Recap partypoker Grand Prix – Day 3
A total of 67 players were to return for Day 3 of the Grand Prix Malta here at Portomaso Casino, powered by partypoker LIVE. Everyone already secured themselves a min-cash and were all ready to hunt for the glorious first prize of €144,000. An amazing first prize, thanks to the prize pool which surpassed the €1M mark. We were fully prepared again for yet another long day at the office, where the players would start their live poker grind from 16:00 CET local time. In the poker room on the ground floor, the always professional Portomaso Casino staff made sure that the area for the Grand Prix event was not accessible for players to come to watch directly near the tables.
Set names in the poker community such as Adam Owen, Andrea Benelli, and Nastasi Eros would all try and find compatible stacks to apply plenty of pressure to the remaining field. There would be also the conclusion of the €1,100 Mystery Bounty and a couple of other side events such as 8-Game and the live version of the online poker tournament 'The Predator'.
Day 3 Grand Prix
Due to the great structure in terms of days of poker here in Malta, we would have a total of four days full of poker at the partypoker Grand Prix event. Of course, the opening flights were multiple days, but throughout the second day, into day three, it would all go very smoothly. The remaining 67 players were all focused on trying to reach the final day of the event, and to have a clear shot at the glorious title of this Grand Prix event and the €144,000 that comes with it. Nine players would remain in the contest for the final day, of which the last eight would eventually reach the official final table. It will all be streamed with a delay of 30 minutes on various channels, and we are live blogging until the very end with our PokerListings live blog. Make sure to tune in on our website to not miss any of the action!
Adam Owen was perhaps the most fearsome player left in the field of 67 remaining players. Even though he has quite some resume build up through his poker career, it is definitely not a given fact that he would be here just to win the event like it was nothing. We already saw many big names biting the dust throughout the event. Names such as Luca Pagano would not make it far into the tournament. Speaking of which, Italians are dominating this whole event from top to bottom, and throughout Day 3 it would be no different.
Eros Nastasi tops the remaining pack of players at the end of the gameplay, having shown true poker skills throughout the whole day. Not once he was at risk for his whole tournament life, and he chose very calculated all the right spots to chip up. Juuso Keskitalo, a friendly giant from Finland, and mainly a cash game and online player, also made it through to the final nine players. The Fin, who resides in Malta, created a great spot to get his name in the history books here at Portomaso Casino, and for sure the enthusiastic Maltese poker fans will be chanting his name throughout the final day of the event.
Adam Owen, which we followed closely during the days, just didn’t make it till the end. Going out in absolute fashion when his A K was not good against the A 6 of his opponent. The board would run out with five clubs, leaving him a single outer on the river with the 9 for a straight flush. Unfortunately, that didn’t appear, so we lost him just prior to the end of the day.
Players of the final day of the event will be playing for the following prizes:
| # 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 |
Italian Passion
All week long, the Italian poker players were highly present in the tournament. Just like with football, the Italian culture pops up at the poker tables as well. They just have this tiny bit more passion than others, which resulted in a lot of encouraging shouting at the tables when they won a hand, and the visible disappointment when they dropped out of the tournament. Luciano Borghetti came in tough spot in the last hand, where he doubled up Salvatore Ritrovato. Ritrovato, another player who is as furniture here at the poker rooms in Malta, was immersed with luck as Borghetti was forced to call the big blind pre-flop due to a handling matter when he placed a couple of chips over the line while playing with his chips. Borghetti lost half of his stack due to this error, but he is still in the mix for the apotheose of this Grand Prix event.
We got informed that three of the nine remaining players are from Messina in Italy. A big rail is expected for the final table, and when you are following the stream, you might often hear the passion of the Italians for the sport that poker is.
Live Blog Information
If you want to relive Day 3 of the event, make sure to check out the PokerListings live blog from Day 2. It gives you some great insights into the event and will ramp up to the moment supreme, which kicks off today at 14:00 CET local time. With the live blog, we will take note of the delay of the live stream as well, so all poker action in the blog will be with a delay of 30 minutes compared to the real time.
| Rank | Country | Player Name | Chip Count | Table | Seat |
| #1 |  | EROS NASTASI | 23,125,000 | 1 | 4 |
| #2 |  | BLIT JACQUES AMMIEL | 18,150,000 | 2 | 7 |
| #3 |  | KESKITALO JUUSO MATIAS | 17,900,000 | 2 | 6 |
| #4 | | MARCELLO FAVALORO | 15,675,000 | 1 | 8 |
| #5 | | BENELLI ANDREA | 8,000,000 | 2 | 8 |
| #6 | | FERRO MASSIMILIANO | 7,050,000 | 1 | 6 |
| #7 | | RITROVATO SALVATORE | 6,975,000 | 1 | 7 |
| #8 |  | Mansour Marios | 6,550,000 | 2 | 3 |
| #9 | | Borghetti Luciano | 2,900,000 | 1 | 2 |
