WSOP Bracelet Winner Jonathan Therme Leads 12 Qualifers from Day 1c of SPT Malta Main Event

On an extremely busy day at Portomaso Casino, Day 1c of the €400 buy-in, €150,000 guaranteed SiGMA Poker Tour Malta Main Event has now concluded.

A total of 12 players found bags for Day 2 from 82 entrants, to join the 24 players already qualified from the first two starting flights.

WSOP Online bracelet winner Jonathan Therme of France bagged the chip lead in the flight on 849,000, and he is closely followed by Micaela Arcusin of Argentina (813,000), with Italian Salvatore Incardona someway back in third (588,000).

Therme boasts just over $1,000,000 in recorded earnings, and snagged a WSOP bracelet by winning the $315 Superstack Turbo Bounty online on GGPoker in 2022 for $36,600. His biggest recorded cash is a 77th place finish in the 2023 WSOP Main Event for $109,400.

Arcusin has just under $130,000 in recorded cashes, and her biggest payday is a runner-up spot in a tournament in Uruguay in 2023 for $45,005, while Cardona has scores of $80,000 (all figures courtesy of The Hendon Mob).

End of Day 1c Top Ten Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Country	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	Jonathan Therme	France	849,000	71
2	Micaela Arcusin	Argentina	813,000	68
3	Salvatore Incardona	Italy	588,000	49
4	Alessandro De Marzi	Italy	297,000	25
5	Roberto Zuffo	Italy	290,000	24
6	Dumitru Straistari	Romania	265,000	22
7	Luca Ittiresu	Italy	247,000	21
8	Christian Nilsson	Sweden	233,000	19
9	Thibaut Thevent	France	227,000	19
10	Massimo Bruno	Italy	148,000	12

Day 1c Action

SiGMA ambassadors Drea Karlsen and Lukas Robinson were in the field again today, but fell short of the Day 2 cut once more. Karlsen came off worst in a three-way all-in scenario involving Luca Ittiresu, who bagged a top-ten stack. Robinson meanwhile would meet his maker in the form of Roberto Zuffo, who also progressed to Day 2.

Arcusin was among the top stacks for most of the day, and she chipped up when she hit the river to bust Marc Hunter close to the cutoff, and then proceeded to wield her stack expertly when hand-for-hand play commenced.

Therme was the beneficiary of a gift from Oliver Said near the close of play. Therme four-bet jammed from the button with a middling holding versus Said's small-blind three-bet, but Said called it off with an even more mediocre hand. Therme held in a crucial spot, and didn't look back from there.

Karol Guzla was the victim of a cooler on the bubble against Incardona which left him short-stacked, and Therme then finished him off to bring proceedings to a close at the start of Level 16.

At the time of writing, late registration is still open in turbo flight Day 1d. End of day chip counts for that flight will be provided tomorrow morning.

The final two starting flights take place on September 6, with the remaining schedule set out below. The players will return at 2:00 p.m. local time on September 7 for Day 2, where blinds will be increased to 40-minute levels, and play will continue to a winner.