The satellite tournament, with a €27+3 entry fee attracted 44 enthusiastic poker players taking their seats in the Poker room at the Portomaso Casino on the 10th September 2009. Amongst the players present were three of the Malta Chili Poker Open 2009 finalists – Massimiliano Privitera from Italy who had placed 2nd, taking home €8,670, Gordon Mifsud who placed fifth and won €2,800 and Andrew Camilleri in 8th placing and €1,128 prize.
This week’s payouts included 5 seats to September’s end of month €220 tournament [27.09.09] and 3 seats for the satellite tournament taking place on 17.09.09.
The first break was over by 22:30hrs and by then, there were 30 remaining players with an average stack of 4,400 chips.
At the final table, Omar Granata and Daniel Mais went out in 7thand 8th place respectively,
With the blinds now at the 2K / 4K level, The strongest of the remaining 6 players at the table were Tanya Apap and Gordon Mifsud, and on the opposite end of the scale there was Giovanni Totsolino with 700 chips.
A struggling effort by Giovanni took place when he pushed all-in with his 700 chips while holding 5 6 and got called by Tanya who held a pair of fours at the time. The flop showed 9 3 3 6 7 helping Giovanni to double up when he paired his 6 on the turn.
In the next hand, Giovanni pushed all-in yet again, with a 1400 stack, and got called by Thomas Harvey and Gordon Mifsud. Giovanni’s KJ hit a pair on the flop and trips on the river when the flop showed 10 4 J 2 J. The 6 10 held by Gordon and A 3 held by Tommy could not match Giovanni’s hand and helped propel his chip count up to 5,400.
The deciding hand played was between Giovanni Totsolino and Massimo Pappalardo, while the dealer button was at Gordon Mifsud. Massimo [SB] holding 10 9 called Giovanni’s [BB] push and he showed his A 7 in turn. Massimo’s hand paired the 9 on the flop and kept it’s strength all the way to the river, beating the hand held by Totsolino. This play sent out Giovanni Totsolino in sixth position winning a ticket to a satellite event on 17.09.09, and leaving the reaming five players as the prize winners of the €220 tickets for the end of month tourney on 27.09.09.
Prizes for the €220 end of month tourney were awarded to:
From Left to right: Joe Smith, Gordon Mifsud, Tanya Apap, Massimo Pappalardo, Thomas Harvey
Satellite tickets were awarded as prizes to:
– Giovanni Totsolino
– Daniel Mais
– Omar Granata
See the rest of the photos at our Gallery at the Malta Poker Events website.