Recap partypoker MILLIONS Malta – Day 1C in the Books, and Lybaert Takes the High Roller Title!
We write Thursday 28th of September, where day 1c of the € 1M guaranteed Grand Prix event was on the schedule. Eventually, 151 entries were added to the 430 entries done on days 1a and 1b, bringing the total of the live opening flights to 581. Eventually, Italian player Daniel Montagnolli (1,063,000) bagged most of the chips at the end of the day, followed by Israeli player Eran Cohen (763,000).
Only 15% of the field was about to get qualified for the second day of the event, so players could expect a long day of live poker ahead. For the high-roller players in Europe and beyond, busy times are approaching with online events going on all over the place, but here at the partypoker MILLIONS they would have their chance to shine as well with the Hydra High Roller being played out to a winner. Registration was still open until the start of the second day of that event, and a handful of players including Dzmitry Urbanovich made use of that option. Teun Mulder from The Netherlands had taken the chip lead after the first day, being one of the players here in Malta with astonishing results throughout his career.
Grand Prix Day 1c
Where the first two opening flights were discounted for a buy-in of € 400 instead of the usual € 550, day 1c could be considered the first real opening flight of this event. With an amazing prize pool of € 1M, players worldwide would want to be part of it as it is one of the biggest valued tournaments in this category. 151 of these players, found their way to Portomaso Casino for day 1c and were all aiming to bag and tag their chips by the end of the day.
Amongst these players, we got interesting names passing by such as the founder of the Malta Poker Festival; Ivonne Montealegre. Another grand name in the mix, Dario Barone, who had won the Battle of Malta earlier this year, was trying to build himself momentum on this day for yet another great run in a Main Event. One name which we didn’t particularly expect here, was Adam Owen. Mainly because of his speciality being mixed games of course.
Austrian Daniel Montagnolli had one of the runs that all players are hoping for throughout a poker tournament, resulting in the chip lead of day 1c. Halfway through the day, it didn’t look like that, especially when his Kings could not with from King-Queen, bringing the board eventually a split pot.
Here Are the Chip Counts of Day 1c:
| Place | Country | Player Name | Chip Count |
| #1 |  | MONTAGNOLLI DANIEL | 1,063,000 |
| #2 |  | COHEN ERAN | 763,000 |
| #3 |  | GRISA LUIGI MARIO | 715,000 |
| #4 |  | BRUCE DILLAN LEE | 644,000 |
| #5 |  | KATHRI BHAVIN | 606,000 |
| #6 | | SQUILLACI FRANCESCO | 522,000 |
| #7 |  | KHAZARADZE IVANE | 401,000 |
| #8 | | BARONE DARIO | 269,000 |
| #9 |  | ZACHARAKIS EMMANOUIL | 269,000 |
| #10 | SUNJEVARAIC ALEKSANDAR | 258,000 | |
| #11 | | TARANTINI MAURO | 235,000 |
| #12 | | PETRONI GIOVANNI | 221,000 |
| #13 | | MATAR MICHAEL NAGY | 215,000 |
| #14 | | ASSENNATO FABIO | 192,000 |
| #15 | | SIMONE ALFONSO | 190,000 |
| #16 | | LEVENE NICKY | 174,000 |
| #17 | | GIUFRE EMANUELE | 138,000 |
| #18 | | SCHULTZ RICO | 136,000 |
| #19 | | MERENDINO SALVATORE | 117,000 |
| #20 |  | SALOBEHAJ EDISON | 116,000 |
| #21 | | MARANO ALESSANDRO | 102,000 |
| #22 | | BARRON NEIL | 101,000 |
| #23 | | OWEN ADAM | 64,000 |
Hydra High Roller
One of the High Roller events here at the partypoker MILLIONS was the € 5,300 Hydra High Roller event, which attracted 40 players on the first day of the event. With late registration open until the start of Day 2, another 4 players would be added to the list, all looking to capture the first prize of € 72,864.
Only six players would make it to the money, and chip leader Teun Mulder was in for two bullets already. Throughout the whole day, another Dutchman, Michel Molenaar, would find himself at the top of the chip counts. Bart Lybaert, perhaps one of the best-known players of Belgium, also came down to Malta to show his skills at the tables, and eventually would overpower all of them to take home this glorious event, defeating Molenaar heads-up.
Other notable names who attended this event were Dzmitry Urbanovich, Dominik Nitsche, Matt Staples, and Jonathan Abdellatif. Unfortunately for them, they would not make it to the money. With another high roller on the schedule with the €3,000 partypoker MILLIONS Tournament, we will perhaps see them back tomorrow.
| Place | Country | Player Name | Prize |
| #1 |  | LYBAERT BART | €72,864 |
| #2 |  | MOLENAAR MICHEL | €49,632 |
| #3 |  | GRISA LUIGI MARIO | €31,680 |
| #4 | | MULDER TEUN | €24,288 |
| #5 |  | JATTIN FARRID | €17,952 |
| #6 |  | MARGETZ PEREZ LEONOR | €14,784 |
Friday Schedule
The schedule includes two opening flights for the Grand Prix event, with the first one starting at 12:00 CET, and the second one starting at 18:00 CET. Besides two satellite tournaments being included on Friday as well, there is also Day 1B of the MILLIONS event and a €300 Single-Day turbo NLH event. Make sure to follow all the action on our partypoker MILLIONS live blog, which gives you exclusive insights into this majestic event, and will keep you informed about the results of many great names out here in Malta.
