The partypoker Championship (PPC) Malta was hopping at the Portomaso Casino with the €500,000 Guaranteed PPC Malta €550 Main Event featuring both Day 1c and Day 1d.
Day 1c attracted 168 entries with 26 survivors while Day 1d, which PokerListings was live reporting, boasted 162 entries with 25 survivors. This brings the field up to 735 entries with 111 survivors when taking into account the previous opening flights held both at partypoker, in Milan, and at Portomaso Casino with one more turbo opening flight to go.
In other words, there is a huge overlay alert thanks to the lofty €500,000 guarantee and there will be huge value for anyone that enters into Day 1e kicking off at 10:30 a.m. For some, this might be too early but the good news is that late registration will be open until approximately 1 p.m when Level 10 is scheduled to end.
Claudio Gangemi bagged the Day 1c chip lead with a stack of 479,000 but this pales in comparison to the 584,000 in chips that Simone Lombardo accumulated during Day 1d.
Lombardo isn't going to be the chip leader going into Day 2 as there is one player ahead of him with Christoph Erbler virtually bagging 700,596 during an online opening flight held at partypoker in March.
Day 1d Chip Counts
| Player | Chips |
| Simone Lombardo | 584,000 |
| Mark Vella | 394,000 |
| Vicken Maghakian | 279,000 |
| Lars Fuss | 266,500 |
| Charlo Azzopardi | 271,000 |
| Cory Desmond | 246,000 |
| Oliver Said | 238,500 |
| Dean Perry | 232,000 |
| Mikael Viggander | 220,000 |
| Marco Dessena | 211,000 |
| Zlatin Penev | 204,000 |
| Mauro Alessi | 202,000 |
| Ivan Furniet | 178,000 |
| Alessandro De Michele | 161,000 |
| Alessandro Siena | 161,000 |
| Federico Petruzzelli | 144,500 |
| Roberto Ferroni | 141,500 |
| Giovanna DiMartino | 140,500 |
| Luigi Soldati | 124,000 |
| Bruno Basile | 105,500 |
| Alessandro Manfredini | 100,500 |
| Clint Sammut | 100,000 |
| Giorgio Incatasciato | 87,000 |
| Athanasios Theodoropoulos | 73,000 |
| Francesco Grande | 69,500 |
Day 2 Begins at 2:30 p.m.
All surviving players will resume action on Sunday, April 3 at 2:30 p.m. CEST at Portomaso Casino. It is possible that there will be a delayed start depending on how quickly the turbo Day 1e ends. As a reminder, there is an almost certainty that there will be some overlay, providing not only great value to those looking for a last-minute ticket via Day 1e which begins at 10:30 a.m. CEST but also to all those that already bagged a stack.
Day 2 survivors will compete for one more day on Monday, April 4 until a winner is crowned. PokerListings will be reporting the final two days starting on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. CEST, so be sure to tune back into our dedicated 2022 PPC Malta Main Event blog.
