Day 1b Chip Lead for Ongorur With Ovre and Grech Trailing in the Malta Poker Festival €550 Grand Event
Day 1b concluded with 58 players bagging up after fourteen levels of play in the €550 Grand Event here at the Portomaso Casino during The Malta Poker Festival. The first eight levels of the day attracted 329 entries and together with the Day 1a players, this means that 534 entries have been collected already towards the whopping €500,000 guaranteed prize pool. Together with the 38 Day 1a survivors, 96 players have made it through to Day 2 already.
Taking the Day 1b chip lead is Mehmet Ongorur with 474,000 in chips. Ongorur has collected five cashes in his live tournament career and three of them were earned right here in Malta according to The Hendon Mob. Ongorur climbed up the chip counts with a late surge while seated on the same table as Lasse Ovre who finished second in the chip counts. Ovre eliminated Steven Watts just before the tournament clock was paused and bagged 397,500 in the end. Closing the podium is a local player, Andre Grech with 357,000 in chips.
Also making it through to Day 2 are Brian Calleja, Quentin Lecomte, Erwann Pecheux, Massimiliano Rosi, Bas de Laat, Jonathan Therme, Paul Romain, Erwann Pecheux, and Mark Vella. Players like Fabrice Soulier, Jon Kyte, Corel Theuma, Barny Boatman, David Lappin, Daragh Davey, Byuongwook Anh, Andreas Klatt, Luca Beretta failed to survive Day 1b.
But Day 1c is set to start at 2 p.m. local time on Friday, November 1 with the same structure as the previous Day 1s and everyone who hasn’t tried or made it through yet can try and battle their way into Day 2. Registration will remain open for the first eight 45-minute levels and one reentry is permitted per flight.
There’s also day 1d at 8 p.m. local time which will be the turbo version with 20-minute levels instead of 45 minutes. Another eight levels of late registration or a single reentry is possible for the first eight levels of Day 1d.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back on the floor to bring you all the updates as they happen with the main focus on Day 1c. Keep reading all the updates to see who else will be bagging some chips at the end of the day.
with over 30,000 in the middle already.
. Larsson tabled 
for the flush to send Derei to the rail.
with 27,000 in the middle already.
to give Derei an open-ended straight draw but the river completed the board with the 
for Grodum to hold with the rockets to double up.
, Schwaederle check-called the 3,000 continuation-bet of Lecomte. 
, Schwaederle checked again and now Lecomte bet 12,000. Schwaederle shoved with the bigger stack and Lecomte called for 57,900 with 
for the flopped top two pair. Schwaederle held 
for the lower two pair.
for Lecomte to double up.
, Mitchell bet 3,500 and that was enough to get Magzan out of the way for the cards to go on their backs.
, Ball check-folded to the 2,000 bet of Taylor which Troumouchis did call.
, everyone checked to Khamidov who continued with a bet of 5,500 which was called by all.
for the gutshots to a straight.
