Two Starting Flights at The Malta Poker Festival Today; Day 1c at 2 PM and Day 1d at 8 PM
Day 1c of the €550 Grand Event at The Malta Poker Festival will get going at 2 p.m. local time in the Portomaso Casino. The first two starting flights attracted 534 entries already and many more are expected to be collected today during the final two starting flights as the turbo edition of Day 1 which is Day 1d will also take place today at 8 p.m. local time.
Out of those 534 entries, 96 players have already made it through to Day 2 to play on to claim their share of the €500,000 guaranteed prize pool. Mehmet Onogrur is currently ahead of the pack as he collected 474,000 in chips on Day 1b. He is followed by Day 1a chip leader Eviatar Mor with 441,500 and Luca Sebastiani with 400,000.
The defending champion, Emanuele Onnis participated in the Halloween Special side event last night and is expected to join in with the fun today at some point. Onnis won €150,000 in the inaugural event and will be defending his title furiously. Many familiar names in the poker scene here in Malta and all over the world have not booked their seats for Day 2 on Saturday, November 2nd yet. Barny Boatman, Andreas Klatt, David Lappin, Clint Sammut, Serdar Demircan, Fabrice Soulier, and Jon Kyte still need to find a bag.
Nicolaj D’Antoni finished in third place last year and tried to qualify for Day 2 yesterday but will need to try again today. Jona Wilsmann fell to the same fate yesterday but jumped into the Halloween Special after busting and finished as the runner-up. Daniel Jacobsen and Luca Beretta have had very deep runs in Malta before and will be looking to repeat those runs when they manage to make Day 2 today hopefully.
Day 1c follows the usual structure of 14 levels which lasts 45 minutes each. A 15-minute break is scheduled after Level 3, 9, and 12 with a 75-minute dinner break after Level 6. Day 1d will play 14 levels of 20 minutes each. The breaks will most likely take place after Level 8. For both flights, the registration and single reentry period will remain open for the first eight levels.
The PokerNews live reporting team will mainly focusing on Day 1c and provide the Day 1d chip counts at the end of the day so make sure to keep reading along to see who else will be coming back for Day 2 when all is said and done.
Day 1c Structure
| Level | Duration | Small Blind | Big Blind | Button Ante |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 45 | 100 | 100 | |
| 2 | 45 | 100 | 200 | |
| 3 | 45 | 100 | 200 | 200 |
| 20-minute Break | ||||
| 4 | 45 | 200 | 300 | 300 |
| 5 | 45 | 200 | 400 | 400 |
| 6 | 45 | 300 | 500 | 500 |
| 75-minute Dinner Break | ||||
| 7 | 45 | 300 | 600 | 600 |
| 8 | 45 | 400 | 800 | 800 |
| 9 | 45 | 500 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| 20-minute Break | ||||
| 10 | 45 | 600 | 1,200 | 1,200 |
| 11 | 45 | 800 | 1,600 | 1,600 |
| 12 | 45 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 |
| 20-minute Break | ||||
| 13 | 45 | 1,500 | 2,500 | 2,500 |
| 14 | 45 | 1,500 | 3,000 | 3,000 |