Malta Poker Events - €220 Monthly Tournament: September Edition [27.09.09]

Buy-in: €220
Style: Freeze-out
Satellite entries: 26
Total players registered: 67
Venue: Portomaso Casino, St.Julians, Malta

67 poker players registered for the first episode of our ‘Monthly €220 Poker Tournaments’ with their eyes set on the first prize of €4000 out of a pool which reached over €13,000 this month.

The September Edition was hosted in the larger, smoke-free poker hall at the Portomaso Casino; the same hall which was utilized for the internationally broadcast Malta Chili Poker Open 2009. The well-lit open space featured an area stacked with savoury snacks and refreshments for players to enjoy through the eight hour tournament.

Among the players present, there was a large part of Maltese poker players, and many Scandinavian players from the local igaming community. The tournament also attracted a few players from neighbouring Italy, and players from countries like Russia, Portugal and France. There were also a few EMOP participants present, who played at the international poker tournament held at the Casino di Venezia, Vittoriosa, earlier last week.

The first hand of the night was dealt at 18:45, and players quickly started their road to the final table of this months edition at the Portomaso Casino, holding a chip stack of 6000 with blinds increasing every 25 minutes.

By the first break the player count was down to 46 players taking the average stack to about 8500. Here, players started getting a feel for each other’s plays and taking advantage of the information at hand to take more calculated decisions at the felt.

Players kept up a steady pace with very active plays throughout the tournament and at around 12:30Am 9 players were left at the final table.

Towards the final hands with only 5 players left in the game, the blinds were now at 5k/10k and Therese Harvey [Malta] pushed with her 20K stack. She got called by Arthur Voskanyan [Russia] and Stefan Eric Johnson [Sweden] who then checked their way to the river holding Q6 and QT respectively. Therese’s Q9 paired a nine on the flop and kept its strength all the way to the river, tripling up and taking her stack up to 60,000 chips.

A few hands later, Stefan Eric Johnson, weakened from his previous loss, was all-in with 76 and got called by Georg Westin who was holding AT. Georg hit two pairs when the dealer showed AJT99 on the felt and sent out Stefan in fifth place taking home €1000.



With 4 remaming players at the table, Arthur Voskanyan from Russia, pushed his stack from under the gun while holding A10. What seemed like a steal turned into a successful play by Arthur as he got called by Therese’s K6. The flop gave Arthur a trips aces winning him the pot and sending out Therese in a highly respectable 4th place, taking home €1300. Therese gained entry to the €220 event through a €27+3 satellite tournament held earlier last week at the Portomaso Casino.

With 3 players left in the game and around €8000 to be won, Stefan Lundberg pushed all in holding Q9. Arthur called Stefan’s push and uncovered a stronger starting hand, AQ. The community cards came out showing 5T24A giving Arthur a pair of aces on the river. Stefan lundberg finished in third position and took home €1530 in his final hand before returning home to Sweden after his poker holiday in Malta.

Around seven and a half hours into the game, Arthur Voskanyan and Georg Westin went heads up in the final hand of the September edition of the monthly Malta Poker Events tournaments at the Portomaso Casino. With the blinds at 6k/12k, Arthur pushed all in holding Q10 and waited for Georg to act. Georg called this push right away while holding KQ and proceeded to watch the dealer uncover 96A32 giving him the advantage with his K high. Arthur won €2600 in second position and Georg took home the biggest share of the pot for his placing first - €4000.

9 players [of which two Maltese players – Antoine DeGiorgio and Therese Harvey] made it in the money and shared the chunky prize-pool, with €4000 going to 1st place, Georg Westin from Sweden. The top five players in last night’s tournaments were:


1. Georg Westin [Sweden]- €4000
2. Arthur Voskanyan [Russia]- €2600
3. Stefan Lundberg [Sweden] - €1530
4. Therese Harvey [Malta] - €1300
5. Steffan Eric Johnson [Sweden] – €1000


Photos of last night’s event may be viewed at the Gallery on Maltapokerevents.com

Join us for the next edition of the Monthly tournaments with the October Edition Satellites starting on Thursday the 1st October at the Portomaso Casino. Entry is a low €27+3.

Malta Poker Events

September Satellite – Episode 4 [24.09.09]

September Satellite – Episode 4 [24.09.09]

Last night’s episode started at 20:30hrs with 67 registered players and 3 separate yet simultaneous tourneys - A multi table freeze-out satellite of 45 players in the regular poker room at the Portomaso Casino, and two more games, a re-buy satellite and a freeze-out satellite in the no smoking area of the Casino.

The event featured the highest attendance rate for our Poker events this month and players demonstrated abundant anticipation for the €220 freeze-out this Sunday, the 27th September 2009.

The hottest hand of the game was played a few hands before the game came to a close.

With blinds at the 800/1600 level, Luke Lyttleton [chipleader] called the big blind and was followed by Andrew Camilleri [Placed 8th In Malta Poker Open] who also called the big blind.
The players in the small blind and the big blind positions checked and the dealer followed by uncovering the flop and showing Q 9 8.

Holding top pair, Luke Lyttleton bet 4k and Andrew Camilleri responded with a 12k Push. Andrew’s snowmen [88] had hit trips on the flop. The small blind and big blind both folded and a few minutes later, after much consideration, Luke called Andrew’s push. Luke uncovered his KQ whose paired Queen was up against Andrew’s Trips.



The turn card came as a Queen which gave Luke Lyttleton trips and also pushed Andrew’s hand in full house territory – This took Andrew’s probabilities to a near certain win, yet as the last card was turned, a monster hand came in the form of a queen on the river, giving Luke Lyttleton Quad Queens, sending out Andrew Camilleri in 7th position. Having experienced a relatively bad beat, Andrew still displayed great sportsmanship here, cheering Luke and wishing him the best of luck in Sunday’s €220 freeze-out tournament.

A few hands later, with the blinds at 1k/2k and antes up to 200, the game came to a close when Joseph Mangion went all in, pushing 7.2k on Luke Lyttleton. Luke called this action as he held a respectable A10 which held their strength as Joseph’s JQ didn’t strengthen on the flop which showed 8 4 7. The 2 on the turn didn’t help Joseph either and when the river card [10] came out it was his final blow which gave Luke a pair of 10’s before sending Joseph out in 6th position with €115 in cash.



Some of last night's featured winners: From left to right - Ruben Vellden, Christopher Sammut, Thomas Harvey, Luke Lyttleton.

This week’s winners for the €220 Freezout on Sunday the 27th September 2009:
- Christopher Sammut
- Thomas Harvey
- Luke Lyttleton
- Hubert Micallef
- Ryan Seguna
- Matthew Pace
- Ruben Vellden
- Domenica Tortamasi

This week’s runners up:
- Vincent Muscat €130
- Joseph Mangion €115
- Marlene Camilleri €104

As a warm-up for Sunday’s €220 freeze-out event, this week we are offering our players a new and exciting Knock-out tournament. Everyone loves knocking out players - In this tourney you’ll get paid for it! This event will be taking place on Saturday the 26th September at the Portomaso Casino at 19:00Hrs. The fresh tournament has a buy-in of €45 and the players will receive €15 for every player they knock-out in addition to whatever cash they win from the normal prize-pool. If interested, please register early for this event as we are limiting it to three tables.

The satellite events this month resulted in 26 seats being handed out as prizes for the end of month September freeze-out and several more players placed their registrations last night. With less than 2 days to go, spaces are being taken up at a speedy rate giving this month’s tourney a reasonably chunky prize-pool.

You may register for this weekend’s €45 Knockout and €220 Freezeout at the Portomaso Casino cash desk between 10am and 4am.

More photos at the Malta Poker Events Gallery

Malta Poker Events

September Satellite – Episode 3 [17.09.09]

September Satellite – Episode 3 [17.09.09]

Following some players requests, two satellite tournaments were held in this week’s poker appointment with Malta Poker Events. We hosted a re-buy satellite tournament allowing one rebuy and top up as well as our regular freezeout satellite.

With this week’s tournament layout and the 42 registered players, this week’s payouts totaled 9 prizes and included 7 seats to September’s end of month €220 tournament [27.09.09] and 2 seats for the satellite tournament taking place on 24.09.09.

The re-buy tourney consisted of 10 players and resulted in three 1st prize €220 event seats being given to winners - Elvira Camilleri, Giovanni Tozzolino, and Westin Georg. George Deguara and Andrea Stellato also made it in the ‘money’ and won themselves a seat each to the final September Satellite, Episode 4, being held on the 24th Septeember at the Portomaso Casino.

Re-Buy satellite winners



From left to right: Elvira Camilleri, Giovanni Tozzolino, and Westin Georg.

The freezeout satellite tourney
The freezeout satellite tourney attracted 32 players with prizes given to the remaining 4 players in the game. Winners included Maude Smith, Jon Mallia, Alexander Fenech and Chris Sammut, who gained entry to this weeks satellite after winning a previous satellite ticket earlier this month in the September Satellite – Episode 1.

Frezeout satellite winners



From left to right: Alexander Fenech, Chris Sammut, Maude Smith, Jon Mallia.

More photos of the winners and other participants may be viewed at the Gallery at Maltapokerevents.com

Malta Poker Events

September Satellite - Episode 2

The satellite tournament, with a €27+3 entry fee attracted 44 enthusiastic poker players taking their seats in the Poker room at the Portomaso Casino on the 10th September 2009. Amongst the players present were three of the Malta Chili Poker Open 2009 finalists - Massimiliano Privitera from Italy who had placed 2nd, taking home €8,670, Gordon Mifsud who placed fifth and won €2,800 and Andrew Camilleri in 8th placing and €1,128 prize.

This week’s payouts included 5 seats to September’s end of month €220 tournament [27.09.09] and 3 seats for the satellite tournament taking place on 17.09.09.

The first break was over by 22:30hrs and by then, there were 30 remaining players with an average stack of 4,400 chips.

At the final table, Omar Granata and Daniel Mais went out in 7th and 8th place respectively,

With the blinds now at the 2K / 4K level, The strongest of the remaining 6 players at the table were Tanya Apap and Gordon Mifsud, and on the opposite end of the scale there was Giovanni Totsolino with 700 chips.

A struggling effort by Giovanni took place when he pushed all-in with his 700 chips while holding 5 6 and got called by Tanya who held a pair of fours at the time. The flop showed 9 3 3 6 7 helping Giovanni to double up when he paired his 6 on the turn.

In the next hand, Giovanni pushed all-in yet again, with a 1400 stack, and got called by Thomas Harvey and Gordon Mifsud. Giovanni’s KJ hit a pair on the flop and trips on the river when the flop showed 10 4 J 2 J. The 6 10 held by Gordon and A 3 held by Tommy could not match Giovanni’s hand and helped propel his chip count up to 5,400.

The deciding hand played was between Giovanni Totsolino and Massimo Pappalardo, while the dealer button was at Gordon Mifsud. Massimo [SB] holding 10 9 called Giovanni’s [BB] push and he showed his A 7 in turn. Massimo’s hand paired the 9 on the flop and kept it’s strength all the way to the river, beating the hand held by Totsolino. This play sent out Giovanni Totsolino in sixth position winning a ticket to a satellite event on 17.09.09, and leaving the reaming five players as the prize winners of the €220 tickets for the end of month tourney on 27.09.09.

Prizes for the €220 end of month tourney were awarded to:



From Left to right: Joe Smith, Gordon Mifsud, Tanya Apap, Massimo Pappalardo, Thomas Harvey

Satellite tickets were awarded as prizes to:
- Giovanni Totsolino
- Daniel Mais
- Omar Granata


See the rest of the photos at our Gallery at the Malta Poker Events website.

Malta Poker Events

September Satellite - Episode 1

September Satellite - Episode 1

September Satellite - Episode 1 Added On: 04/09/2009
After a long summer break for many, Thursday the 3rd September marked the start of an action-packed season full of No Limit Hold'em.

50 poker players signed up for Episode 1 of the September satellite tournament by Malta Poker Events

6 €220 main event prizes were given out, which entitles the winners entry to the end of month €220 freezeout taking place at the Portomaso Casino on Sunday the 27th September 2009.

The tourney was completed within 4 hours, with blinds increasing every 18 minutes.

There were many familiar faces, several players who attended the Malta Poker Seminar and the Malta Chili Poker Open 2009, and a mix of regular local card players who contributed €27 each to the pot.

Players were all seated by 20:30hrs and within ninety minutes at the break, 30 players were left in the game, taking the average chip stack up to 5000 from the initial 3000.

The final table started at 23:15hrs with 9 players at the table. Steven Spiteri held the chiplead here with 29,000 chips.

In the final stages of the game, Luke Lyttleton called Carmel’s 12,700 push and was shown the only hand that could beat him pre-flop: Rockets! Furthermore, Luke’s confident call did not see his KK develop into a hand stronger than Carmel’s AA and Luke lost a very large portion of his stack leaving him 5,400 while callus now held over 25,000.

The first player out after the break put his AJ up against Steve Spiteri’s KK. With blinds at 1,000, Steve raised 5,000 and was pushed all-in by Zsolt Noji. Steve called the additional 4,000 and saw the dealer unfold a favourable flop, turn and river, taking his chip-count to approximately 40,000.

Luke Lyttleton was the next player out of the game finishing in eight position. He pushed all-in holding KJ and got called by Charles Sammut holding A10. Sammut paired his ten on the flop, and took hold of all of Luke’s 5,400 stack.

The game came to a close when Chris Sammut went all in holding 5 8 against Kristian Jorgensen’s pocket 3’s. Kristian called and hit trips on the turn, sending Sammut out in seventh place. Sammut’s placing gained him entry to next week’s satellite taking place on Thursday, 10th September at the Portomaso Casino.

€220 Tickets for the September 27th Freezeout were given to the following players:
- Steve Spiteri
- Carmel Callus
- Kristian Jorgensen
- Charles Sammut
- Jeremy Harding Roberts
- Lawrence bonnici



€27+3 Ticket for 10th September satellite:
Chris Sammut



The next satellite will be taking place on the 10th September at the Portomaso Casino.
The Event will start at 20:30Hrs.

Free parking available at the Portomaso Car Park

Malta Poker Events