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The €5,200 Millions has been a mainstay on the PLO Grand Slam schedule ever since its first iteration in November 2024. The tournament with a €1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool has taken place three times in total, once at every Diamond Poker Series stop so far, and, amazingly, Youness Barakat was present at the final table of all three. Today, at 3 p.m. local time, Barakat begins his journey to a possible four-peat as he sits down for another Day 2 of the 5K Millions at the PLO Grand Slam Malta.
Barakat started with a third place in 2024 before getting fourth when the PLO Grand Slam returned to Tirana two months later. Barakat again made the final table in the most recent edition in Tallinn, but this time he persevered and hoisted the trophy. The PLO MTT specialist made his way to Casino Malta to defend his title, and bagged 648,000 on Day 1a, an above-average stack worth 65 big blinds at the start of today.
Barakat is one of the 54 players who made it through from a starting field of 152 entries. However, the field will continue to grow for the first two levels of Day 2, as the late registration will remain open until the start of the third level. "Kianator" will likely not have to worry about becoming another entry on the clock as he returns with a chip lead of 1,940,000, by far the biggest stack. Following the anonymous player is Jelle de Kroon, while Anton Suarez completes the top three.
Anton Suarez
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
"Kianator"
1,940,000
194
2
Jelle de Kroon
Netherlands
1,474,000
147
3
Anton Suarez
Sweden
1,417,000
142
4
Danyil Zaremba
Ukraine
1,225,000
123
5
Andre Plaza Marcano
United States
1,169,000
117
6
Lauri Varonen
Finland
1,137,000
114
7
Robert Cowen
United Kingdom
1,067,000
107
8
Gergo Nagy
Hungary
838,000
84
9
Renato Messina
Italy
837,000
84
10
Puk Nabuurs
Netherlands
814,000
81
Runner-up to Barakat in Tallinn Hossein Ensan also made it to Day 2, with a stack of 643,000. Nino Pansier will be looking to use his 769,000 chips to reach his third heads-up of the week, while Diamond Poker Series founder Christian Stratmeyer is eyeing his second PLO Grand Slam trophy as he returns with a stack of 495,000. Other PLO wizards in the field include Espen Myrmo (650,000), Marcus Dieleman (502,000), Mads Amot (394,000), and Dennis Weiss (378,000).
Hossein Ensan
The blinds will restart in Level 11: 5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 big blind ante. All levels will be 45 minutes long, although they will be shortened once the final four have been reached, with late registration and unlimited reentries for the starting stack of 200,000 available for the first two levels of the day. A 65-minute dinner break is scheduled after Level 17, around 9 p.m. local time.
The €5K Million is a true test of endurance, playing down to a winner on Day 2 and typically finishing in the early hours of the morning, and PokerNews will be live reporting from the very start until the tournament has been completed. Stay tuned for all the information regarding the prize pool and payouts, as well as major hands on the long road to the crowning of a champion.
