There was a fantastic atmosphere in the absolutely packed Portomaso Casino today, with players coming from far and wide to enjoy the Malta Poker Festival's extensive schedule.
Day 1c of the €300,000 guaranteed €550 Grand Event was a hive of activity, and after sixteen 40-minute levels of play, 31 players qualified from the 206 entrants. Those figures bring the total number of entrants to 446, with 67 players through to Day 2.
Home-grown player Justin Scicluna rose to the top of the standings once the dust settled, bagging up 1,066,000, steadily building his stack throughout the day.
Scicluna was closely followed by Denmark's Jan Jensen (917,000), who made a chip-handling error that might have cost him dearly, but in fact led to a double-up. Alessio Assennato (754,000) of Italy completes the podium places.
Jensen appears the most experienced of the three with live recorded cashes of $38,000, and a deep run here would represent a career-best score for all of the top three.
Defending champion Domenico Lando was in the field today, but just missed the Day 2 cut. No doubt he'll be back for another shot in the remaining flights.
Day 1c Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Justin Scicluna | Malta | 1,066,000 |
| 2 | Jan Jensen | Denmark | 917,000 |
| 3 | Alessio Assennato | Italy | 754,000 |
| 4 | Niccolo Cadoni | Italy | 647,000 |
| 5 | Jaime Lozano Diaz | Spain | 636,000 |
| 6 | Owen Sammut | Malta | 633,000 |
| 7 | Per Gaassand | Norway | 465,000 |
| 8 | Kjetil Reigstad | Norway | 419,000 |
| 9 | Alessandro Siena | Italy | 366,000 |
| 10 | Mathieu Choffardet | France | 342,000 |
There are two further opportunities on Friday, May 2 for players to find a bag for Day 2 - Day 1d kicks off at 1 p.m. local time and will feature 40-minute levels, with late registration open until the start of Level 11. Players will start with 50,000 chips at blind level 100/200, with a 200 big blind ante. Players are permitted two reentries per flight, with play concluding when 15% of the field remains, all of whom will be in the money.
Day 1e is a turbo flight starting at 7 p.m. with 20-minute levels, but otherwise following the same structure as previous flights. The final starting flights then take place on Saturday, May 3.
PokerNews will be on the floor from the start of the day, so stay tuned for all your coverage of the MPF Grand Event.
