Summer Face/Off Live Satellite – Week 4
The 4th Satellite tournament for the Malta Summer Face/Off Tournament took place at the Dragonara Casino on Wednesday 12th May 2010. In this tournament 22 players got together and went head to head in a €37 + €3 freeze-out competing for the €300 + €30 main event tickets as their prize.
6 prizes were given out throughout the tournament which was taken down by Vincenzo Amato and Nicolas Jouannic who will each be joining the poker action at the Summer Face Off €300 + €30 tournament between the 28th and the 30th May 2010 at the Dragonara Casino.
The buy-in for the satellite was €37 + €3 and participating players are benefitting from a buy-in refund courtesy of XLBet.com, online partners for the Summer Face/Off event. Players were given 5,000 chips as their starting stack to play out in a structure which saw blinds increase every 20 minutes.
The action kicked off at 20:20Hrs and featured players from a variety of nationalities including Maltese, Danish, Italian, British, Swedish and French regions. The 22 players were split up onto 3 tables and quickly started their plays by forcing their opponents into the tough decisions which are so particular to the game of Texas Hold’em Poker.
Early in the tournament an interesting hand took place between Andrew Cutajar and Ivan Farrugia, when both players hit a straight, with Cutajar having the higher straight with his K high. Ivan was on a Q high straight, however the turn showed a K which resulted into a split pot, and a second chance for Ivan who would have been out of the tournament hadn’t it been for the turn card King.
The first player out of the tournament was Michael Curmi, who, whilst holding a pocket 5’s went heads up against T.Tortomasi. Tortomasi was holding pocket rockets [AA] which kept their strength throughout the flop, turn and river, sending out Curmi at around 21:15Hrs.
A few minutes later, with blinds at the 75/150 level, Mark Muscat, who was on the button, ran into Thomas Harvey in a KQ vs. AK battle. Muscat was already quite low stacked at this stage, making his KQ attractive enough to call Harvey’s AK supported push. Harvey hit a flush with his hole cards, sending out Muscat relatively early in the satellite tournament.
By 21:30, players were back from their first break with Vincenzo Amato in a clear lead. Blinds were now at the 100/200 level with 25 chips going out as antes. At this stage, Amato’s lead was followed by Andrew Camilleri and Nicolas Jouannic and 19 players were still in the game.
With a total of 22 players in the tournament the prize structure was as follows:
1st & 2nd Ticket to the Malta Summer Face/Off main event – €300 + €30
3rd – 6th Ticket to the Malta Summer Face/Off Live satellite event – €37 + €3
By 22:30, players were down to the final table, and the action started to pick up at a steady rate. Thomas Harvey took a shot at the pot with his pocket 9’s only to run into a pair of ladies held by Swedish Kent Berg. Kent held a stronger starting hand which got even stronger when the dealer uncovered a Queen on the turn giving Kent a tris and sending out Harvey who was holding a stack of 4,000 at the time. 9 players were left in the game at this stage and were led by new chip leader Kent Berg, followed closely by Stephen Spiteri.
Another interesting hand which saw three players go against each other gave Joe Mangion a massive chip top-up, when he went up against Andrew Tabone on the Big Blind, and Thomas Tinglev holding AK. Thomas pushed and got called by Andrew [AK] and Mangion [QQ]. Mangion’s hand kept it’s strength when the flop showed 34737 and he quickly went up to over 250% of his stack after the hand. Tinglev was still in the game yet his stackgot relatively damaged in this hand which also saw Andrew Tabone exit the tournament.
A heads up between Thomas Tinglev and Nicolas Jouannic followed with Nicolas maintaining a dominant position with his JJ versus Thomas’s deck-paired 3. Nicolas managed to stay in the hand and win it, sending out a weakened Tinglev, following his previous run-in with Mangion.
By the break at 23:00hrs, Mangion was in a clear lead followed by Berg and Nicolas Jouannic in third position. Blinds were now at the 300/600 level with 50 being paid by players as antes. Players were playing slightly more cautiously as they were in what is often referred to as ‘the bubble zone’, meaning that once the next player was out of the tourney all the remaining players would be in the money.
Running with a below average stack, Wayne Borg took his chances at a run-in with Nicolas Jouannic. Wayne was holding A5 vs. Jouannic’s TT. Blinds were at the 500/1000 level and it seemed like the last resort for Wayne to call Jouannic’s push, which dominated Wayne’s hand sending him out as the Bubble. All the remaining players were now ‘in the money’
Kent Berg was racking up quite an impressive chip stack by now and seemed to be dominating the table with a series of well placed bets. He entered a pot against Andrew Camilleri when the latter pushed All in holding QT vs Berg’s 9Ts. Berg hit his flush on this hand, sending out Andrew in 6th position handing his stack of 7k over to Berg, now chip leader at the final table.
The next player out of the tourney was dominated by Joe Mangion, one of the better stacked players at the table, who held AK when he went against Stephen Spiteri’s snowmen [88]. Joe hit a King on the flop immediately putting him in the lead, which he maintained throughout the river. Stephen lost his entire stack of 7,000 chips to Joe Mangion. Joe was now officially one of the Big Boys at the table.
An interesting hand between Nicolas Jouannic and Amato, saw Amato push All in with his 12,000 chips. Jouannic called with a pair of ducks [22] but his hand was not strong enough to hold up against Amato’s K which paired up with another King on the Flop. Nicolas lost a sizeable portion of his chip stack to Amato who was now a ‘bigger force’ at the table.
By 12:15am, the blinds were at 800/1600 and 200 were being paid out by players as antes. The 4 remaining players were led by Kent Berg, followed by Joe Mangion and Vincenzo Amato while Nicolas Jouannic was trailing in at a not so distant 4th. Within a few hands Nicolas also managed to regain position which saw the tables turn and Joe Mangion move into 4th from his positioning in 2nd a few hands earlier.
Mangion’s stack started deteriorating at a faster rate, when he finally reached the bottom with his pair of 2’s against Kent Berg’s 55. Joe was on the button in this hand holding around 3,000 chips. He called a 10,000 bet from Kent but his cards did not get any stronger resulting in his exit from the tournament in 4th place.
The next few hands saw Amato increase his stack considerably when in one particular hand, he re-raised Berg’s 10K bet by an additional 15K. We never got to see the player’s hole cards as both players folded their hands, althought It didn’t seem worth it for Berg to call a re-raise of that size at such a pivotal point of the tournament.
Amato was now up to 43,000 chips and the monster at the table when he pushed in the final hand of the game with his TT which got called by Berg. Amato’s hand was the prevailing one after the dealer showed a 6Q54J on the felt, sending out Berg in 3rd position, ending the game with Amato in first, and Jouannic in second, both winning their entry to the Malta Poker Summer Face/Off €300 + €30 tournament.
Winners: Vincenzo Amato & Nicolas Jouacim
The next edition of the Live Satellites for the Summer Face/Off tournament is taking place on Wednesday 19th May 2010. The tournament shall take place at the Dragonara Casino and is expected to start at 20:00hrs. Players will be given a 5,000 starting stack for their €37 + €3 buy-in, and shall compete in a live satellite freeze-out featuring 20 minute blind levels.
The Summer Face/Off Main Event tournament is taking place at the Dragonara Casino between the 28th and the 30th May 2010. Players are encouraged to pick their starting days, Day 1A or Day 1B as early as possible, since many players have already started giving indications of their preferred starting days.
You may register for the €300 + €30 Summer Face/Off Poker tournament by buying in directly at the Dragonara Casino, or by participating at the final two live satellites taking place at the Dragonara Casino on the 19th May and the 26th May.
Seats for the Summer Face/Off tournament are limited, so make sure you register early to participate in Malta’s hottest Poker Tournament in Summer 2010!