The live poker scene in Malta is certainly heating up with the anticipation for the December – Special Edition Poker Tournament being held on the 29th and 30th December 2009 at the Portomaso Casino.
Poker players from all over Malta gathered for the 3rd live satellite tournament this month. The €37+3 event, hosted by Malta Poker Events took place on Thursday the 17th December 2009 and attracted poker players including Clive Tong, Jacques Balzan Demajo, Sergei Cutajar, Ruben Velden, Andrew Cutajar and Simon Gauci.
‘Shuffle up and deal’ was pronounced at 20:45 by Mark Mifsud, the event tournament director at the Portomaso Casino, after players were given their initial stack of 3,000 chips for the first level of the 18 minute blinds.
In the earlier stages of the game, Carmelo Callus tripled up against Chris Sammut and Giovanni Tozzolino with a full house of 8’s full of 9’s. Carmelo had already hit trips 8’s on the turn when he decided to make the decisive move which put him in the chip lead with 3 times above the average stack.
By the end of the first break, Andrew Cutajar caught a beautiful royal flush of hearts while holding Ah. Andrew held 1,700 chips at the time and was in dire need of a life saver. He managed to double up by pushing all in against David Zammit and winning the pot. He got around 1,200 from other players who entered the pot before they folded which took his stack to around 4,600 chips.
The game came to a close with three players left at around 00:30Hrs. The last three players in the game at this point were John Grima, Ruben Velden and Sergei Cutajar.
The final hand saw John Grima’s A 10 go up against Sergei’s K6 of hearts. The flop came up as a rainbow 8 9 J, which kept John Grima in the lead. An Ace on the turn further improved John’s cards which were too strong for Sergei’s hand, even when a K came out as the river card. John Grima sent out Sergei Cutajar in 3rd position.
The winners of the €330 tickets for the ‘December – Special edition’ tourney.
– John Grima
– Ruben Velden
Images may be viewed at the Malta Poker Events gallery.
The players who attended last night’s tournament also took advantage of the XLBet promo which entitles our live players to a €40 refund on XLBet.com.
XLBet, the worlds largest e-sport bookmaker, is also running online poker events for poker players located in Malta and will be hosting two more events in the coming weeks – A cheap-roll on Tuesday the 22nd December and a super-satellite on Sunday, the 27th December 2009. Winners of the super satellite will win themselves a €330 ticket to the Special Edition event which will be taking place on the 29th and the 30th December 2009.
Schedule of upcoming Malta Poker Events satellites
Sunday, 20th December 2009 – 16:30hrs – €37+3 Satellite at the Portomaso Casino
Tuesday, 22nd December 2009 – 20:30hrs – €3.30 Cheaproll on XLBet.com
Wednesday, 23rdDecember 2009 – 20:30hrs – €37+3 Satellite at the Portomaso
Sunday, 27th Dec – 20:30hrs – €37+3 Satellite for €330 on XLBet.com
Monday, 28th Dec – 20:30hrs – €37+3 Satellite for €330 at the Portomaso Casino
Players may also buy-in directly for the €330 tourney at the Portomaso Casino cash desk.
For more info, you may contact the event organisers at