The action folded around to Vanessa Selbst in the small blind and she opted to just complete her small blind. Sampo Ryynanen was the big blind and he raised to 1,800. Selbst queried how much the raise was for before making the call.
The flop saw Selbst check-call a 1,800 bet from her sole opponent. The turn saw Selbst go on the attack and make it 2,800 to play, a bet that Ryynanen quickly called. The river looked like it was going to see a bet from Selbst but she pulled back at the last second and checked. Ryynanen checked behind.
"I have seven-high," said Selbst.
An embarrassed looking Ryynanen flipped over and Selbst showed the . One thinks Ryynanen's image may now be tarnished somewhat.
There has been a little controversy in the room after Abdelkader Benhalima was accused of soft playing by agreeing to check down the hand.
Enver Abdulraimov opened with a raise from late position and Jesper Hougaard three-bet all in for 11,300 on the button. The small blind folded but Benhalima called in the big blind before saying, "check, check, check" to the only active player in the hand. Eventually Abdulraimov called and low and behold they checked down the board.
"All of you turn over your hands," instructed the tournament director and the active players obeyed.
Hougaard:
Abdulraimov:
Benhalima:
The players at the table could not believe Benhalima had checked his set and Abdulraimov had checked his top pair.
"That's collusion" said Jason Mercier who had walked over to see what all of the commotion was about.
After much discussion Benhalima was given a one-round penalty and nobody on his table is going to trust him for the rest of this tournament.
Day 1b of the World Poker Tour Malta Main Event has been completed after eight 60-minute levels were played out in the Casino at Portomaso. The player who ended the day as an overwhelming chip leader and leads everyone going into Tuesday's Day 2 is Jackson Genovesi.
Genovesi ended the day with a massive stack of 147,500 chips, over 50,000 more than his nearest rival Johan Guilbert on 96,100. Genovesi was propelled to the top of the counts midway through proceedings when he flopped the nuts in a massive pot that resulted in the PartyPoker Pro Kara Scott being eliminated. From that moment on Genovesi had to stack to make a real nuisance of himself and he certainly deserves the glory of being the overnight chip leader.
As expected a whole host of big names and familiar faces were among the 105 entries for today. Some of those who made it through with chip stacks intact include Giovanni Rizzo (95,800), Alessio Isaia (77,500), Erik Cajelais (74,800), Ilan Boujenah (62,100), Jason Mericer (56,600) and Fabrice Soulier (49,500) whilst the likes of Vanessa Selbst (29,500), Tony G (17,600), Andrew Badecker (15,700), Marvin Rettenmaier (13,375) and Anton Wigg (12,700) all made it through but will have a little more work to do when play restarts.
Play resumes at 13:00 CET and we are told the plan is to play between five and six 90-minute levels depending on how quickly the field thins. As soon as we know anything solid we will let you know.
Until play restarts, why not check out the sneak preview of the Tony G / Phil Hellmuth triathlon over on the PartyPoker Blog?
flop saw Selbst check-call a 1,800 bet from her sole opponent. The 
turn saw Selbst go on the attack and make it 2,800 to play, a bet that Ryynanen quickly called. The 
river looked like it was going to see a bet from Selbst but she pulled back at the last second and checked. Ryynanen checked behind.
and Selbst showed the 
. One thinks Ryynanen's image may now be tarnished somewhat.
