With the pot amounting to 70,000, Marcus Dieleman managed to get his 193,000 in on the 6♦Q♠7♣ flop from the cutoff against Aku Joentausta in the hijack.
Marcus Dieleman: 8♠8♥4♠2♥ 
Aku Joentausta: A♣Q♦J♦7♠
Dieleman's gutshot came in on the 5♣ turn, and Joentausta did not fill up on the 10♣ river. The Dutchman was sent a lucky late-night double-up, ending up with a stack of 57 big blinds.
Bharath Janardhan, who had extended his chip lead even more, was heads up against Tomasz Kozub on a flop of J♦10♦7♥, which checked through.
Kozub then bet 60,000 on the 6♠ turn. Janardhan called to the 5♥ river, but when Kozub sized down to 55,000, he quickly let his hand go.
Most of Csaba Fenyvesi had gone in before the flop, creating a pot of 600,000, after which he committed his final 45,000 on 3♠K♠9♥. Daniel Birkmose looked him up, and the cards were tabled.
Csaba Fenyvesi: J♠J♦10♠9♦
Daniel Birkmose: A♠A♥3♦2♥
The K♣ turn diminished Fenyvesi's outs, but he hit his gutshot on the Q♣ river to double up to an above-average stack.
The players have bagged up, ending Day 1b of the PLO Grand Slam Championship. The full chip counts are listed below; a recap of the day will follow shortly
Another day of four-card poker action is in the books at Casino Malta, as the second and final starting flight of the €10,300 PLO Grand Slam Championship recorded 67 entries. Combined with the 79 entries on Day 1a, the total count stands at 146, meaning a couple of dozen entries will have to be made during the first two levels of Day 2 to match the €2,000,000 guarantee.
Bharath Janardhan will likely not worry about becoming one of the new entries, however, as the Indian native captured the chip lead on Day 1b, bagging 1,768,000, good for 221 big blinds at the start of Day 2. The lone representative of the Asian continent so far, Janardhan is making his debut at an Diamond Poker Series event, and instantly made his mark by cruising through the day and crushing the competition.
Sitting in second is the anonymous player "Gypsy Baron". "Gypsy Baron" got second to Imad Derwiche in the €10K Championship in Tallinn and made another strong showing by collecting 1,275,000 at the end of the night. Derwiche also fired a couple of bullets on Day 1b, on the last of which he was eliminated in a three-way all-in. Aku Joentausta won that seven-figure pot, ending the day in third place with 1,148,000.
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bharath Janardhan | India | 1,768,000 | 221 |
| 2 | Gypsy Baron | 1,275,000 | 159 | |
| 3 | Aku Joentausta | Finland | 1,148,000 | 144 |
| 4 | Stian Usterud | Norway | 924,000 | 116 |
| 5 | Goran Urumovic | Sweden | 876,000 | 110 |
| 6 | Jeremy Trojand | Germany | 801,000 | 100 |
| 7 | Mads Amot | Norway | 675,000 | 84 |
| 8 | Csaba Fenyvesi | Hungary | 647,000 | 81 |
| 9 | Hans Thumann | Germany | 640,000 | 80 |
| 10 | Erik Friberg | Sweden | 603,000 | 75 |
Outside of the top ten PLO phenoms Marcus Dieleman (582,000) and Robert Cowen (200,000), along with short deck bracelet winner Martin Nielsen (474,000). Leonid Yanovski needed five bullets to make it through the end of the night, eventually doing so with 190,000, just a few chips under the starting stack.
Among the casualties of the day were two-time bracelet winner Oleksii Kovalchuk, Tallinn €5K Million champion Youness Barakat, and 2019 WSOP Main Event winner Hossein Ensan, all of whom are expected to join again sometime during the two levels of late registration on Day 2.
The combined field of 43 from Day 1a and Day 1b will return on Wednesday, October 15, at 3 p.m. local time for the second day of the three-day event. The blind levels will increase to 60 minutes in length, and the late registration, along with the option for unlimited reentries, will remain open during the first two hours of play.
PokerNews will be back on the floor for an exciting Day 2, during which the prize pool will be confirmed, payouts announced, and the bubble will burst. Tune back in then for all the latest PLO Grand Slam updates from Malta.
€10,300 Championship
Day 1b Completed
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