Zielinski Bags Top Stack After Day 1a of Unibet Open Malta
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The opening flight of the Unibet Open Malta €1,100 Main Event has drawn to a close after an exciting ten levels of poker. There were 113 players that gathered in the conference rooms of the InterContinental Hotel in conjunction with Casino Malta, but only 44 will be moving on to Day 2.
Leading the way after a resurgence in the last couple of levels is Przemyslaw Zielinski (lead photo) who bagged up a whopping 216,500 chips from a starting stack of 30,000. Zielinski earned the majority of his chips in a massive pot with Kristian Aksnes when he rivered the best possible full house against the flopped full house from Aksnes.
Zielinski closed out strong by putting his big stack to work in the last few hands of the night and finishing as the chipleader. He will be looking to add to his short-listed poker resume when the action resumes on Day 2. Zielinski has just two recorded tournament cashes, both coming in the last couple of years in the Czech Republic.
Meanwhile, despite finding himself on the wrong end of two huge coolers in the last couple of levels, Aksnes still put 45,000 chips in his bag to return on Day 2.
Some of the big stacks include Alan Carr (201,500), Mikkel Stenkjaer (174,500), and Renato Messina (145,500). Messina was the other fortunate player to take a large chunk of chips off Aksnes before the night ended.
Unibet Open Malta Main Event Top 5 After Day 1a
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Przemyslaw Zielinski | Czech Republic | 216,500 |
| 2 | Alan Carr | United Kingdom | 201,500 |
| 3 | Mikkel Stenkjær | Denmark | 174,500 |
| 4 | Renato Messina | Italy | 145,500 |
| 5 | Tonio Roeder | Germany | 143,000 |
No Luck for Boatman, Moolhuizen, and Soukup
The action kicked off at noon local time with around forty players in their seats from the onset. That number quickly grew through the opening levels until late registration closed after the dinner break. This first flight was played as a freezeout since players will only be allowed to re-enter into flight 1c tomorrow night.
A few familiar names were spotted throughout the day including Barny Boatman, two-time Unibet Open winner Mateusz Moolhuizen, 2019 Unibet Open Sinaia winner Martin Soukup, and Unibet Ambassadors Ian Simpson and Dan Murariu. Unfortunately for them, they will have to try their luck on Day 1c as none of them were able to bag chips by the day's end.
The action will resume Sept. 13, at noon for Day 1b which is expected to attract an even larger field. A few other Unibet Ambassadors will be present along with many of the popular streamers. Day 1b will also mark the debut of the Main Event on the live stream which can be viewed by clicking on the 'Live Stream' tab in the Unibet Open Malta PokerNews live reporting section.
Day 1c will also take place Sept 13, starting at 9 pm. That flight will contain most of the players in need of a re-entry, but it will be a turbo flight with just 20-minute levels. Continue to follow along with the PokerNews live reporting team for full coverage of both flights and throughout the rest of the tournament.
