2023 partypoker MILLIONS Day 3

Luciano Borghetti, already for a long while in the poker industry, was the first one to act and he had his cards in front of him, but just over the line. It seemed that he usually plays like that. He did however play with chips as well and put a pile of around 8 to 10 chips of 100,000 each across the line and place them on the table, and picking them up quickly again.

The dealer called the floor, and the floor ruled it would be a call of the big bling, for 250,000. Small Blind limped in, and the big blind checked.

Flop came [Qx][5x][5x], flop was some action, turn arrived a [3x]. After both players checked, they saw the [Kx] river. On which it went all-in. Borghetti showed [Kx][10x], but Ritrovato showed [9x][5x] for a flopped 3-of-a-kind.

Montagnolli was on the big blind and saw the button opening the action. The small blind limped in, and Montagnolli decided it was time to shove it all-in for his 9M stack. The button went out of the way, but Nastasi made the call.

Nastasi: A Q

Montagnolli: 3 3

We were off to the races and it would become a photo finish! The flop came K 6 4 . Nothing wrong for Montagnolli just yet, but it became worse when the board paired with the 6 . The river would bust Montagnolli out of the tournament 4 .

He would have hoped it to be different today, where he also busted out of the WCOOP 1K Main Event Day 2.

• Favalaro was all-in and at risk against Azzipardi, and it would turn out to be a classic flip. Jacks for Favalaro and Azzipardi with Ace-Queen. The board remaining low ball, and Favalaro chipped up to 7M.

• The action went extremely fast but we saw Ferro doubling up with A 8 . His two-pair on the flop held up until the board was fully dealt. He would move up to 6M chips.
• We would also have a bust out! Azzipardi went out in 12th place against Eros Nastasi. His Ace-King could not win from the pocket 8’s of Nastasi who would catapult himself into the lead. He plays around 17M chips.

Blinds: 100,000/200,000/200,000

Players: 13/2,327

The two table captains are Pierre Azzopardi from Malta, and Jacques Blit from Argentina. Both are playing roughly 15M chips at the moment.

Angelo Patana re-raised from the big blind against an open from the button. Button went out of the way, but the small blind moved suddenly all-in, on which Patana made the call. It was the a classing Ace-King against Ace-King for a lot of chips, and Patana was the one at risk.

Patana asked the dealer for a rainbow flop. But two clubs appeared on the flop, followed by two more clubs on the turn and the river, giving a flush to Blit from Argentina. A massive pot going into the direction of the world champion of football.

Just like in Football, Italians can have a bit of a temper, and Patana kicked away a chair from the table before leaving to the cash out desk.

We are playing blinds 75,000/150,000/150,000 and Fausto went all-in from UTG for 2,125,000. The player on the button decided to just make the call, leaving behind 5M. Then it all kicked off, when Andrea Benelli from the big blind announced to reshove all-in for 4,650,000.

After some thinking, Caravaglio who was at the button, decided to make the call and we would get a massive showdown:

Fausto Tantillo: 10 10

Caravaglio Q K

Benelli Q Q

The overall punt would be around 12M chips!

Every missed on the board with 7 2 A 8 8 and Benelli made a fist pump to celebrate his big win.

Angelo Patane was at rish with his Ace-King against the King-Ten of Maltese last survivor Pierre Azzopardi. The best hand would remain the best hand after the board completed and Patane chipped up to 4M chips.

Adam Owen was at risk with A K and we saw his opponent was about to go clubbing. With the whole board completed and Jacques Blit had the goods with A 6 . It was dealt Q 3 10 J 5 .

We lose hereby one of the most fearsome remaining players, having cashed for over $3,5M lifetime in live tournament poker.

Luciano Borghetti went all-in preflop for what looked like about 2,000,000 in chips. His neighbour, Khazaradze, made quickly the call and after the rest went out of the way, it was time to for a showdown:

Borghetti: A K

Khazaradze: K K

On the flop, Borghetti already would take the lead A 3 5 , and with the 2 on the turn, there were still chances for Khazaradze to stay alive, but the 6 appeared on the river and it was end of story for the player from Georgia.

The bust out already happened, but we understood that Tantillo had pocket Jacks and won on a Queen-High board. Tantillo chips up to 5,000,000.

We are playing down to 8 players OR we are playing four more levels of each 60 minutes.

We joined the action when the board ran out 3 Q 2 10 until the turn. Owen lead the dance with a bet to 800,000 into a pot of around 2M. Favaloro put Owen to the test and made the jam. On which Owen went strongly into the tank, before mucking his cards.

With this hand, we have a new sheriff in town.

Yohan: Q 2

Bellanger: A K

Opponent: K J

Bellanger had them both covered by far, so we could have a potential double bust out here.

The board decided differently, and let just one of them bust out of the tournament.

Board: 10 8 5 Turn Q River 2

We will keep track on the bust outs in this post.

*Prizes exclude min cash of 900 Euro.

Place	Prize (Euro)	Country	Player Name
# 1	144,100.00
# 2	85,100.00
# 3	60,100.00
# 4	44,100.00
# 5	30,100.00
# 6	19,600.00
# 7	13,600.00
# 8	10,800.00
# 9	9,200.00
# 10	7,520.00
# 11	7,520.00
# 12	6,350.00		AZZOPARDI PIERRE
# 13	6,350.00		PORTO DARIO
# 14	5,550.00		PATANE ANGELO
# 15	5,550.00		CARAVAGLIO LUCA
# 16	4,800.00		TANTILLO FAUSTO
# 17	4,800.00		HOPPER PAUL DARCY
# 18	4,300.00		THEVENET THIBAUT MAEL
# 19	4,300.00		DODY YOAN
# 20	4,300.00		OWEN ADAM
# 21	3,800.00		HANSEN OLE
# 22	3,800.00		KHAZARADZE IVANE
# 23	3,800.00		GIOVANNI LA ROSA
# 24	3,300.00		CLARK BHAJA NELSON
# 25	3,300.00		ANDERSON GRANT
# 26	3,300.00		BELLANGER THOMAS
# 27	3,300.00		CALLEJA BRIAN
# 28	2,900.00		SUTERA GIOVANNI
# 29	2,900.00		LACIS DZINTARS
# 30	2,900.00		TREDICI GIUSEPPE
# 31	2,900.00		RODRIQUENZ MARCO LUIS
# 32	2,500.00		CROBU ANDREA
# 33	2,500.00		LIMONTA VALTER
# 34	2,500.00		BENAKIS PAVLOS
# 35	2,500.00		ASSENNATO FABIO
# 36	2,500.00		IONNIS NIKOLAOS
# 37	2,500.00		LEOTTA ANTONINO
# 38	2,500.00		SANTORO ALBERTO
# 39	2,500.00		Colli Stefano

The table just broke after I noted the chip counts. So players are divided across the other tables now.

Country	Player Name	Chip Count
	CARAVAGLIO LUCA	3,000,000
	LACIS DZINTARS	1,500,000
	CLARK BHAJA NELSON	4,400,000
	PORTO DARIO	875,000
	EROS NASTASI	800,000
	MANSOUR MARIOS	6,500,000

Level 32: 40,000/80,000/80,000

Players: 36/2237

Average: 3,100,000

Country	Player Name	Chip Count
	BORGHETTI LUCIANO	4,800.000
	BENAKIS PAVLOS	2,000,000
	KESKITALO JUUSO MATIAS	6,000,000
	HOPPER PAUL DARCY	2,700,000
	ANDERSON GRANT	2,000,000
	FERRO MASSIMILIANO	8,000,000
	TANTILLO FAUSTO	4,100,000

• The amounts are excluding 900 euro, which they already received.

Marco Patana started off as chip leader today with 5,550,000 in chips. We are roughly two hours later, and he is one of the shorter stacks of the field.

• Lost [Qx][9x] against A 8 when being all-in on turn. He turned three-of-a-kind and got a two-outer against him on the river as his opponent made a bigger full-house.
• Just recently, he lost [Ax][Kx] against [Ax][Qx], when a Queen landed on the river.

He did lose another big all-in, but we do not have any information about the hands.

Ferro just took down a reasonable pot which brings him into the lead of the tournament, as he is playing now close to 8,000,000 in chips. He busted out Gaspare Sposato who had turned himself two-pair (King-Seven). Ferro however, had made flush on the river with his 10 9 .

While I was trying to note down some chip counts, action unfolded at a couple tables. It is local Brian Calleja who busted out Romanian Pavle Pecelj from the tournament when his A K made a flush on the turn, while be all-in preflop.

We got to see pocket Aces cracked twice! in a few minutes time.

• Another Maltese, Pierre Azzopardi, got lucky with a runner-runner with his [Kx][10x] against Aces, making a straight.
• Luciano Borghetti had also [Kx][10x] and made a runner-runner as well! to make a straight.

Kucerusk, a latvian poker player who made it through to Day 3 of this Grand Prix event in Malta just got busted out of the tournament. Leaving his fellow countryman Dzintars Lacis as the only Latvian survivor in this spectacle.

He was all-in with A 8 against the 10 Q of Samuel Olava Quesada. The flop have 10 10 6 , and Kucerusk could not find that one miracle to stay alive.

With the pot odds calculator you can define these all-in situations in percentages.

Eros Nastasi, one of the many Italians out here, just got a massive pile of chips pushed towards him as he busted out a player with powerful play.

• Nastasi was at the Small Blind, and made a 3-bet to 400,000. His opponent made the call and both saw the flop of 6 J 3 . First one to act, Nastasi, continued for 350,000 which got quickly called. The turn Q made Nastasi put in the tank, before barrelling through with 525,000. His opponent thought for a bit, and announced himself to be all-in. It was not much which Nastasi had to add to it to make the call, and so he did.

Nastasi: Q 9

Opponent: A J

The river was neither of his opponent’s cards, and Nastasi chipped up to approximately 5,000,000 in chips.

We arrived at table #1 where Montagnolli was involved in a battle with Marco Patane. With 200,000 in the pot, it was Montagnolli who lead the flop of 5 Q A with a bet of 100,000. Patana, who was on the big blind position, opted to reraise that bet up to 350,000, which quickly got called by Montagnolli. Both players saw the Q land on the turn. Montagnolli check-raised all-in for his remaining 775,000 chips and got instantly called by Patane, Montagnolli was in bad shape:

Montagnolli: A 8

Patana: Q 9

You can see it coming when reading the title of this post…. The A arrived on the river!

Gutted feeling for Patana, and Montagnolli ramps up to over 2,000,000 chips.

Rares-Aurelian Bodea is the first player who got knocked out on Day 3 of the Grand Prix. He got it in with [Ax][Jx], but was up against Aces. His opponent held up, and Bodea is out.

The Mystery Bounty event where 9 players will be in the money, and will battle for the bounty rewards, will be the feature event of today. It will be streamed live on the usual Social Media channels. We keep you informed once it’s live! (Same counts for the Mystery Bounty rewards)

Prize Pool:

Place	Country	Player Name	Chip Count	Table #	Seat #
#1		XANTHOPOULOS PAVLOS	211,000	2	1
#2		MOLENAAR MICHEL	149,500	1	9
#3		POHJALAINEN VILLE	147,500	2	8
#4		EVANGELISTA GIACOMO	142,000	3	2
#5		AKADIRI KOLADE CHARLES	123,000	1	8
#6		GEORGIOU EFTYCHIOS	122,000	2	5
#7		RAHAL ANTOINE	121,000	3	9
#8		FAUSZT JOZSEF	95,000	1	6
#9		MLINARIK GYORGY	91,000	3	3
#10		DONALDSON JASON	89,500	2	9
#11		BARRON NEIL PETER G	83,000	2	4
#12		BUSTOS MATHIAS	79,000	2	7
#13		CARUSO SALVATORE	72,500	3	4
#14		FABRE MATHEO	58,000	1	5
#15		PRENCIPE HERMES	53,500	3	6
#16		HYSENBELLI RENATO	46,000	1	4
#17		NAPOLI ROBERTO	42,000	3	7
#18		PORCINO ALFREDO	33,000	1	2
#19		OLIVIERI ENRICO	29,000	1	1
#20		FINGLAND SCOTT	25,000	3	1
#21		PRIVITERA ANTONIO	22,000	2	3

The Malta Grand Prix Day 3 will receive the starting signal at 4:00 PM CET. 67 players are still in the competition for the coveted first prize of no less than € 144,000, and the fabulous trophy that comes with it. We are fully charged and ready to give you finally real poker action insights, including hand summaries, chip counts, player profiles, interviews, and more.

If you have specific players you would like to follow a bit more closely, don’t hesitate to reach out to us!