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Summer Face/Off Live Satellite - Week 4
The 4th Satellite tournament for the Malta Summer Face/Off Tournament took place at the Dragonara Casino on Wednesday 12th May 2010. In this tournament 22 players got together and went head to head in a €37 + €3 freeze-out competing for the €300 + €30 main event tickets as their prize.
6 prizes were given out throughout the tournament which ...]]>
23 minutes ago Summer Face/Off Live Satellite - Week 4 The 4th Satellite tournament for the Malta Summer Face/Off Tournament took place at the Dragonara Casino on Wednesday 12th May 2010. In this tournament 22 players got together and went head to head in a €37 + €3 freeze-out competing for the €300 + €30 main event tickets as their prize. 6 prizes were given out throughout the tournament which was taken down by Vincenzo Amato and Nicolas Jouannic who will each be joining the poker action at the Summer Face Off €300 + €30 tournament between the 28th and the 30th May 2010 at the Dragonara Casino. The buy-in for the satellite was €37 + €3 and participating players are benefitting from a buy-in refund courtesy of XLBet.com, online partners for the Summer Face/Off event. Players were given 5,000 chips as their starting stack to play out in a structure which saw blinds increase every 20 minutes. Early in the tournament an interesting hand took place between Andrew Cutajar and Ivan Farrugia, when both players hit a straight, with Cutajar having the higher straight with his K high. Ivan was on a Q high straight, however the turn showed a K which resulted into a split pot, and a second chance for Ivan who would have been out of the tournament hadn’t it been for the turn card King. The first player out of the tournament was Michael Curmi, who, whilst holding a pocket 5’s went heads up against T.Tortomasi. Tortomasi was holding pocket rockets [AA] which kept their strength throughout the flop, turn and river, sending out Curmi at around 21:15Hrs. By 21:30, players were back from their first break with Vincenzo Amato in a clear lead. Blinds were now at the 100/200 level with 25 chips going out as antes. At this stage, Amato’s lead was followed by Andrew Camilleri and Nicolas Jouannic and 19 players were still in the game. With a total of 22 players in the tournament the prize structure was as follows: Another interesting hand which saw three players go against each other gave Joe Mangion a massive chip top-up, when he went up against Andrew Tabone on the Big Blind, and Thomas Tinglev holding AK. Thomas pushed and got called by Andrew [AK] and Mangion [QQ]. Mangion’s hand kept it’s strength when the flop showed 34737 and he quickly went up to over 250% of his stack after the hand. Tinglev was still in the game yet his stackgot relatively damaged in this hand which also saw Andrew Tabone exit the tournament. Running with a below average stack, Wayne Borg took his chances at a run-in with Nicolas Jouannic. Wayne was holding A5 vs. Jouannic’s TT. Blinds were at the 500/1000 level and it seemed like the last resort for Wayne to call Jouannic’s push, which dominated Wayne’s hand sending him out as the Bubble. All the remaining players were now ‘in the money’ The next player out of the tourney was dominated by Joe Mangion, one of the better stacked players at the table, who held AK when he went against Stephen Spiteri’s snowmen [88]. Joe hit a King on the flop immediately putting him in the lead, which he maintained throughout the river. Stephen lost his entire stack of 7,000 chips to Joe Mangion. Joe was now officially one of the Big Boys at the table. An interesting hand between Nicolas Jouannic and Amato, saw Amato push All in with his 12,000 chips. Jouannic called with a pair of ducks [22] but his hand was not strong enough to hold up against Amato’s K which paired up with another King on the Flop. Nicolas lost a sizeable portion of his chip stack to Amato who was now a ‘bigger force’ at the table. By 12:15am, the blinds were at 800/1600 and 200 were being paid out by players as antes. The 4 remaining players were led by Klint Berg, followed by Joe Mangion and Vincenzo Amato while Nicolas Jouannic was trailing in at a not so distant 4th. Within a few hands Nicolas also managed to regain position which saw the tables turn and Joe Mangion move into 4th from his positioning in 2nd a few hands earlier. Mangion’s stack started deteriorating at a faster rate, when he finally reached the bottom with his pair of 2’s against Klint Berg’s 55. Joe was on the button in this hand holding around 3,000 chips. He called a 10,000 bet from Klint but his cards did not get any stronger resulting in his exit from the tournament in 4th place. The next few hands saw Amato increase his stack considerably when in one particular hand, he re-raised Berg’s 10K bet by an additional 15K. We never got to see the player’s hole cards as both players folded their hands, althought It didn’t seem worth it for Berg to call a re-raise of that size at such a pivotal point of the tournament. Amato was now up to 43,000 chips and the monster at the table when he pushed in the final hand of the game with his TT which got called by Berg. Amato’s hand was the prevailing one after the dealer showed a 6Q54J on the felt, sending out Berg in 3rd position, ending the game with Amato in first, and Jouannic in second, both winning their entry to the Malta Poker Summer Face/Off €300 + €30 tournament. The Summer Face/Off Main Event tournament is taking place at the Dragonara Casino between the 28th and the 30th May 2010. Players are encouraged to pick their starting days, Day 1A or Day 1B as early as possible, since many players have already started giving indications of their preferred starting days. You may register for the €300 + €30 Summer Face/Off Poker tournament by buying in directly at the Dragonara Casino, or by participating at the final two live satellites taking place at the Dragonara Casino on the 19th May and the 26th May. Seats for the Summer Face/Off tournament are limited, so make sure you register early to participate in Malta’s hottest Poker Tournament in Summer 2010! Malta Poker Events and the Dragonara Casino, hosted their 3rd live satellite tournament, last night, Wedensday 5th May 2010 in attendance of the €300 + €30 Summer Face/Off Poker tournament which is taking place between the 28th and the 30th May 2010, at the Dragonara Casino. A group of poker players gathered up at the Dragaonra Casino for the 3rd week of poker action offered by Malta Poker Events at the centrally located Dragonara along the coast of St. Julians. The live No Limit Hold’em freezout started at 20:00Hrs and featured a €37+ €3 buy-in which presented players with a chance of winning their seat to the Summer face/off tourney. Additional prizes included live satellite seats for next week’s tournament and as part of the Summer Face/Off promo all participants enjoyed a €40 refund of their buy-in which is being generously provided by XLBet.com Needless to say, 1st prize winner Steve Caruana also gave a very strong performance which began right from the start of the tourney when he tripled up taking out Ray Bonnici and Christopher Sammut about 45 minutes after the game kicked off. Following the deal of the flop, Steve started out the hand by betting a 3x bet which Chris Sammut called with his K7. Ray Bonnici, who held a KJ pushed all in following Chris’s bet, only to be called by Steve holding KQ, who had hit a straight on the flop, taking out both players at once snatching the chiplead while dong so. Steve progressed to maintaining a strong chip position throughout the tourney with a series of well placed calls, raises, and calculated folds, seemingly taking risks only when he felt them absolutely necessary, and guarded his position all throughout the tourney. The final hand came about when Steve Caruana raised 3,600 whilst on the button and holding Q10 vs. Andrew who re-raised all-in with his K5. Steve Caruana called Andrew’s bet and keenly watched the dealer as she uncovered 9 4 J 2 Q giving Steve a pair of Queens and the 1st prize for his performance throughout the event and sending out Andrew Cutajar in 2nd place. Andrew Cutajar’s placing also entitled him to a prize consisting of a seat to another live event in the upcming weeks. Following the freeze-out satellite, some players joined in on a cash game table which had been set-up midway throughout the night for players who exited the tournament prematurely. The current schedule for the Summer Face/Off is Wednesday nights at the Dragonara Casino. Tournaments start at 20:00hrs sharp and usually last till 23:30 – 00:00 hrs. The next edition of the live satellites will take place on the 12th May and will feature a Buy-in of €37+3. Cash tables are also scheduled for ring players.
Host: Malta Poker Events 7 Poker players were paid out at the end of the poker tourney which had Dave Meli in first place winning €3,000 for his efforts. Meli protected his stack and took it up to over 180,000 when he started the heads up on the final table against Sergei Cutajar who placed in second, winning himself €2,100. Utilising an extremely aggressive heads up strategy, Meli managed to take over Cutajar’s stack and win himself the title of ‘Poker King of November 2009’. This is Meli’s second consecutive win in the end of month tourneys, after he placed fourth in last months Halloween €220 tournament taking home €1250 winning a total €4250 in the last two events. - Dave Meli Some action from the final table – With the blinds at the 12th level at 1,500/3,000 + 300 antes, Kevin price pushed all-in holding A10. Kevin was quite low stacked at this stage yet took his chances with a relatively strong hand. Dave Meli called Kevin’s push whilst holding QQ, a hand which maintained its strength after the board showed 4 7 6 5 9. Kevin exited the tournament in what could have turned out to be a straight, had an 8 come out on the board, yet as the river card was uncovered, he lost his entire stack to Dave and left the tourney in 8th position, almost placing himself in the money. At the 13th level of blinds, now at 2,000/4,000 + 400 antes, Andrea Wirth [Germany] was down to her last 30,000 chips. She took her chances at an all-in with a very respectable K 10 – a move which got called by Sergei Cutajar who held A K at the time. The dealer uncovered a 2 7 9 3 9 giving Sergei the advantage with his A high and pair of 9’s on the board. Andrea went out in 7th position winning €330. 6 players were left in the Game and the action started heating up considerably as the game dynamics started to allow for a wider range of starting hands – Here, Tanya Apap, pushed her 11K stack into the pot and got called by Patrick Mifsud who held a much larger stack in comparison at around 60K. Tanya’s K5 went up against Patrick’s A10 who hit a pair when a 10 came out on the board. Tanya’s hand didn’t gain any strength by the river which sent her out in 6th position winning a respectable €475. A head to head clash took place towards the later stages of the game when Segei Cutajar pushed all in with 70K after seeing the flop show 9 6 7. Sergei had top pair with a chance for a straight yet this didn’t stop Patrick Mifsud from insta-calling him – Patrick had already hit his straight on the flop with his 8 9. The turn came out as a nine which now gave Sergei a set of 9’s, yet he was still behind Patrick’s straight. The river card came out as a 7 which paired another 7 on the board giving Sergei a runner-runner-Full house, and a terrible bad beat to Patrick, whose call didn’t cover Sergei’s stack, which sent Patrick out in 5th position with €700 in cash as his prize. Sergei was now up to 143,000 chips and leader at his table with Dave Meli now in a not so distant second. Jackie Cachia, the last remaining female at the table pushed her 23K stack whilst holding Q10. Sergei was at a slight disadvantage with his J10, yet called Jackie’s bet in an attempt to take over her entire chip stack and widen the gap between him and Meli. The community cards showed a 7 A 5 K 3 which didn’t strengthen Sergei’s hand and gave Jackie a quick double up, which came as a blessing at this stage of the game. Jackie was now at 46K. The next hand saw two pocket holders go head to head with KK held by Dave Meli who pushed all in and got called by Giovanni Tozzolino, who held 10 10. Dave kept his advantage throughout the flop turn and river cards, winning 20K in chips and sending out Giovanni in 4th position with €1,115. 3 players were left in the game at this stage and Sergei Cutajar was still at the lead followed by Dave Meli and Jackie Cachia. In an attempt to double up whilst holding Q9, Jackie pushed once again and got called by Dave with his K 10. The flop showed a 4 T 7 giving Dave a pair which turned into a set when another 10 came out on the turn. Jackie took her final blow when Meli’s hand changed into a full house when the second 7 came out on the river. Meli was now in the chip lead holding over 180K when he sent out Jackie in 3rd position with €1,580 as her prize. A relatively balanced heads up between Sergei and Dave started at 1:00Am with each of them holding approximately 50% of the tourney chips. The blinds were 3k/6k + 500 antes at the 14th level. Dave, a regular and experienced live player who frequently makes it to the final table in his live and online tourneys was quite comfortable in this environment. A heads up specialist, with a well sized stack to complement his position was ready for the challenge against his slightly less experienced yet competent opponent Sergei. Within a few hands, using an extremely aggressive strategy, Dave managed to dominate Sergei and take over a large proportion of his stack, reducing it to around 30k before giving Sergei his final blow. The final hand had Sergei start at an advantage while holding QQ when he pushed all in and got called by Dave when he held 6 9. The board showed a 7 5 7 which kept Sergei in the lead, but didn’t maintain its strength when the turn and river cards came out as a 6 and another 6 which gave Meli the lead with a set of sixes. Dave meli won the tournament sending Sergei out in 2nd with €2,100. Dave went home with €3,000 in this months €220 tourney. The final hand of this 10 player sit ‘n’ go saw some interesting action between Henning Frick and Etienne Roe. Etienne Roe flopped a straight with his Kh J and pushed against Henning who held AK at the time. The J on the turn gave an advantage to Henning who now had an Ace high straight, yet lost the hand when the river gave a K high flush to Roe. Etienne Roe won the tourney taking home €250 for placing first. Dave Meli [Left] and Sergei Cutajar [Right] ![\"Summer](\"http://maltapokerevents.com/Portals/4/images/events/Summer)
1st & 2nd Ticket to the Malta Summer Face/Off main event - €300 + €30
3rd – 6th Ticket to the Malta Summer Face/Off Live satellite event - €37 + €3
By 22:30, players were down to the final table, and the action started to pick up at a steady rate. Thomas Harvey took a shot at the pot with his pocket 9’s only to run into a pair of ladies held by Swedish Kent Berg. Kent held a stronger starting hand which got even stronger when the dealer uncovered a Queen on the turn giving Kent a tris and sending out Harvey who was holding a stack of 4,000 at the time. 9 players were left in the game at this stage and were led by new chip leader Kent Berg, followed closely by Stephen Spiteri.
A heads up between Thomas Tinglev and Nicolas Jouannic followed with Nicolas maintaining a dominant position with his JJ versus Thomas’s deck-paired 3. Nicolas managed to stay in the hand and win it, sending out a weakened Tinglev, following his previous run-in with Mangion.
By the break at 23:00hrs, Mangion was in a clear lead followed by Berg and Nicolas Jouannic in third position. Blinds were now at the 300/600 level with 50 being paid by players as antes. Players were playing slightly more cautiously as they were in what is often referred to as ‘the bubble zone’, meaning that once the next player was out of the tourney all the remaining players would be in the money.
Klint Berg was racking up quite an impressive chip stack by now and seemed to be dominating the table with a series of well placed bets. He entered a pot against Andrew Camilleri when the latter pushed All in holding QT vs Berg’s 9Ts. Berg hit his flush on this hand, sending out Andrew in 6th position handing his stack of 7k over to Berg, now chip leader at the final table.
Winners: Vincenzo Amato & Nicolas Jouacim
The next edition of the Live Satellites for the Summer Face/Off tournament is taking place on Wednesday 19th May 2010. The tournament shall take place at the Dragonara Casino and is expected to start at 20:00hrs. Players will be given a 5,000 starting stack for their €37 + €3 buy-in, and shall compete in a live satellite freeze-out featuring 20 minute blind levels.
Summer Face/Off Satellite Week 3
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Summer Face/Off Satellite Week 3
![\"Christopher](\"http://www.maltapokerevents.com/Portals/4/images/events/Summer%20Face%20off/Satellite%20Week%203/Ray-Bonnici-&-Chris-Sammut-.jpg\")
![\"Andrew](\"http://www.maltapokerevents.com/Portals/4/images/events/Summer%20Face%20off/Satellite%20Week%203/Andrew%20Cutajar%20-%20Malta%20Poker.jpg\")
Players were given 5,000 chips as their starting stacks which they slowly started exchanging throughout the 20 minute blind intervals and 3 prizes were given out at the end of the event. The tournament came to a close by 23:45Hrs and was led by Steve Caruana who took out runner up Andrew Cutajar in the late hours of the game. Cutajar, a regular player in the local Poker scene, gave a reasonably solid performance, but was relatively short-stacked in the last few hands of the tourney, when the chip ratio was about 5:1 in favour of his final opponent, Steve Caruana. ![\"Stephen](\"http://www.maltapokerevents.com/Portals/4/images/events/Summer%20Face%20off/Satellite%20Week%203/Stephen-Caruana---Malta-Pok.jpg\")
At the final stages of the game, with just two players left, and the blind levels at the 600/1200 level, underdog Andrew Cutajar started to show an increased aggression in his playing style with which he managed to win various pots by causing his final opponent to fold several times. Andrew’s aggression was appropriate too, as Steve Caruana was sitting with a stack of around 50K giving him a great deal of comfort compared to Andrew who only held around 10K.
Prize Winners:
1st Steve Caruana - €300 + €30 seat for the Summer Face/Off Main event
2nd Andrew Cutajar - €37 + €3 seat for the Summer Face/Off live Satellite
3rd Nicholas Joaquin - €37 + €3 seat for the Summer Face/Off live Satellite
Venue: Portomaso Casino
Main Event: €220 Freeze-out
Side Event: €50+5
Registered Players: 49
Tourney Duration: 8 Hours
Another fantastic live poker tournament took place on Sunday the 29th November 2009 in the charming Maltese Islands at the heart of the mediterranean. The ‘Kings and Queens of November’ by Malta Poker Events drew together 49 players at the Portomaso Casino, St. Julians for November’s €220 Freeze-out tournament, taking up the prize pool to almost €10,000.
The tournament started when players took their seats by 16:30hrs after being handed their 7,000 chips. They slowly started building up their stack further in the moderately paced 30 minute blind levels, by taking shots at their opponents hands – checking, betting and smartly folding their way to later stages of the game.
By 9pm, the tournament had been reduced to 2 tables which took the average stack to around 17,000 chips – 2 hours later, players were at the final table in bubble territory with 8 players left in the game and an average stack of 43K.
With Dave Meli in the chip lead, the players at the final table in this month’s end of tourney were the following:
- Sergei Cutajar
- Patrick Mifsud Tommasi
- Jackie Cachia
- Tania Apap
- Giovanni Tozzolino
- Andrea Wirth
- Kevin Price
A €50+5 side event was also hosted for players who either busted out early or didn’t make it into the €220 tournament. 
€220 Tourney Results:
1. Dave Meli - €3000
2. Sergi Cutajar - €2100
3. Jackie Cachia - € 1580
4. Giovanni Tozzolino - € 1115
5. Patrick Mifsud - € 700
Photos of the Event may be viewed at the Gallery at MaltaPokerEvents.com. A highlights video of the tournament will also be online in the coming days.
The December satellite tournaments are back starting from Thursday, the 3rd December at the Portomaso Casino. Winners of these €37+3 satellite events will win their seats into the 2 day Poker NYE Special Edition €330 taking place at the Portomaso Casino on 29th and 30th December 2009. Check out the events section at Maltapokerevents.com for the full live schedule.
Malta Poker EventsMalta Poker Events – Thursday Satellite - 19.11.09
The action picked up yet again on Thursday the 19th November with Malta Poker Events at the Portomaso Casino, St. Julians. 4 Seats were given out as prizes for the €220 freeze-out taking place on Sunday the 29th November. Winners of the €27+3 freezeout satellite event included previous satellite frontrunners Thomas Harvey, and Tanya Apap.
The tournament structure featured a starting stack of 3,000 chips and a blind structure which increased every 18 minutes. Players were at their seats at 20:30 hrs, and were split up into two separate tournaments according to their indicated preference whilst registering at the Portomaso cash desk - A 10 player tourney in the smoking area and a 24 player mul...]]>Malta Poker Events – Thursday Satellite - 19.11.09
The action picked up yet again on Thursday the 19th November with Malta Poker Events at the Portomaso Casino, St. Julians. 4 Seats were given out as prizes for the €220 freeze-out taking place on Sunday the 29th November. Winners of the €27+3 freezeout satellite event included previous satellite frontrunners Thomas Harvey, and Tanya Apap.
The tournament structure featured a starting stack of 3,000 chips and a blind structure which increased every 18 minutes. Players were at their seats at 20:30 hrs, and were split up into two separate tournaments according to their indicated preference whilst registering at the Portomaso cash desk - A 10 player tourney in the smoking area and a 24 player multi table tournament at the smoke-free tables of the Centrally-located casino.
Players who busted out early or made it late to the event had the chance of joining in on a 3rd tournament which started at 21:00Hrs. The event was made up of 7 players, and resulted in a win for Ryan Seguna, taking home €132 and Marthese Azzopardi, who won herself €57.
A fourth tournament started at 23:00hrs which was set up as a €20+2 sit’n’go with 3,000 chips and blinds increasing every 10 minutes. The freeze-out tournament which lasted approximately two hours paid out three players who each received €110 [1st], €66 [2nd], and €44 [3rd]. for their efforts.
Last night’s list of €220 ticket winners:
- Thomas Harvey
- Etienne Roe
- Tanya Apap
- Denoudin Gijsbertus
Satellite ticket winner:
- Giovanni Totsolino
Photos may be viewed in the Gallery section of http://www.maltapokerevents.com
The next and final episode of the November satellite tournaments will be taking place on Thursday the 26th November 2009 at the Portomaso Casino, Malta. The event is set to start at 20:30Hrs and is structured as
a re-buy tournament. Players will be limited to just one re-buy for the first hour and one top-up before the break, helping increase the pot size, and giving poker players a second chance if they get unlucky in the first stages of the game. The re-buy limit is in place to discourage players from resorting to ‘maniac play’ [constant all-ins] to make it into the money.
Previous editions of the monthly tournament reached an average prize-pool of around €13,000, with €4000 going out to the player who made it into the first place in the money. Last month’s tournament was led by Beatriz Bernal from Spain, in her first ever live tournament at such a buy-in.
Malta Poker Events
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