2016 Unibet Open Malta

Main Event
Day: 1b
Event Info

2016 Unibet Open Malta

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
k4
Prize
€65,000
Event Info
Buy-in
€1,000
Prize Pool
€292,000
Entries
292
Level Info
Level
26
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
10,000

Sam Grafton Hits the Rail

Level 10 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
Sam Grafton
Sam Grafton

Sam Grafton shoved his last 25,000 to the middle and Romain Nardin on the button made the call. Dzmitry Stukach in the big blind called all in for about 20,000 and it was time for the three men to open their cards.

Sam Grafton: {A-Clubs}{9-Spades}
Romain Nardin: {A-Hearts}{J-Hearts}
Dzmitry Stukach: {K-Hearts}{K-Clubs}

The board ran out {7-Diamonds}{6-Hearts}{2-Spades}{K-Diamonds}{4-Spades} and Grafton made his exit. Stukach in the meantime, just about tripled up.

Sam GraftonBust Unibet Open last level of the day. Hope @GriffinBenger properly punishes me for big-timing a swap!
Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Sam Grafton gb
Sam Grafton
Busted

Tags: Dzmitry StukachRomain NardinSam Grafton

Wiesen Doubles With Kings

Level 10 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
Sami Skold
Sami Skold

From the hijack, Sami Skold raised to 4,000. Action folded to big blind Thomas Wiesen and he three-bet to 10,000 with about 60,000 behind. Skold answered with a push all in, Wiesen called instantly and had his chips in the middle before Skold.

Sami Skold: {8-Diamonds}{8-Clubs}
Thomas Wiesen: {K-Spades}{K-Hearts}

The {K-Clubs}{9-Diamonds}{4-Spades} flop left Skold hoping for just runner runner perfect. The {3-Diamonds} on the turn was not a card he was looking for, the {6-Spades} on the river was there just to make things official.

Wiesen doubled his 70,100 stack, while Skold still had about 80,000 or so to play with.

Tags: Sami SkoldThomas Wiesen

Beukers Eliminated

Level 10 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante

With just a couple of hands to be played for the day, Fokke Beukers got eliminated. His neighbor on his right had three-bet him repeatedly, and Beukers made a stand by four-bet shoving with {J-}{9-}. This time his nemesis had a real hand with queens and made the quick call for 50,000 total. Beukers' jack-nine didn't get there, exit for the man from Holland.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Fokke Beukers nl
Fokke Beukers
Busted

Tags: Fokke Beukers

Chip Counts

Level 10 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Erik Scheidt de
Erik Scheidt
292,200
292,200
292,200
Profile photo of Charlo Azzopardi mt
Charlo Azzopardi
244,200
244,200
244,200
Profile photo of Irena Macesovic lt
Irena Macesovic
232,800
Profile photo of Mathias Christensen se
Mathias Christensen
221,200
221,200
221,200
Profile photo of Stefan Mattsson se
Stefan Mattsson
213,800
213,800
213,800
Profile photo of Dejan Vogrin si
Dejan Vogrin
204,200
Profile photo of Tomasz Kotlowski pl
Tomasz Kotlowski
174,500
174,500
174,500
Profile photo of Griffin Benger ca
Griffin Benger
174,300
-700
-700
Profile photo of Romain Nardin fr
Romain Nardin
174,200
174,200
174,200
Profile photo of Clint Sammut mt
Clint Sammut
165,000
Profile photo of Nicolay Langfeldt no
Nicolay Langfeldt
163,800
Profile photo of Tuukka Meklin fi
Tuukka Meklin
163,800
Profile photo of Michael Tang nl
Michael Tang
162,900
162,900
162,900
Profile photo of Mateusz Moolhuizen nl
Mateusz Moolhuizen
156,800
Profile photo of Christian Ostfelt se
Christian Ostfelt
151,400
151,400
151,400
Profile photo of Sami Pulliainen fi
Sami Pulliainen
148,300
Profile photo of Ivan Neytchev bg
Ivan Neytchev
147,200
147,200
147,200
Profile photo of Orjahn Winther se
Orjahn Winther
143,400
143,400
143,400
Profile photo of Daniel Thaller at
Daniel Thaller
139,400
Profile photo of Sami Skold fi
Sami Skold
139,200
139,200
139,200
Profile photo of Thomas Wiesen de
Thomas Wiesen
131,100
131,100
131,100
Profile photo of Jonas Gustafsson se
Jonas Gustafsson
127,500
127,500
127,500
Profile photo of Arne Coulier be
Arne Coulier
123,300
Profile photo of Jan Lovgren se
Jan Lovgren
122,400
Profile photo of Rafal Zgadzaj pl
Rafal Zgadzaj
114,500

Read full

Griffin Benger Ends the Day as One of the Bigger Stacks in the Room

Level 10 : 1,000/2,000, 300 ante
Griffin Benger
Griffin Benger

Day 1b of the 2016 Unibet Open Malta Main Event saw another 145 players flock to the brand new tournament room of Casino Malta in the InterContinental Hotel. Once again 10 levels of play were on the schedule.

Things got off to a quiet start, with most of the tables silently playing cards without much uproar or excitement. That was except for Table 2, where Rene Kuhlman and Hormiz Kamil blasted away at each other with friendly, but loud, banter. It was Team Holland versus Team Sweden, and for most of the day the two and their table mates battled it out with a lot of laughs.

Table 2 was the sole table with an above-average audio level, before Global Poker League commentators Griffin Benger and Sam Grafton entered the room. The two continued the fun and games they've showcased on the GPL live streams the past few weeks.

The rivalry started with Grafton declining Benger a swap, and the two took jabs at each other via twitter all day. Grafton big timing his pall Benger on the swap must have motivated the latter to do well. Benger played just about every other hand and won most of them. Benger gathered a sizable stack early on, while Grafton was diminished to the role of short stack. Grafton eventually busted in the last level of the day when he pushed his ace-nine into ace-jack and kings. Benger, in the meantime, lead the tournament with a stack of 180,000. He ended the day with 174,200, not quite leading anymore, but still one of the bigger stacks in the room.

Both Kuhlman and Kamil busted in the tail end of the day, with Kuhlman losing kings to ace-jack and Kamil losing ace-queen to Benger's flush draw with five-three.

Forty-three players survived Day 1b and will return on Saturday for Day 2 of the Unibet Open at 12 p.m. local time. Combined with the 50 players that survived Day 1a, a total of 93 return to battle it out for that first-place prize of €65,000. Thirty-six players will get into the money, a stage of the tournament that should be reached halfway through Day 2. In fact, the goal is to play to a final table on the penultimate day.

PokerNews.com will again be on site for coverage of all the action, so stay tuned.

TableSeatPlayerChip Count
101Sacha Stankovic30,900
102Romain Nardin174,200
103Peter Harkes60,100
104Hannu Seppala73,600
106Clint Sammut165,000
107Mateusz Moolhuizen156,800
108Charlo Azzopardi244,200
109Quentin Lecomte56,700
    
111Sander Van Wesemael105,100
112Joseph Said76,500
113Orjahn Winther143,400
114Michal Danka37,000
115Tomasz Kozub45,100
116Tim Van Meene18,800
117Sami Pulliainen148,300
119Simon Griffin47,900
    
121Nicolay Langfeldt163,800
122Sami Skold139,200
123Arne Coulier123,300
124Przemyslaw Wolowiec94,800
125Vitalii Belyaev91,300
126Jonas Gustafsson127,500
127Sandra Flygare29,700
128Jonathan Bradley9,000
129Erik Georg Albinsson51,700
    
131Mikko Raissnen34,100
132Daniel Chutrov51,700
133Tomas Soderstrom45,400
134Jari Suuronen64,800
135Leandre Omeir35,400
136Kristi Kirs106,000
137Dzmitry Stukach50,000
138Dawid Paczka107,800
139Bas De Laat96,000
    
141Johan Goslings41,400
142Mads Junker63,900
143Gabor Bank78,500
144Robertas Zebrauskis46,700
145Rafal Zgadzaj114,500
146Glenn Marcher80,800
147Jan Lovgren122,400
148Dario Marinelli114,400
149Griffin Benger174,300
    
151Rasmus Tarbensen97,300
152Stichel Van Der Kristoff39,300
153Dejan Vogrin204,200
154Margo Solnik55,200
155Tuukka Meklin163,800
156Niko Koop111,400
157Jeroen Buls61,300
158Christian Ostfelt151,400
159Toni Ojala20,700
    
161Nicolas Storm105,200
162Alexander Van Der Werf22,000
163Boris Kuzmanovic12,100
164Jaroslaw Barglik60,700
165Martin Soukup42,200
166Thomas Wiesen131,100
167Piotr Marzejon50,700
168Daniel Thaller139,400
169Erik Scheidt292,200
    
171Mariusz Czarnojan82,400
172Kristoffer Skipper Rasmussen95,000
173Kwok Wing Tang162,900
174Toralf Holmestrand93,100
175Mathias Christensen221,200
176Miroslav Hrivnak47,400
177Pekka Ikonen86,800
179Rosi Massimiliano63,600
    
181Julien Aretuse54,600
182Tomislav Brnas80,800
183Auke Attema63,900
185Herman Van Den Meerendonk77,700
186Krzysztof Dembek55,000
187Piotr Zawadzki68,100
188Jorma Vuoksenmaa25,900
189Tomasz Kotlowski174,500
    
191Stefan Mattsson213,800
192Mark Taylor65,000
193[Removed:158]112,800
194Eetu Vehvilainen73,100
195Martin Wendt79,800
196John Forst93,100
197Irena Macesovic232,800
198Cirtog Cristian73,500
    
201Emil Westerberg70,900
202Kristof Segers101,300
203Lauri Laanvee47,500
204Daniel Chevalier104,800
205Christopher Kiefert62,300
207Ivan Neytchev147,200
208Pierre Chambon87,800
209Cornelis De Jong91,100

Tags: Griffin BengerRene KuhlmanSam Grafton

Main Event

Day 1b Completed