King on the River for Alaa Ganem

Level 13: 1,000/2,000 (2,000) Entries: 213/799 Some hands just play themselves without much strategy and thinking. One of those hands is aces versus kings. One of those hands we just witnessed over at Table 10. It began with Alaa Ganem raising and Hassan Nima reraising. Gaspare Sposato was caught in the middle and caught the…

Russo Loses His Short Stack to Vainio

Level 12: 1,000/1,500 (1,500) Entries: 220/799 Giovanni Russo jammed for 3,700 from middle position. The action paused on Jukka Vainio from the button. However, Alessandro Spata likely didn’t see this from the small blind and appeared prepared to act. “How much is it?” asked Spata. He reached for his chips soon after but the dealer…

Only Quads for Pawlowski

Level 12: 1,000/1,500 (1,500) Entries: 232/799 There was a bit of betting going with not much in the pot preflop on the flop when we caught up with the hand with Mateusz Pawlowski committed his stack of 24,000 against Henriques Pereira. Mateusz Pawlowski: Henriques Pereira: Pawlowski was miles ahead but Pereira still had slim hopes…

Yigal Shafian Wins Race to Eliminate Assaf Cabra

Level 12: 1,000/1,500 (1,500) Entries: 235/799 With the blinds ever increasing, the action becomes faster and faster and we are seeing all-ins virtually every minute. Yigal Shafian just eliminated his countryman Assaf Cabra in one of those all-ins. Both had all their chips in the middle before the flop with Assaf Cabra being minimally ahead…

Watching Poker and Winning at Poker

Level 12: 1,000/1,500 (1,500) Entries: 252/799 Watching poker and playing poker doesn’t have to be mutually exclusive. Over at Table 13, Marco Labate spent most of the day watching poker episodes on his phone. We just witnessed him increase his stack significantly while watching other people play poker on his phone. We arrived at his…

Marcello Caloro About Dealing Big Poker Games

The most important people in the casino are the dealers. Without a skilled and motivated team of dealers, no cash game and no tournament can run. Patrisha Rimfire met up with Marcello Caloro. He’s the senior Dealer Coordinator here at the Battle of Malta and shares his insights into running successful poker tournaments. Learn how…

Vieira Wins Massive Pot With a Set of Nines

Level 11: 600/1,200 (1,200) Entries: 272/799 It was a three-bet pot preflop when Cyril Vieira check-called a bet by Meir Vaqnin on the flop. Things got more interesting after the landed on the turn. Vieira led out for 9,000. Vaqnin jacked it up to 20,000. Vieira three-bet to 50,000. Vagnin four-bet shoved and Vagnin called…

Late Registration Closed on Day 1c

Level 11: 600/1,200 (1,200) Entries: 284/799 Players are back from dinner break, which means late registration has been closed. The Day 1c attracted a massive field of 799 entries with 284 players coming back from the dinner break to bring the total field up to 1,425 entries from the first three of five opening flights.…

Owl Protector

Dinner Break Chip Counts

Below are the biggest stacks we could find in the field. It looks like Romain Nardin and Angelo Onorato are the chip leaders now. Albert Keuftedjian, who is on his 5th bullet today finally managed to run his stack up and he’s among the big stacks as well. Name Chips Big Blinds Table Seat Romain…