The final edition of the live satellites for the Malta Summer Face/Off Poker tournament kicked off at 20:15Hrs at the Dragonara Casino on the 26th May 2010.
34 Players registered for the €37 + €3 event which resulted in 4 prizes being given out to the fortunate winners of the Satellite tournament.
The prizes consisted of main event seats to the €300 + €30 summer Face/Off Poker Tournament, being held at the Dragonara Casino between the 28th and the 20th May 2010.
All players were at their seats at 20:15hrs, stacked at 5,000 chips, when the first hand of the night was dealt at the Dragonara Poker room. Players were split up on 4 tables taking up the entire floor space with 8 – 9 players sitting at each table for the 20 minute levelled tournament.
For the few hands of the tourney, players utilised a relatively tight strategy and the first players out of the tourney were those that encountered some sort of bad beat at an early stage of the tournament progression.
After about 90 minutes of play, the tournament was down to 25 players, when Antoine De Giorgio encountered an ice-cold deck which saw him out of the tourney at an unusally early stage. Blinds were still at 100/200 when Georgina Zammit [KK] raised the SB to 400, followed by Antoine De Giorgio [AA], who re-raised to 1,200. Gaetano Caruana [QQ] retaliated with an All-in, followed by an All-in from Gerogina and De Giorgio. To their astonishment players saw one of the coldest decks ever, with 3 pairs of the highest possible pockets, in a 3 way heads up. The dealer followed by uncovering the flop which showed a King giving Georgina the advantage, and was followed by a Q on the turn which gave Gaetano trips, but kept him trailing Georgina’s trips Kings. To Antoine’s dismay, a 9 turned up on the river which ended his tourney progression giving all of his chips to Georgina Zammit.
By 22:15 blinds had reached the 200/400 level and 20 players were left in the game. The average stack was now at 8,500 chips and players got broken down to 2 tables led by Emerson Farrugia
A heads up between Thomas Chandler vs. Stephen Spiteri took place after all players in the hand folded to a BB raise of 1,200. Thomas Chandler pushed all-in with 4,000 whilst holding A10 and got called by Stephen Spiteri holding A9. The flop, turn and river cards did nothing to strengthen any of the players hands, which resulted in Stephen Spiteri going out in 19th place as Thomas’s push more than covered Stephen’s chip stack at the time.
An ‘Under the Gun’ call from Andrew Camilleri whilst holding 88 was met by Andrew Cutajar [SB] who raised to 1,500 chips. Philippe Lenferna who was on the Big Blind at the time, folded and Andrew Camilleri pushed against Cutajar, who was holding A9 in that hand. With both players all-in pre-flop, and over 12K in the pot, Andrew Camilleri was in the lead, all the way up to the river, where Andrew Cutajar paired his 9 sending Andrew Camilleri out in 18th place.
By now the chip lead was as follows:1st Thomas Tinglev
2nd Martin Hillstrup
3rd Emerson Farrugia
Following a few more hands, the blinds had reached the 300/600 level and the average stack was up to 11,300 chips. At this point, 15 players were left in the game.
At 22:45, Thomas Chandler, holding a slightly higher than average stack at 7,000 chips was last to act and raised 1,500 with a pair of Ducks in his hands [22] Ruben Velden, on the Big Blind called with A7 which resulted in a fold by the remaining players at the table, and the dealer followed by dealing out the flop which showed 39A. Ruben hit his Ace and quietly checked, and Thomas bet 2,500 to scare off his opponenent. Ruben Velden called and the turn was shown as a 7 which gave Ruben 2 pairs - Aces and 7’s. Ruben checked his hand again and Thomas, [who put his opponent on a flush draw, as there were two clubs out on the table] pushed All-in in a last attempt to push his opponent out of the hand. Ruben, however was committed at this point, and held a reasonable 2 pairs which gave him all the right to call Chandler’s all-in which sent Chandler out at the showdown following the river. Velden took over Chandler’s stack of 7,000 putting him in a comfortable position for the upcoming blind levels
Holding a 9,000 stack, and last to act, Andrew Cutajar pushed All-in with JJ following a 600 bet by the first player to act – Valerio Cascapera. Moira Cassar [BB] folded to Cutajar’s bet, yet Valerio called with AK. The flop instantly put Valerio in the lead when an A42 showed up, and Valerio’s paired Ace kept its strength throughout the river sending Cutajar out in 12th place, and putting Valerio in a very desirable position at such a crucial stage of the tournament. Valerio was now chip leader at the tournament.Following a 15 minute break, 11 players were at their seats for the 500/1000 blind level. Antes had already kicked in and all players were paying out 100 during each hand played or folded.
A match up between Tony Ciantar [79] and Thomas Tinglev [TT] saw the tables break down to the final table when Tony hit a 7 on the flop and pushed all-in to try to push his opponent out of the hand. An aggressive Tinglev called Ciantar’s bet, which, supported by his towering chips, covered Ciantar’s stack sending him out in 11th position. The tournament was now down to 1 table with 10 players and an average stack of 17,000chips and Valerio Cascapera was still in the lead followed by Jonathan Vincent and Ivan Farrugia.
Ivan Farrugia soon toppled Valerio, as a hand between him and Reuben Velden gave him the advantage on the board. Whilst holding AA, Ruben went all-in preflop and got called by Ivan’s Snowmen [88]. Ruben pushed 11,000 of his chips on the rockets and lost his entire stack when Ivan hit an 8 on the turn sending Ruben out in 10th place.
At 23:30 Moira Cassar went heads up against Emerson Farrugia. Moira was holding K6 against Emerson's A9 when she pushed All-in and got called by Emerson. The dealer uncovered a KQ798 which gave Moira the lead with a pair of Kings which she kept throughout the river. Moira was in desperate need of this break as she was the lowest stacked players at the table even after this hand which gave her a few more gasps of breath for the final table action.The chip count at this stage was as follows:
Thomas Tinglev – 40,000
Jonathan Vincent – 29,000
Ivan Farrugia – 24,000
Blinds reached the 800/1,600 level when Moira Cassar pushed all-in and got called by Thomas Tinglev. Moira put her 11,000 chips at stake on AK vs Thomas's KJ. The delaer uncovered Q73TQ which resulted in another win for Cassar giving her a massive boost taking her stack up to 23,000 from her short stacked position less than 30 minutes before.
Emerson was now at the bottom of the scale and started to get aggressive with more frequent pushes intended to scare off his opponents and gobble up some blinds while doing so. Tinglev, who was catching some good cards like pocket 5's and various face cards, was tempted to call a few times, but restrained himself after his loss against Moira Cassar a few hands back which lightened his chip stack causing him to play a slightly tighter strategy against his opponents.
By 00:15 blinds had reached 1k/2k with 200 being paid out by players as antes and Moira Cassar was giving a great display of her aggressive final table strategy with excellent opponent assessment and an equally matching betting strategy. At the final table the best defense is often offense, and Moira Cassar made sure that she didn't go quietly into the night at the end of the tournament pocketing various blinds with her more conservative opponents.Thomas Tinglev who was slowly being caught up by his opponents changed gears and went back to his aggressive strategy which brought him deep into the tournament and successfully kept him in the lead at the final table. A succession of 3x bets gave him a greater lead when his opponents didn't dare call his cards, allowing him to create a wider gap between him and the rest of the players at the table.
Following the break at 00:30, Emerson Farrugia, on the big Blind of 3,000 pushed All in with 21,800 chips with his Big Slick [AK], all players folded, yet Jonathan Vincent felt that his AJ was strong enough for Emerson’s push, and called the bet. The board showed a 62452 giving Emerson the lead, taking him up to almost 44,000 chips. The hand left Vincent crippled with less than 2,000 chips to go on, practically taking away any chances of him qualifying for the tournament prize. This hand also saw Emerson Farrugia take place as the new chip leader.
The final straw was drawn for Jonathan when he went up against Ivan Farrugia [SB] who held 22 against Jonathan Vincent’s KJ. The board showed a Q3347 but the community cards did not help Jonathan’s hand get any stronger sending him out in 5th place. At that point there was just one player left before the tournament came to a close.
Moira Cassar was playing her hands less aggressively than the previous 2 levels and as result of blinds pressure, she was forced to push her 5,900 chips on the button whilst holding KT. Tinglev called her with his A2 and her K gave her the upper hand when QTK48 showed up on the board. Moira managed to double up to 13,000 taking her up to 4th biggest stack, followed by Martin Hillstrup.
The next level of blinds came in at 1:15am at 2,000/4,000 + 400 antes and Moira decided to manipulate her table image by pushing an uncalled all-in with a hand she showed as 2 4 while her opponents were off guard. She successfully managed to increase her stack to 19,000 chips and maintain her position at the table.
The next push came from Ivan Farrugia on the BB which was followed by a fold by all the players giving him another 8,000 in blinds and antes.
The final hand was played between Moira Cassar and Martin Hilstrup when Martin pushed with Q6. Moira Cassar called Martin’s push with her K6, but this time, her King did not bring her luck as the board showed an 89A on the flop, a Q on the turn, giving Martin a pair of Queens, and a 3 on the river. Martin had slightly more chips than Moira and by taking over her chips, Moira was out in 5th position, ending the tournament with his pair of ladies.The winners of the final live satellite for the Malta Summer Face/Off poker tournament were: Thomas Tinglev
Emerson Farrugia
Ivan Farrugia
Martin Hilstrup
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. Seats are limited, so make sure you register early to participate in Malta’s hottest Poker Tournament in Summer 2010!
Malta Poker Events
The action kicked off at 20:20Hrs and featured players from a variety of nationalities including Maltese, Danish, Italian, British, Swedish and French regions. The 22 players were split up onto 3 tables and quickly started their plays by forcing their opponents into the tough decisions which are so particular to the game of Texas Hold’em Poker.
A few minutes later, with blinds at the 75/150 level, Mark Muscat, who was on the button, ran into Thomas Harvey in a KQ vs. AK battle. Muscat was already quite low stacked at this stage, making his KQ attractive enough to call Harvey’s AK supported push. Harvey hit a flush with his hole cards, sending out Muscat relatively early in the satellite tournament.
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.