Sujeta Claims the Title and €150K in Malta Poker Festival Grand Event
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After spending more than eight hours in Club TwentyTwo, Tomas Sujeta took down The Malta Poker Festival Grand Event by defeating Day 2 and 3 chip leader Dmitri Dan heads-up.
Sujeta was awarded the €150,000 first-place prize for getting through the field of 1,324. He also claimed his biggest live tournament win ever, more than tripling his previous record according to The Hendon Mob database.
Meanwhile, Dan walked away with €82,000. The second edition of the Grand Event in the Portomaso Casino created a total prize of €642,140 of which the lion share was handed out at Monday's final table.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (EUR) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tomas Sujeta | Lithuania | € 150,000 | $167,525 |
| 2 | Dmitri Dan | Israel | € 82,000 | $91,580 |
| 3 | Craig Smith | United Kingdom | € 48,000 | $53,608 |
| 4 | Leendert Marcus | Netherlands | € 38,000 | $42,440 |
| 5 | Oskar Wedde | Norway | € 32,440 | $36,230 |
| 6 | Pasquale Gregorio | Italy | € 26,000 | $29,038 |
| 7 | Peter de Bruin | Netherlands | € 20,000 | $22,337 |
| 8 | Dario Marinelli | Italy | € 14,000 | $15,636 |
Eight players (and their rail) took the elevator up to the 22nd floor of the Portomaso Tower to battle it out until one player would be victorious.
Three quick eliminations
Dario Marinelli had the shortest coming into the day after a huge setup at the end of Day 3 but had the most live poker experience of the bunch. Unfortunately for him, he was the first player to leave the final table stage after first having doubled up with pocket kings against Sujeta’s ace-four but soon after was sent away when he ran his pocket queens into the kings of Pasquale Gregorio.
Peter de Bruin shoved with eight-seven suited and was called by fellow countryman Leendert Marcus who held jack-ten. De Bruin flopped a pair of eights but Marcus turned the higher pair and improved it to trips on the river to send De Bruin and his rail back to his hotel with €20,000.
Gregorio was next to go in sixth place for €26,000 when Sujeta had flopped a straight against his middle pair. When all the chips went in on the river, Gregorio saw his call wasn’t good as he was sent away from the final table.
The final stages
Oskar Wedde was pretty card dead all day long and was bleeding chips away when he finally got his stack in with ace-nine. Craig Smith picked up ace-queen to make the call and flopped the queen immediately. The turn brought a flush draw to Wedde but he bricked the river to leave the tournament in fifth place.
Sujeta started his run to the finish line with slow and steady play. First, he doubled through Marcus with jacks and flopped a set. He then won a few pots against Dan to take over the chip lead and never looked back. The biggest of those featured him flopping trips three ways and getting paid in two spots by players pairing their aces.
Thirty minutes later, Marcus was eliminated when he shoved his ace-nine into the ace-queen of Dan and got no help from the board. Marcus came to Malta without any intention of playing the event but after a fruitful night on the roulette table, he decided to fire a bullet on Day 1c and made that last-minute decision a successful one as he will be taking €38,000 back to the Netherlands.
Smith and his rambunctious rail were sent down in the elevator to collect €48,000 for finishing in third place when he called Sujeta’s shove on the river with two pair only to run into a straight.
Heads-up play only lasted 20 minutes. Dan was working on a comeback when he flopped a full house but ended up check-shoving with a flush draw and gutshot on the turn. Sujeta had turned a straight that had Dan needing a diamond for a win or a nine for a chop, and the straight held on the river to end the tournament.
Sujeta celebrated and Dan quickly left the venue to collect his own personal best payout.
