The fourth episode of the weekly live satellite tournaments ho-
sted by Malta Poker Events attracted 35 players on Thursday the 22nd October at the Portomaso Casino St. Julians.
Among the players present, were some of the regular Malta Poker Events fans like Stephen Spiteri, Ryan Seguna, Charles Sammut and Hubert Micallef as well as last month’s €220 winner, Georg Westin [Sweden].
The event started at 20:30Hrs where dozens of poker players took their shot at the event which gave them a chance at winning their €220 entry to the end of month Halloween Poker Tournament taking place at the Portomaso Casino, Malta, on the 1st November 2009.
The tournament progressed at a steady pace with quality poker players who were taking their time at analysing their opponents before taking any chances with uncalculated decisions. By midnight the game was down to the final table and the actions started to tighten up as leader Brian Cremona had a very strong lead, George Deguara as the short stack while there was a fairly broad distribution of chips amongst the remaining players.
Within a few of minutes after sitting down at the final table, the first player out in ninth was George Deguara, who was one of the lowest stacked players at the table. Next up was Georg Westin, who pushed blindly in a last attempt to double up as his chip stack started to shrink in comparison to the average. Brian Cremona, called Georg’s all in while holding AK and managed to dominate the Q3 held by Georg, and finished off by winning his entire stack which was around 3,700 at the time.
Stephen Spiteri, holding a reasonably healthy stack noticed that the game started to tighten up and took advantage of this by pushing and taking blinds in more than one occasion. While holding KQ, he eventually got called by Victor Mifsud, who was holding A4 diamonds which developed into a flush with a King of diamonds on the turn. The game wasn’t over yet however as to everyone’s surprise, the river card showed a King, which gave Stephen Spiteri a monster full house with King’s full of queens, as he claimed all of Victors Chips, sending Mifsud out in 7th position as the bubble.
The next determining hand was played between Charles Sammut and Mario Mannara, where Charles placed a 6,000 bet which Mario called fairly quickly. The flop showed JT9 and Sammut quickly followed up with an All-in while holding A10. Mario also paired a T on the flop and called Sammut’s bet only to be dominated by his opponents higher kicker, the Ace of Spades, as the turn and river cards didn’t help strengthen Mario’s hand.
The game came to a close by around 00:45 in a hand played between Stephen Spiteri and Ryan Seguna. Ryan pushed all in holding a pair of kings and got called by Stephen Spiteri’s pair of tens. Ryan’s hand maintained it’s strength on the flop which showed a 988 until the turn which showed a 6. The situation completely reversed itself when the river card came out as a 6 giving Stephen Spiteri a runner runner straight, and all of Seguna’s chips. Ryan went out in 5th position, winning himself a ticket for next week’s satellite tournament, leaving Brian Cremona, Charles Sammut, Ivan Farrugia, Stephen Spiteri as the winners of this episode of the October Satellite tournaments.
The next and final episode of the weekly satellites will be taking place at the Portomaso Casino, Malta on the 29th October 2009. The event is set to start at 20:30 hours and should attract around 40 – 50 players for their final chance to win their entry to the Halloween €220 tourney taking place on the 1st November 2009. Players are encouraged to dress-up for the Halloween event to complement the theme of the night as the ‘Spookiest tournament of the year’.
€220 Halloween tournament ticket winners: From Left to right – [Brian Cremona, Charles Sammut, Ivan Farrugia, Stephen Spiteri]
Satellite Winners:
– Ryan Seguna
– Mario Mannara
More info and photos may be viewed at the gallery on maltapokerevents.com.