Malta Poker Events and the Dragonara Casino, hosted their 3rd live satellite tournament, last night, Wedensday 5th May 2010 in attendance of the €300 + €30 Summer Face/Off Poker tournament which is taking place between the 28th and the 30th May 2010, at the Dragonara Casino.
A group of poker players gathered up at the Dragaonra Casino for the 3rd week of poker action offered by Malta Poker Events at the centrally located Dragonara along the coast of St. Julians. The live No Limit Hold’em freezout started at 20:00Hrs and featured a €37+ €3 buy-in which presented players with a chance of winning their seat to the Summer face/off tourney. Additional prizes included live satellite seats for next week’s tournament and as part of the Summer Face/Off promo all participants enjoyed a €40 refund of their buy-in which is being generously provided by XLBet.com
Players were given 5,000 chips as their starting stacks which they slowly started exchanging throughout the 20 minute blind intervals and 3 prizes were given out at the end of the event. The tournament came to a close by 23:45Hrs and was led by Steve Caruana who took out runner up Andrew Cutajar in the late hours of the game. Cutajar, a regular player in the local Poker scene, gave a reasonably solid performance, but was relatively short-stacked in the last few hands of the tourney, when the chip ratio was about 5:1 in favour of his final opponent, Steve Caruana.
Needless to say, 1st prize winner Steve Caruana also gave a very strong performance which began right from the start of the tourney when he tripled up taking out Ray Bonnici and Christopher Sammut about 45 minutes after the game kicked off. Following the deal of the flop, Steve started out the hand by betting a 3x bet which Chris Sammut called with his K7. Ray Bonnici, who held a KJ pushed all in following Chris’s bet, only to be called by Steve holding KQ, who had hit a straight on the flop, taking out both players at once snatching the chiplead while dong so.
Steve progressed to maintaining a strong chip position throughout the tourney with a series of well placed calls, raises, and calculated folds, seemingly taking risks only when he felt them absolutely necessary, and guarded his position all throughout the tourney.
At the final stages of the game, with just two players left, and the blind levels at the 600/1200 level, underdog Andrew Cutajar started to show an increased aggression in his playing style with which he managed to win various pots by causing his final opponent to fold several times. Andrew’s aggression was appropriate too, as Steve Caruana was sitting with a stack of around 50K giving him a great deal of comfort compared to Andrew who only held around 10K.
The final hand came about when Steve Caruana raised 3,600 whilst on the button and holding Q10 vs. Andrew who re-raised all-in with his K5. Steve Caruana called Andrew’s bet and keenly watched the dealer as she uncovered 9 4 J 2 Q giving Steve a pair of Queens and the 1st prize for his performance throughout the event and sending out Andrew Cutajar in 2nd place. Andrew Cutajar’s placing also entitled him to a prize consisting of a seat to another live event in the upcming weeks.
Following the freeze-out satellite, some players joined in on a cash game table which had been set-up midway throughout the night for players who exited the tournament prematurely.
The current schedule for the Summer Face/Off is Wednesday nights at the Dragonara Casino. Tournaments start at 20:00hrs sharp and usually last till 23:30 – 00:00 hrs. The next edition of the live satellites will take place on the 12th May and will feature a Buy-in of €37+3. Cash tables are also scheduled for ring players.
Prize Winners:
1st Steve Caruana – €300 + €30 seat for the Summer Face/Off Main event
2nd Andrew Cutajar – €37 + €3 seat for the Summer Face/Off live Satellite
3rd Nicholas Joaquin – €37 + €3 seat for the Summer Face/Off live Satellite