The first event took place on Thursday, the 3rd December 2009 at the Portomaso Casino, St. Julians, Malta, where 17 players registered for the first live satellite tournament this month. The winners who made it to the top two positions won main event tickets for the €330 tournament taking place on the 29th and 30th December 2009. Sergei Cutajar [who placed 2nd in the Kings of November tourney] and Daniel Zammit, both active live players, were thrilled with their prize at the end of the 4 hour tourney.
The €37+3 satellite event featured a freeze-out structure with blind levels increasing every 18 minutes. 17 poker players took their seats and were dealt their first set of hole cards at 21:00 at the Portomaso Casino. The tournament featured regular players like Charles Micallef, Dave Meli David Hodgkins, Matthew Pace, Leo Said, Andrea Stellatoand Keith Boniface and was set up in the larger smoke free hall utilised for the Malta Poker Events end of month tournaments. Within the hall, several cash games tables were also opened up to help cope with the many Italian players came to Malta to participate in the ‘Goalsbet Poker Tournament with a €100,000 guaranteed prize pool.
Some action from the final table
By midnight, the blinds had reached 600/1200 and there were 4 players remaining at the table. Daniel Zammit was leading the tourney with a great disparity between him and his opponents, Sergei Cutajar, who was in second, Matthew Pace in third, and Charles Micallef in fourth, as the short stack.
Following a flop which uncovered 7d5ckd, an all-in push by Charles Micallef while on the smallblind, pushed Sergei Cutajar out of the hand forcing him to fold, and winning Charles a pot of about 4,000 chips.
The next hand featured Sergei Cutajar and Matthew Pace and took a decisive turn when Sergei re-raised all-in a previous bet of 4K by Charles Micallef. Matthew Pace, who was on the Big Blind, also went All-in with his stack of 10,600 in the pot which pushed Daniel Zammit and Charles Micallef out of this hand. The flop showed a 6 T T with two clubs on the table and two clubs in Sergei’s hands. Sergei was hoping that a flush would come out on the turn or river as Matthew had already hit a set on the flop whilst holding T 3. The turn came out as a Q giving Sergei a pair of ‘ladies’’ yet he was still behind Matthew’s set of tens. The only cards which could help Sergei at this point were a club or a Q and when the river card surfaced, Sergei hit his flush with the 7 of Clubs. The hand delivered crippling damage to Matthew’s stack which was reduced to a little less than 1,000 chips. Sergei doubled up with his river-flush putting him in the chip lead at the table.
The game came to a close at 12:35am with three way action for the grand finale and Daniel Zammit on the Big Blind, Matthew Pace on the small blind [and All-in] and Charlie Micallef under the gun. Micallef pushed all-in while holding KQ and got called by Daniel who was holding AK., Matthew’s hole cards were K 8. The flop showed a Q 5 2, pairing Micallef’s Q instantly and sending a shiver down Daniel’s spine. The next cards weren’t so favourable for Charles however as a 3 on the turn and a 4 on the river gave Daniel Zammit a runner runner straight, sending out both Matthew Pace and Charles Micallef in 3rd and 4th positions respectively.
€330 ticket winners:
– Sergei Cutajar [Right]
– Daniel Zammit [Left]
Photos may be viewed in the Gallery section of http://www.maltapokerevents.com
The next episode of the ‘Special Edition satellite tourneys’ will take place Thursday the 10th December 2009 at the Portomaso Casino, Malta. The event is set to start at 20:30Hrs and is structured as a freeze-out tournament. Buy-in for this event is a low €37+3 and registration is available at the Portomaso Casino cash desk from 10am – 4am daily.