From the onset of the ‘Stage 1’ satellites, that started on the 10th August 2010, a total of 47 super satellites seats have been won from the 200+ entries so far in the month of August. Winners of the ‘Stage 1’ satellites will now challenge each other on Sunday the 5th September 2010 together with a number of players who are expected to register on the day.
The first ‘Super Satellite’ for the Malta Poker Open – Powered by XLbet.com will start onSunday the 5th September at 16:30hrs. Players will be given 15,000 chips as their starting stack and will play at 30 minute blind levels. Finalists of the ‘Super satellite’ tournament will win themselves a seat to main event of the prestigious Malta Poker Open – Powered by XLbet.com. The main event ticket is worth €1,100, and by the looks of it so far, the event is set to be nothing short of action packed!
The final ‘Stage 1’ Malta Poker Open satellite for the month of August kicked off at 20:00hrs on Tuesday the 31st August at the Portomaso Casino.
The event attracted a total of 61 players for the low entry €10+€1 re-buy tournament that reached a prize pool of €1,800. By the end of the night, 15 players were declared winners of the tournament and moved onto the second stage satellite, better known as the ‘Super Satellite’ for the Malta Poker Open – Powered by XLbet.com.
58 players were still at their seats at the beginning of the first break, and were reduced to 50 players by the second break of the freezeout poker tournament. By 11:45pm, the tourney was down to the last 27 players at the 13th level of blinds with an average stack of 33,000 chips.
At the 13th level of blinds there were three clear chip leaders at the tables. Massimo Casadei was leading the tournament with over 100,000 chips and was followed by Moira Cassar with over 80,000 chips. Matthew Pace was in close pursuit holding a stack of approximately 75,000.
Massimo Casadei, a previous winner at the ‘Stage 1’ satellites managed to pull off a great chip-boost off Daniel Mountford in a heads up battle which sent out Daniel in 24th place, and put Massimo at the top of the tournament lead. Daniel pushed all in with K8 and got called by Massimo who was holding AA at the time. The dealer uncovered a flop which included an 8 of clubs, giving Mountford a better hand, although he was still behind Massimo’s ‘bullets’. By the river card, Daniel’s hand did not gain further strength and the round ended with Massimo’s prevailing AA taking over Mountford’s entire stack. A few hands after Massimo’s win, it was time for the third break, and we took some time to find out more about this Italian Poker player.
Massimo told us that he’s been in Malta since September 2009 and is currently working as a chef at a beachside restaurant in the St. Julians area. He didn’t fail to mention that he’s a very passionate poker player who often gets good results at the live tables.
“I love playing live poker in my free time, and I’m a regular player at the Portomaso Casino. I also play online at times when I can’t make it to a live game, but I tend to avoid online play since I prefer the live tables.”
“Live poker gives me a better read on my opponents, as there’s much more information available. I tend to absorb more out of my opponents when staring them down, analysing their reactions when they’re peeking at their cards. I also learn a lot from my opponents when seeing their behaviour when they are placed in tough situations”
“I tend to favour live poker because the skill level of players is often higher than that found on the more popular online poker rooms. At times, when playing online, I get called by players who are holding ridiculous hands – I’m sure that they would act very differently at a live table full of respectable players – just not to embarrass themselves!”
“I want to partipcate at the Malta Poker Open, because I love testing myself against highly skilled players. This is the only way to learn and develop a solid mindset when playing poker. It’s not advisable to play outside your skill level at higher stakes, but sometimes it’s necessary in order to increase one’s skillset. The Malta Poker Open, with a buy-in of €1,100 is one of those events that I will not miss out on, especially with the many qualifying options available – Qualifying from just €10+€1 would already be an achievement – as regards to getting a high placing ‘in the money’ – well that’s my ultimate goal for the Malta Poker Open.”
“It’s great to see such a high participation rate at these Poker events in Malta. Sadly, in Italy, ‘Poker Sportivo’ has now become illegal, which is a problem for players like myself as we have no choice but to play online, and as I mentioned before that’s a secondary preference for me”
“Back home, I used to play in live poker clubs and we were restricted to play for material prizes rather than cash – That was ok, at least I was getting my practice in the live environment. Now it has become outlawed and it’s too risky to play, as you never know whether the club will get busted or not”
“Poker in Malta is somewhat of a social activity, which is good to see, the players are generally pleasant guys, and the casinos offer a friendly service to their players, starting from the dealers, up to the food and beverage service which is provided free of charge to poker players”
“I heard about the Malta Poker Open through facebook, and through the Portomaso Casino, since I play exclusively at this casino. I think the Malta Poker Open is shaping up to be a great event. Based on the participation for the ‘Stage 1’ satellites, I think we’re going to have a full house at the 2 day main event!”
After our insightful talk with Massimo, we headed back to the tables for the next round of the ‘Stage 1’ satellite qualifier. By that time, the blinds had reached the 14th level at 3,000/6,000 with 500 going out as antes. 23 players were left in the game with just 8 players to go before the tournament came to a close.
Several rounds later, by half past midnight, the game was down to the final 16 players, with just one player left to go before game’s end. The action started picking up at the table with several pushes by the table bullies against their smaller stacked opponents but several of the pushes went uncalled, or were won by the underdogs at the table.
The game came to a close when, Joe Smith, was all in on the Small Blind, with 3,000 chips holding Q8 vs Poul-Henrik Worm on the big blind holding 3 6. Paul hit a straight on the flop, when 5 2 4 got dealt by the dealer at the table, sending out Joe Smith in the 16th place, bringing the tournament to a close.
Super Satellite seat winners
Masismo Casadei
Jason Degaura
Renzo Bonnici
Giovanni Tozzolino
Hubert Micallef
Andrea Stellato
Maude Smith
Moira Cassar
Stephen Caruana
Poul Worn
Matthew Pace
Andrew Tabone
Vincent Muscat
Lorenzo Vella
Michael Robinson
The first Super Satellite for the Malta Poker Open – Powered by XLBet.comis being held at the Portomaso Casino on Sunday the 5th September 2010. Details are listed below
Malta Poker Open 2010 – Super Satellite Details
Buy-in: €110 + €10 [Direct buy-in or Stage 1 winners]
Date: Sunday, 5th September
Venue: Portomaso Casino, St. Julians, Malta
Tournaments style: No Limit Hold’em Freeze-out
Blind levels: 30 minutes
Starting stack: 15,000 chips
Player Cap: 100 players
Prizes: €1,100 seat to the Malta Poker Open – Powered by XLBet.com
NOTE – Interested players are advised to register early for the ‘Super Satellite’ of the Malta Poker Open as 47 seats have already been occupied by the ‘Stage 1’ qualifiers.
