The Portomaso Casino hosted a satellite for the Malta Poker Dream (MPD) for those players who wished to qualify for the Italian poker fest held between the 30th March and 4th April 2011. The satellite took place on the 29th March and kicked off at 8pm. Players paid up €110 as their entry that gave them 8,000 chips with which to progress through the 15 minute blinds.
From the 65 entrants who entered, several locals made it to the event, 4 of who made it to a final table that started a little after midnight.
At the onset of the final table with blinds at the 16th level, and 4k/8k, Piero Lazzari was in the lead with 100k. Cosimo Dambra followed with 80k and Andrew Cutajar was in close pursuit holding 64k. Amongst the local regulars, Jackie Cachia, Mark Attard, and George Galea were also present and were in the 35k – 40k range.
The payout structure provided 6 tickets for the €1,100 Malta Poker Dream main event, which is expected to reach a prize pool in excess of €300,000. The MPD event has been long awaited by the locals as well as the hundreds of Italians poker players who flew in to Malta purposely for their chance at winning a prize in the event.
Living up to it’s promises and the press coverage it’s received, the Malta Poker Dream is also doubling as a stage for the upcoming Italian Poker movie entitled “Poker Generation”. The movie, which is also planned for cinematic release all over Italy in December 2011 features the Malta Poker Dream and the Portomaso Casino as the conclusive arena where two brothers will face-off for the ultimate victory!
Back to the final table that reached the 18th level of blinds by 1:00am, players were down to 8, with just 2 more to go before the game came to a close. The average stack was up to 65k and whilst Lazzari kept his lead, his opponents were closing in on him, with a more proportionate distribution amongst them in the last 2 levels played.
By 2am the game was at 10k/20k. Jackie Cachia went All in and lost to her opponent who hit a straight on the flop with his 7,9. Seven players were left at that stage of the game and with 6 seats for the final table going out as prizes, in addition to another €550 over, the players opted for a deal where they agreed to pay and extra €80 each, and get another seat, thus finishing the game with 7 prizes for the 7 players left.
The winners for the night were:
Andrew Cutajar
Mark Attard
Cosimo Dambra
Piero Lazzari
Domenico Iannone
Bruno Gennatiempo
Mauro Montalbano
The Malta Poker Dream kicks off on the 30th March 2011 at 16:00hrs. registration starts at 14:00hrs and players are encouraged to make their way to the Portomaso Casino closer to the start time of registration to ensure their entry as there is a 250 player cap on each of the starting days.
Malta Poker Events