Who Will Become the First-Ever Malta Poker Festival Grand Event Champion Today?
After three starting days and two more full playing days, the final day of the €550 Grand Event of the Malta Poker Festival is here and the winner will be crowned today. A beautiful trophy, the inaugural title, and the whopping first-place prize of €150,000!
Leading the way today is Germany’s Fabian Gumz with 9,845,000. Gumz started Day 3 as one of the shortest stacks and managed to hit his stride towards the end of the day to close the day with a huge chip lead. He first doubled up with ace-queen against the pocket jacks of Federico Petruzzelli, then he won a big pot against Espen Uhlen Jorstad who, according to his own Instagram, had pocket jacks when Gumz had the nut-flush. And in the final hand of the night, he eliminated Marko Cosic who held pocket jacks and Gumz hit a king on the flop with ace-king to end play for the night as the final table had been reached.
Emanuele Onnis is trailing Gumz in second place with 6,330,000 in chips. Onnis himself played some big pots too and was responsible for the eliminations of Eyal Bensimhon, Domenico Gala, and Gary Banks for example. In third place in the chip counts is another Italian player, Nicolaj D’Antoni with 29 big blinds. D’Antoni probably will have the biggest rail today as they have been following his progress intensely over the past days.
Also on the final table are Borge Dypvik (3,645,000), Giovanni Salvatore (3,630,000), Espen Uhlen Jorstad (3,245,000), Henning Andre (1,765,000), and Steven Iglesias with 975,000.
Final Table Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Fabian Gumz | Germany | 9,845,000 | 62 |
| 1 | 2 | Henning Andre | Sweden | 1,765,000 | 11 |
| 1 | 3 | Nicolaj D'Antoni | Italy | 4,685,000 | 29 |
| 1 | 4 | Steven Iglesias | Norway | 975,000 | 6 |
| 1 | 5 | Giovanni Salvatore | Italy | 3,630,000 | 23 |
| 1 | 6 | Espen Uhlen Jorstad | Norway | 3,245,000 | 20 |
| 1 | 8 | Emanuele Onnis | Italy | 6,330,000 | 40 |
| 1 | 9 | Borge Dypvik | Norway | 3,645,000 | 23 |
Players will continue to play Level 31 which features a small blind of 80,000, big blind of 160,000, and a running ante 20,000. Levels will last 60 minutes each with a break scheduled after every 2 levels.
This is what they are playing for:
| Place | Prize in EUR | Prize in USD |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 150,000 | 170,798 |
| 2 | 85,000 | 96,785 |
| 3 | 50,000 | 56,933 |
| 4 | 40,000 | 45,546 |
| 5 | 34,000 | 38,714 |
| 6 | 28,000 | 31,882 |
| 7 | 20,600 | 23,456 |
| 8 | 14,710 | 16,750 |
Action will kick off at 2 PM local time and streamed on the Twitch channel of the Malta Poker Festival with a 30-minute security delay as the hole cards will be shown. The PokerNews live reporting will be following along with the delay so the updates will start coming in from 2:30 PM onwards. Make sure to follow all the updates from the final table until the first-ever Malta Poker Festival Grand Event Champion has been crowned!
for D'Antoni to flop a flush immediately and leave Iglesias drawing dead.
on the turn and the 
on the river.
for Gumz to stay ahead with the pocket jacks.
wasn't that as he was eliminated in 7th place for €20,600.
for Jorstad to only have the 
as an out as the 
and Jorstad was eliminated in 6th place for €28,000.
which wasn't one of them and neither was the 
which was a safe card for Onnis as he got paid the double-up to balance out the stacks a bit more.
and was called by Emanuele Onnis with 
for Onnis to hit a pair of jacks and Gumz to stay ahead and pick up a gutshot to the straight draw too.