2022 Malta Poker Festival Autumn Edition Live Blog – Day 1b

The €500,000 guaranteed Malta Poker Festival (MPF) €550 Grand Final is off to a rocking start at Portomaso Casino. Today’s Day 1b attracted an action-packed field of 256 entries to bring the total up to 461 entries with three more opening flights to go when taking into account the 205 entries attracted on Day 1b.

A total of 67 players advanced to Day 2 via Day 1b after 13 blind levels and with the 47 survivors on Day 1a, this means that already 114 players have found a bag already into Sunday’s Day 2.

Greece’s Anastasios Apostolou not only bagged the Day 1b chip lead after finishing the day with 539,000, but he also surpassed the Daniel Taylor who ended Day 1a with the chip lead with 519,000 in chips. While no other player surpassed half a million chips on Day 1b, four other players did catapult their 50,000 chip opening stack into at least 400,000 including Bulgaria’s Zlatin Penev (465,000), Greece’s Ioannis Aslanidis (457,000), Poland’s Tomasz Kolewczynski (407,000), and Italy’s Gianmarco Pagliaro.

Other notable players to advance to Day 2 included Yossef Cohen (319,000), Koen Muestege (307,000), Kevin Houghton (250,000), Martin Piik (250,000), Mark Vella (171,000), Anne-Marie Yuen (169,000), The Hendon Mob’s Roland Boothby (157,000), and 2022 MPF Autumn Edition €225 HORSE champion Romain Nardin (156,000).

Boothby will have a couple of days off before the Grand Event continues for Day 2, which works out very well as he plans to play the €225 The Hendon Mob Championship taking place on Oct. 28-29 as part of the Malta Poker Festival.

Day 1b Top Ten Chip Counts

The Grand Event is all for the players and is limited to two re-entries per flight. In addition, late registration closes after Level 8 meaning that anyone getting into the action will start with a workable stack and not need to shove straight off the bat in order to gain some breathing room.

Today also boasted a €60 satellite for players looking to get into the Grand Event for pennies on the dollar along with the €225 Bounty Hunter Days Malta which attracted a huge field of 322 entries.

PokerListings will be back live reporting at the MPF at the start of Day 1b of the MPF Grand Event at 2 p.m. CEST. Tomorrow’s schedule also boasts the €230 Bounty Hunter Days Malta at 5 p.m. and a €60 Grand Event satellite at 8 p.m. Stay tuned at PokerListings for all of your Malta Poker Festival Grand Event updates until a winner is crowned.

Day 1b is in the books with several tables bagging up chips. Stay tuned for the final chip counts and a recap of the day.

Level 13: 2,000/4,000 (4,000)
Entries: 82/256

Tomasz Kolewczynski opened for 8,000 from the cutoff. Shane Hellyer three-bet jammed the button for 48,000. Hellyer tanked for a minute before he announced a call.

Shane Hellyer: A K
Tomasz Kolewczynski: Q J

Hellyer was ahead the entire way and won the hand with Broadway after the A 10 J Q 3 ran out on the board.

Tomasz Kolewczynski – 260,000
Shane Hellyer – 110,000

Level 13: 2,000/4,000 (4,000)
Entries: 83/256

The final blind level of Day 1b has just begun with blinds at 2,000/4,000 along with a 4,000 big blind ante. After this blind level, most of the surviving players if not all will bag chips into Day 2.

Players that have 50,000 in chips or less will have the option to forfeit their stack. The benefit of this is purely a chance to get a better stack on the remaining three opening flights. However, any player that chooses to do so is also taking a risk that they don’t find a bag during any of the other opening flights.

It is solely up to the players what they decide to do in this situation. Best of luck to the remaining 83 players during the final blind level.

Level 12: 1,500/3,000 (3,000)
Entries: 84/256

Serdar Demircan is one of the many friendly players that call Malta their home. Unfortunately, today wasn’t Demircan’s day but he shared he will be back to battle tomorrow. His final hand went as follows.

Demircan got his stack of around 80,000 in from the cutoff with K Q and was up against Krzyztof Piotr Otlik from one seat over with A K .

Demircan felt his time was up before the cards were turned over and was out of his seat after his opponent paired his ace on the 8 A 2 flop. Demircan was drawing dead after the 4 turn and was officially out of chips after the J river completed the board. Meanwhile, Otlik was up to 240,000 after the hand.

Level 12: 1,500/3,000 (3,000)
Entries: 91/256

Yossef Cohen opened for 7,000 from the cutoff and was called by Ann-Marie Yuen before Flavia Gomes Guedes three-bet jammed for about 10 big blinds. Philip Charles Christie four-bet shoved for about 90,000 from the blinds. Cohen and Yuen folded and the cards were turned over.

Flavia Gomes Guedes: A J
Philip Charles Christie: 10 10

Christie won the flip after Guedes bricked the 6 3 8 9 5 board and was out near the end of Level 12.

Philip Charles Christie – 130,000
Flavia Gomes Guedes – 0

Level 12: 1,500/3,000 (3,000)
Entries: 96/256

Normally when Kevin Hougton is playing a tournament you can hear him tables away. Today, he would have gone unnoticed as he is being unusually quiet. Regardless he is back to his old tricks at the poker tables and up to around 350,000 in chips.

Houghton shared with us that he was at one point down to 2,000. We will try to get that story another time but that is a pretty sick turnaround.

He just took out Peter de Bruin on a coin flip as follows:

De Bruin open-jammed from early position for about 20 big blinds and was looked up by Houghton.

Peter de Bruin: 4 4
Kevin Houghton: A J

It appeared that de Bruin might make a small dent in Houghton stack after a safe 9 6 2 flop and an equally safe K turn. However, the J river improved Houghton to a better pair to eliminate de Bruin.

Players are on their final break of Day 1b. The blinds will increase to 1,500/3,000 with a big blind ante of 3,000 when the action resumes. After this level, is the final level of Day 1b with blinds at 2,000/4,000 with a big blind ante of 4,000.

We got to chat with Soner Vanelderen just before the break. He shared how great the festival is despite the brutal two-outer he took for a monster stack. He added that he will be back tomorrow to play Day 1c.

Stay tuned at PokerListings to see who bags chips into Day 2 via the Day 1b field.

Level 11: 1,500/2,500 (2,500)
Entries: 104/256

Davoud Nikravan doubled his short stack as follows. He jammed for 28,500 with 10 5 and was called by Mark Vella with A K .

The 10 J 8 2 7 board improved Nikravan to a pair of tens to double through Vella. Shortly after, he was seen leaving the room so his luck from this hand turned out to be short-lived.

Nikravan has been playing aggressively both Day 1a and Day 1b but hasn’t been able to get much going as he has gone through five bullets during that time. Perhaps tomorrow will be different if he decides to hop back in for Day 1c.

Mark Vella – 110,000
Davoud Nikravan – 0

Level 11: 1,500/2,500 (2,500)
Entries: 116/256

Davoud Nikravan opened for 8,000 from early position and was called by John Pogue before Yossef Cohen jacked it up to 32,000. Both players called to see the ten-nine-eight rainbow flop.

Nikravan open-jammed for about 130,000. Pogue folded and Cohen called off his stack just north of 100,000.

Yossef Cohen – Pocket Aces
Davoud Nikravan – Pocket Sevens

Nikravan bricked the board and Cohen was up to 300,000 after the hand.

Level 10: 1,000/2,000 (2,000)
Entries: 131/256

We noticed Roland Boothby on around 140,000 which was about double the stack from the last time we saw his chips. Boothby was kind enough to give a short recap of how he doubled his stack.

With blinds still at 1,000/1,500, Boothby opened from the cutoff for 3,000 before he called a three-bet to 12,000 by Stefan Wiesebrock from the big blind. Boothby couldn’t recall the entire flop, but shared the Q was part of it along with two black cards.

Both players checked and the 7 was dealt on the turn. Wiesebrock check-called a bet of 12,000 and Boothby shared the 6 paired the board on the river. Boothby jammed for more than 40,000 and got a call. Boothby turned over A 10 for the nut flush. Although it was an all-in and a call, Wiesebrock didn’t show his cards and nobody at the table asked him to.

“He got really lucky,” Wiesebrock added after the hand was shared with a big smile on his face.

Roland Boothby – 140,000
Stefan Wiesebrock – 35,000

Level 10: 1,000/2,000 (2,000)
Entries: 138/256

There was 80,000 in the pot with the K 5 J on the board when Soner Vanelderen three-bet jammed for more than 70,000. James Mercieca called and some banter followed.

“Shall we do one at a time?” asked Vanelderen.

“If you have a king, turn it over,” replied Mercieca.

Vanelderen did show the king first before finally exposing he had A K . He was miles ahead with Mercieca subsequently turning over Q Q .

Mercieca got his miracle two outer after the Q spiked the turn but still had to sweat a four outs with Vanelderen having a slim chance of rivering Broadway. The A river completed the board to improve Vanelderen to top two pair. But this wasn’t enough to beat a set of queens and Vanelderen was down to crumbs after suffering through a horrible bad beat.

James Mercieca – 200,000
Soner Vanelderen – 5,000

Level 9: 1,000/1,500 (1,500)
Entries: 145/256

Jorgen Schjetne opened for 3,500 from early position before Serdar Demircan called from the button. Thomas Robinson three-bet to 14,000 from the small blind and the action got even hotter with Schtjetne four-bet jamming for 50,000. Demircan got out of the way before Robinson snap-called.

Jorgen Schjetne: Q Q
Thomas Robinson: A K

Demircan told the table he folded ace-jack of diamond and was initially upset after he would have improved to top pair on the 9 J 7 flop. However, he soon relaxed understanding that he was still behind Schjetne’s overpair.

The 10 turn kept Schjetne ahead in the hand. However, that all changed after the A spiked the river to give Robinson the check mark.

“Good game,” Schjetne said to the table on his way out.

Meanwhile, Demircan began to shake off that although he would have gotten it in bad, he would have won the hand if he stayed in it.

Thomas Robinson – 200,000
Jorgen Schjetne – 0

Level 9: 1,000/1,500 (1,500)
Entries: 150/256

Kamil Skawinski fired out for 20,000 into a pot of a bit more with the 5 3 6 5 K on the board. Romain Nardin, who won the €225 HORSE event earlier this festival for €4,000, went into the tank for several minutes as he had slightly less in his stack remaining.

Eventually, Nardin found a call and we can understand now why he was thinking. Skawinski was trying to steal the pot with 10 9 . Nardin saw through the bluff and called him down light with just A 4 to double his stack.

Kamil Skawinski – 90,000
Romain Nardin – 60,000

Late registration is closed for Day 1b. The field attracted 256 entries with 158 players still in their seats. When combined with the 205 entries from Day 1a, the €500,000 guaranteed MPF Grand Event is already at 461 entries with three more opening flights to go.

During the break, we went downstairs to check out the €225 Bounty Hunter Days Malta one-day event. The room was packed with an amazing field of 322 entries.

This will likely end after the conclusion of tonight’s Grand Event Day 1b flight, so we will update you with the results of this event tomorrow. As of now, there were still 146 players contending for the title including Maximilian Damm, who we caught up on the Grand Event break with and shared that he is freerolling the tournament after already securing 2 1/2 bounties.

Meanwhile, Hannes Neurauter, who is on top of the Bounty Hunter Days leaderboard is also still in action with a chance to end the year-long leaderboard competition in style with a victory.

Day 1b players just went on a short break. There is still time for last-second entries, however, late registration will be closed after the break.

Blinds will increase to 1,000/1,500 with a big blind ante of 1,500 when the action resumes.

Level 8: 600/1,200 (1,200)
Entries: 159/255

Geoffrey Desclee effectively jammed by tossing out a big pile of 5,000-denominated purple chips with about 60,000 in the pot and the 4 8 10 6 K on the board.

Kamil Skawinski, who had 21,000 left in his stack, went into the tank for several minutes before he opted to fold.

Desclee shared he had two-pair and a player at the table asked him to show. He wasn’t fibbing as he turned over the K 10 . Skawinski breathed a sigh of relief that he was able to save his tournament life even if with a short stack.

Geoffrey Desclee – 200,000
Kamil Skawinski – 21,000

Level 8: 600/1,200 (1,200)
Entries: 158/250

Theodoros Konstantinids four-bet jammed for about 45,000. Mark Vella barely had him covered when he made the call.

Theodoros Konstantinids: A K
Mark Vella: Q Q

The board ran clean for the local hero Vella’s queens with the 10 7 6 J 5 running out on the board to effectively double his stack while sending Konstantinids to the rail.

“Good game,” said Konstantinids after the hand.

“Finally!” Vella said to this reporter as we both know each other from a handful of other poker events in Malta where he lives.

Level 8: 600/1,200 (1,200)
Entries: 166/246

Edvaldas Skyrius checked with the 3 Q 4 6 on the board after the turn with under 10,000 in the pot. Bengt Hallner fired out for 5,500. Skyrius raised to 13,000 and Hallner went into the tank before he opted to jam for around 40,000. Skyrius had his opponent covered and quickly called.

Bengt Hallner: K K
Edvaldas Skyrius: 6 4

Skyrius was far behind before the flop but far ahead when the money went into the pot with his baby two-pair. Hallner still had a few outs to improve to either trips or a better two pair. The 7 river wasn’t one of his outs and Hallner headed to the rail.

Edvaldas Skyrius – 100,000
Bengt Hallner – 0

Level 8: 600/1,200 (1,200)
Entries: 168/246

Level 8 has just kicked off with blinds at 600/1,200 along with a big blind ante of 1,200. This will be the final level of late registration for Day 1b.

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Level 7: 500/1,000 (1,000)
Entries: 170/243

Thomas Langeland opened for 2,200 from the button. Hafpor Sigmundsson three-bet jammed for about 15 big blinds from the big blind and Langeland called.

Hafpor Sigmundsson: K Q
Thomas Langeland: A 4

The Q 7 K flop put Sigmundsson miles ahead with top two pair.

“Nice hand,” said Sigmundsson as he was ready to pay his opponent off.

However, the hand wasn’t quite yet over. Langeland improved to top pair on the A turn but still needed some help. The help he needed came soon after with the 7 river pairing the board to improve Langeland to a better two pair to eliminate Sigmundsson.

Thomas Langeland – 70,000
Hafpor Sigmundsson – 0

A €60 satellite to the Grand Event has just kicked off. Players will have plenty of time to still get in the action with late registration open for eight blind levels.

While many satellites turn into push/fold early on, this one has an amazing structure with 15,000 in starting chips and 20-minute blind levels. Good luck to everyone playing and see some of you in the Grand Event tomorrow.

Level 7: 500/1,000 (1,000)
Entries: 175/241

Tommy Lievens opened for 2,500 from the cutoff and was called by Kato Eliassen from the small blind. Dan Persson squeezed for his stack of 16,500 from the big blind before Lievens came in over the top for around 45,000. Eliassen got out of the way and the cards were turned over.

Dan Persson: A J
Tommy Lievens: K Q

Persson nailed top pair on the 5 4 A flop but had to still sweat a flush draw. Neither the 8 turn nor the 3 river helped Lievens pull ahead and Persson doubled his stack.

After the hand, a player asked Eliassen what he folded.

“I had ace-ten suited,” Eliassen quickly replied as the dealer got ready for the next hand.

Dan Persson – 35,000
Tommy Lievens – 25,000

Level 7: 500/1,000 (1,000)
Entries: 176/237

A player opened for a little more than a min-raise before Davide Bellomonte flatted from the button. Thomas Langeland squeezed from the small blind for his stack of around 25,000. The original opener folded and Bellomonte, who laid a trap, made the easy call.

Thomas Langeland: 7 7
Davide Bellomonte: A A

Nothing fancy happened on the 8 J 8 3 10 board and Langeland was eliminated by Bellomonte.

Several players at the table complimented Bellomonte about his sneaky play with his rockets.

Davide Bellomonte – 140,000
Thomas Langeland – 0

Level 7: 500/1,000 (1,000)
Entries: 175/232

Bellies are full and the Day 1b players are slowly making there way back to their seats with the first hand after the dinner break has already begun.

Level 7: 500/1,000 (1,000)
Entries: 170/227

Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Players are now on a 75-minute dinner break. We will update you during the break with some of the bigger stacks from around the room.

Level 6: 400/800 (800)
Entries: 177/224

There were four players active preflop with about 22,000 already in the pot when three players checked after the 6 3 6 appeared on the flop. Jan Jensen fired out for 13,600 and Matthew Adams jammed for more than 60,000. Two other players got out of the way. Jensen, who had Adams more than covered, called.

Matthew Adams: J J
Jan Jensen: K K

Jensen was far ahead leaving Adams with just two outs. Neither the A turn nor the 2 river helped Adams and Jensen had all his chips.

“Thank you for playing,” Jensen said to Adams after the hand.

Jan Jensen – 260,000
Matthew Adams – 0

Level 6: 400/800 (800)
Entries: 181/224

James Paris and James Limmer both have around double starting stacks and got tangled up in a hand. Limmer fired out for 9,000 into a pot of nearly 15,000 with the 5 2 8 10 8 on the board. Paris went into the tank before he found a call.

Limmer turned over Q J for a bricked flush draw and Paris made the correct hero call with bottom pair with A 2 to win the hand.

James Paris – 115,000
James Limmer – 95,000

We just sat down with Hypno Therapy guru Ilze Zolte who is in Malta with well-known British poker player Craig Smith. She will be hosting a hypno therapy session on Saturday at 11 a.m. We hope to to be awake in time after many long days to attend ourselves.

Why not use the Malta Poker Festival to unlock your true potential and utilize your super-powerful subconscious mind. Ilze Zolte is hosting an exclusive 40-minute hypnosis session designed to provide you with the ultimate edge to mentally prepare you for the tables. 

Ilze has trained with world-renowned hypnotherapists including Elliot Roe, His poker clients (including Fedor Holz) have won over $100,000,000 and nearly every major tournament title, including the World Series of Poker Main Event. 

This is your opportunity to mentally prepare yourself for success and develop an ideal mindset. The world’s best poker players are benefiting from improving their mindset with hypnosis,  so why shouldn’t you?

You will be razor-sharp and focused before you sit down at the table. In the session subconscious “anchors” will be installed to reduce anxieties and stresses going into the game. 

Take back control of your emotions, eradicate limiting beliefs, and become hyper-focused, patient, and confident.

See MPF Founder Ivonne Montealegre for more information and to book your spot.

Level 5: 300/600 (600)
Entries: 190/223

Zlatin Penev jammed for 32,200 with around 50,000 in the pot and the 6 3 8 10 2 on the board.

“How much,” asked Mark Attard.

The dealer counted out the stack and Attard went into the tank for about 3 minutes before he called.

Penev turned over 6 6 . Attard tapped the table before he said “nice hand.”

Shortly after, Attard showed he lost the hand with the best possible preflop hold’em hand with A A .

Zlatin Penev – 110,000
Mark Attard – 35,000

Level 5: 300/600 (600)
Entries: 192/218

Sebastian Mortensen checked with 10,000 in the pot and the 5 10 J 6 on the board after the turn. The action picked up from there. Cheryl Taylor bet 5,000 before Shaun Decesare raised to 12,500. Mortensen came in over the top for 35,000 and Decesare called.

Sebastian Mortensen: Q 9
Shaun Decesare: 5 5

Decesare was in the lead with a set of fives but Mortensen held both a flush draw and an open-ended straight draw for a sweat. Neither of those draws was completed. Instead, the A river completed the board and Mortensen was on the rail.

Mortensen will give today another chance as he immediately got back into the action with a re-entry after losing his first stack.

Shaun Decesare – 113,000
Sebastian Mortensen – 50,000

The numbers are great for the MPF Grand Event with more than 400 entries already including 209 entries already today. But this isn’t the only big event of the day as the €230 Bounty Hunter Days Malta is about to begin at 5 p.m.

We spoke with many players during the first three days of the festival and learned from a handful that they came out special just for the bounty event. It was similar two nights while this reporter was playing the HORSE event as he learned players came as far as New York just for the chance to play a limit event with some of the legends on the island.

Best of luck to everyone hopping into today’s bounty action.

Level 4: 200/400 (400)
Entries: 194/209

James Browne jammed his final 5,500 into a pot of 4,500 with the 4 6 6 on the board after the flop and was called by Eirik Presttun.

James Browne: A 2
Eirik Presttun: 8 8

Browne got out of his chair before he officially lost the hand and his first stack before he bricked both the J turn and 3 river. Although he lost his first bullet of Day 1b, he immediately got back into the action for a fresh stack of 50,000 in chips.

James Browne – 50,000
Eirik Presttun – 45,000

Level 4: 200/400 (400)
Entries: 197/209

Day 1b has already reached 209 entries. This surpasses the impressive turnout on Day 1a which attracted 205 entries.

As we mentioned yesterday, it appears the lofty €500,000 guarantee slapped on the MPF Autumn Edition Grand Event will be met and will likely surpass the 1,014 entries that participated earlier this year during the MPF Spring Edition Grand Event. At this point, it appears to be just be a matter of how big the Malta Poker Festival Grand Event will be.

We earlier mentioned a hand by Roland Boothby, an industry insider working for The Hendon Mob that cares about the players. Another hero just arrived in The Hendon Mob’s Kevin Mathers, better known on Twitter as simply Kevmath.

For well over a decade, Kevmath has provided tons of updates about events taking place mostly in the USA. Even this journalist goes to his Twitter over the years for some breaking news and it was a pleasure to see him after meeting him more than a decade ago.

It picks up a notch for Kevmath during the WSOP where he takes control of their Twitter account and is known as the WSOP Twitter Czar.

Although we will likely not see Kevmath in the Grand Event, our hero will be playing the two-day The Hendon Mob €230 Championship on Oct. 28-29. We wish Kevmath the best of luck when he gets on the tables. For now, it is his first time in Malta so he is exploring the casino with his colleagues and will find time to explore the island after The Hendon Mob Championship.

Level 4: 200/400 (400)
Entries: 192/202

We chatted with several of the players on the break including Shaun Decesare who shared a hand that brought his stack up to 63,000 in chips.

Decesare shared that he flopped a set with eights after it went four-way to the jack-ten-eight flop with two clubs. Decesare bet 1,100 and one of his opponents raised to 4,000. Decesare called and another eight came on the turn to improve Decesare to quads.

Decesare check-called a bet of 9,000 before the nine of clubs completed the board on the river. Both players checked and Decesare shared that he was obviously hoping that his opponent would bet the river in that spot. His opponent mucked his hand after he saw Decesare’s quad eights.

Best of luck to Shaun in his quest for the MPF Grand Event title.

Players are on their first break of Day 1b. Blinds will increase to 200/400 with a big blind ante of 400 when the action resumes.

Level 3: 200/300 (300)
Entries: 185/190

Jonas Degen bet 4,500 into a pot of 7,000 with the Q 3 K and was called by Shukri Saliba. The 6 followed on the turn and Degen bet 11,000. This time, Saliba folded.

Degen showed us that he was bluffing with A J and said we could share the hand.

Jonas Degen – 70,000
Shukri Saliba – 40,000

Last night, Norway’s Glenn Andersen won the €150 MPF One Bullet for €4,475 after making a heads-up deal with Netherlands’ Henricus Bouwmans. Bouwmans also managed to collect €4,475 as part of the deal.

Andersen wasn’t the only Norwegian to go deep as Jonas Engedal finished in third place for €2,750, while Marius Olsvik just missed the podium with a fourth-place performance to bank €2,060.

Here is a look at all of the final table payouts of the MPF One Bullet.

Level 2: 100/200 (200)
Entries: 175/178

Local hero Mark Vella and Christoph Moller both recently hit the rail to leave 175 players remaining out of the 178 entries and counting in the field.

In other news, Oyvind Stangnes just picked off a bluff by Soren Dalgaard as follows:

Dalgaard over-bet the 4,400 pot with the 7 9 Q 8 3 on the board with a bet of 5,200. Stangnes went into the tank while also thinking out loud.

“Maybe he missed his flush draw,” shared Stangnes.

About a minute later, Stangnes opted to call and was pleased with his read.

Dalgaard indeed bricked a flush draw with J 7 and the pot went over to Stangnes after he turned over J J .

Oyvind Stangnes – 53,000
Soren Dalgaard – 40,000

Level 2: 100/200 (200)
Entries: 166/167

Davoud Nikravan was active during yesterday’s Day 1a and was back at it again today with some aggression. Unfortunately, this led to Nikravan becoming the first player to the rail in a hand against Samuel Vaananen.

Vaananen and others at the table relayed how it all went down while we were watching a hand at another table across the room.

Nikravan opened for 1,100 before he called a three-bet by Vaananen to 2,200. Nikravan donk-bet for 5,000 on the king-queen-trey flop and Vaananen called. A ten followed on the turn and Vaananen made an untimely jam for 15,000. Vaananen made the easy call and the cards were turned over.

Davoud Nikravan – Ace-Seven
Samuel Vaananen – Jack-Nine

Vaananen held a straight and had Nikravan drawing dead. A five completed the board on the river and Nikravan was out of chips on his first bullet of the day and his fourth overall after firing the maximum of three bullets yesterday. We wish Nikravan better luck with his fifth try.

Samuel Vaanenen – 72,000
Davoud Nikravan – 50,000

Level 2: 100/200 (200)
Entries: 160/160

Gruselle Loic bet 12,500 into a pot of around 20,000 with the Q K J 4 2 on the board. George Deguara tanked for close to a minute before he opted to call.

Loic turned over A 10 for a Broadway straight. Deguara could have mucked his cards but instead, he showed he flopped the top two pair with K Q .

“Nice hand,” Deguara gentlemanly said to Loic after the hand.

Gruselle Loic – 60,000
George Deguara – 27,000

Level 2: 100/200 (200)
Entries: 150/150

The Day 1b field has blossomed to 150 entries at the start of Level 2. We caught up briefly with The Hendon Mob’s Roland Boothby, who is just above a starting stack. It sounds like it could be more after he shared his third hand of the day.

Boothby shared he had aces when he opened from early position before Craig Rose defended his big blind. Rose check-called a bet of 1,500 by Boothby after the nine-six-three appeared on the flop. Another nine came on the turn that not only paired the board but would have completed a flush draw. This killed the action as both players checked both this and a blank low-card river.

Boothby’s aces were good after Rose turned over kings. Boothby agreed with this reporter when I said this sounds like a hidden bad beat story as normally the pots, even early on, would be massive when it’s aces versus kings.

We wish the best of luck to Boothby as he is one of the poker industry’s heroes. We also look forward to The Hendon Mob €225 Championship taking place as part of The Malta Poker Festival on Oct. 28-29.

Roland Boothby – 55,000
Craig Rose – 43,000

Level 1: 100/100 (100)
Entries: 134/134

Cherly Simmons fired out a bet of 10,000 into a pot of 20,000 with the 2 9 4 3 J already on the board. Joanna Bart, who fired the maximum three bullets unsuccessfully before the first break on Day 1a, went into the tank before finding a call.

Simmons turned over A 5 for the nut-flush. She also was likely good before the river as after the turn she already had the second nuts with a wheel.

Cherly Simmons – 75,000
Joanna Bart – 30,000

Level 1: 100/100 (100)
Entries: 116/116

Don’t be afraid of the title as we aren’t talking about the Grand Event being off to a bad start. In fact, it is off to an amazing start with the Day 1b field already at 116 entries. The title is referring to the following hand.

 Ivar Bruvoll Vamrak bet 3,600 into a pot of around double the amount with the 4 3 10 J Q on the board. Francesco Aru raised to 15,000. Vamrak thought for a few moments before he made the call.

Aru was the first to turn over his cards and showed Q Q for the top set. Vamrak could have mucked his cards but wanted to show he had a set as well with 3 3 and was two-outed on the river.

“Well, that was a bad start,” Vamrak said to the table after the hand.

Level 1: 100/100 (100)
Entries: 106/106

Cards are in the air after introductions by MPF Founder Ivonne Montealegre and the Tournament Director Danilo De Berardinis.

It is looking like a banner turnout even for the first opening flight with the field already at 106 entries and counting with late registration not closing until the start of Level 9.

Welcome back to the PokerListings’ coverage of the 2022 Malta Poker Festival (MPF) Autumn Edition €550 Grand Event Powered by partypoker with the second of five opening flights set to kick off at 2 p.m. CEST.

The €500,000 guarantee on the Grand Event is likely just a placeholder based on yesterday’s Day 1a which attracted a banner field of 205 entries. Daniel Taylor bagged the biggest stack of the 47 survivors and will head to Day 2 with 519,000 in chips.

The Grand Event features five opening flights from Oct. 26-29. Those surviving from any open flights will compete for two more days on Oct. 30-31 until a winner is eventually crowned on Halloween. The first four opening flights, including today’s Day 1b, boast 13 blind levels of 40-minutes each giving players plenty of time to build a massive stack. The final opening flight will be a turbo-charged affair boasting 20-minute blind levels with an ending time to be determined based on the average stack sizes of the other opening flights.

The MPF is all about the players as can be evidenced in the fact that this event doesn’t feature unlimited re-entries and late registration closing at a reasonable time after Level 8 of each day. That being said, if players have some bad luck early on and don’t want to wait for another opening flight to get back into the Grand Event, they can re-enter twice each day before late registration closes.

Those finding a bag during any of the opening flights will enjoy an even deeper structure with 50-minute blinds on Day 2 and even longer 60-minute blind levels on the final day.

Players can also join a contest hosted by PokerDeals where they can win back their €550 buy-in along with plenty of other goodies. There will be flyers with instructions at each table about how to participate.

Day 1b Structure

Day 1b of the MPF Grand Event kicks off at 2 p.m. CEST and is estimated to end about 11 hours later at 1 a.m. Check out the structure for all the opening flights below.

Tons of Side Events

The MPF Grand Event is the cornerstone of the festival. However, there are plenty of side events, satellites, and around-the-clock cash games in different formats and stakes to provide something for every poker player.

In addition to Day 1b of the Grand Event, today will also feature the €230 Bounty Hunter Days Malta at 5 p.m. and a €60 MPF Grand Event satellite at 8 p.m.

Here is a look at the full schedule of the 2022 Malta Poker Festival Autumn Edition:

Our coverage will kick off when cards are in the air for Day 1b shortly after 2 p.m. Stay tuned to PokerListings for all of your updates.