It has been an amazing week at the Portomaso Casino with the partypoker Championship (PPC) Malta coming to the island. The €500,000 guaranteed PPC Malta €550 Main Event is down to its final day on Monday with Italy's Massimo Rossi leading the final 15 players after bagging 3,570,000 in chips.
Rossi is one of the more successful players remaining with more than $200,000 in live tournament earnings according to The Hendon Mob. He is now in line for his biggest live poker tournament cash to date as long as he finishes in fourth place or better.
Even more successful than Rossi is his fellow countrymate Federico Petruzzelli, who ended the day in second place with a stack of 2,390,000. Petruzzelli boasts nearly $600,000 in live tournament earnings and has three six-figure scores to his name.
China's Jingchun Yu (2,380,000), United Kingdom's Oliver Hutchins (2,165,000), and Poland's Mariusz Lewoniewski (2,005,000) round out the top five heading into Day 3.
The tournament itself boasted tons of value for those that cashed with 848 entries coming 152 short of meeting the lofty €500,000 guarantee. This correlates to a €76,000 overlay with those advancing to Day 3 taking the lion's share of that.
Sunday night also featured an amazing party for the players at the Portomaso Level 22 Club with drinks flowing all night to go along with amazing views. PokerListings will share photos from the event in Monday's live reporting coverage.
End-of-Day 2 Chip Counts
| Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
| Massimo Rossi | Italy | 3,570,000 | 60 |
| Federico Petruzzelli | Italy | 2,390,000 | 40 |
| Jingchun Yu | China | 2,380,000 | 40 |
| Oliver Hutchins | United Kingdom | 2,165,000 | 36 |
| Mariusz Lewoniewski | Poland | 2,005,000 | 33 |
| Damir Savio | Croatia | 1,900,000 | 32 |
| Simone Lombardo | Italy | 1,885,000 | 31 |
| Federico Cirillo | Italy | 1,715,000 | 29 |
| Nicolas Plantin | France | 1,500,000 | 25 |
| Wouter Schuurbiers | Belgium | 1,430,000 | 24 |
| Andrea Bettini | Italy | 1,165,000 | 19 |
| Bradley Gudgeon | United Kingdom | 1,090,000 | 18 |
| Lukasz Fraczek | Poland | 1,070,000 | 18 |
| Giuseppe DiBella | Italy | 710,000 | 12 |
| Victor Allain | France | 495,000 | 8 |
| Total | 25,470,000 | 425 | |
| Average | 1,698,000 | 28 |
2022 PPC Malta Main Event Remaining Payouts
Each of the 128 players that advanced to Day 2 was already guaranteed at least a €1,000 min-cash with much more to come for many of the group.
The top 15 players each guaranteed at least €4,500 whether they return to their seats or not for Day 3 with tomorrow's winner slated to take home a whopping €81,000 and the coveted PPC Malta Main Event trophy.
| Place | Prize |
| 1 | €81,000 |
| 2 | €51,000 |
| 3 | €31,000 |
| 4 | €21,000 |
| 5 | €16,000 |
| 6 | €13,000 |
| 7 | €10,000 |
| 8 | €8,000 |
| 9 | €6,400 |
| 10-12 | €5,000 |
| 13-15 | €4,500 |
The action will resume tomorrow at 1 p.m. CEST with the final 12 minutes of Level 31 with blinds at 30,000/60,000 along with a big blind ante of 60,000. After this level, blinds will increase every hour as opposed to the 40-minute levels featured on Day 2 and the 30-minute levels during most of the live opening flights.
Stay tuned at PokerListings to follow along on the final day of the PPC Malta Main Event. Although Rossi holds the overnight chip lead, it is anyone's game.
