Thursday was the hump day of the festival and it was a hump with a bump, with a full schedule of events and buy-ins ranging from €70 to €5,300. The €3,000 MILLIONS main event was one of the events that started today, in parallel with day 2 of the €5,300 Hydra Entertainment High Roller. Starting days for the Grand Prix also resumed and mixed game fans were sated with a €330 single day Omaha freezeout.
One of two events to reach its conclusion, the €5,300 Hydra Entertainment High Roller saw Belgian Bart Lybaert outlast a field of 44 players to take down the €72,864 first prize and a rather magnificent looking trophy. Second place went to Michel Molenaar of the Netherlands, who was looking to make it a second €5k event win in Malta this year.
Party Poker MILLIONS Malta 2023 – #13 €5,000 + €300 Hydra Entertainment High Roller
Position
Player
Nationality
Prize
1
Bart Lybaert
Belgian
€72,864
2
Michel Molenaar
Dutch
€49,632
3
Kamil Sokol
Czech
€31,680
4
Teun Mulder
Dutch
€24,288
5
Farrid Jattin
Colombian
€17,952
6
Leo Margets
Spanish
€14,784
Total Entries
44
€211,200
Re-entries
3
Uniques
41
MILLIONS Day 1A
Sebastian Mortensen leads the field after the day 1a of the Party Poker MILLIONS Malta Main Event. The Danish player will take a 165k chip stack into Saturday’s Day 2 along with 26 other players who made it through the day from the 51 who started. Party Poker Team Pro Matt Staples also secured a safe passage into day 2, finishing well on 85k. Also still in contention is Dzmitry Urbanovich, who had entered the Hydra High Roller earlier in the day.
Party Poker MILLIONS Malta Day 1A Survivors
Position
Player
Nationality
Chips
1
Sebastian Mortensen
Danish
165,100
2
Jakub Wojtas
German
162,100
3
Villr Jyrki santeri Pohjalainen
Finnish
161,400
4
Thomas Clack
English
155,600
5
Mario Trattou
English
126,100
6
Clement Meunier
French
106,100
7
Enrique Mayor Martinez
Spanish
104,300
8
Junjie Li
Chinese
103,000
9
Richard Bouette
French
97,500
10
Nachman Berlin
American
89,000
11
Matthew Staples
Canadian
85,300
12
Scott Fingland
Canadian
74,900
13
Florian Ribouchon
French
72,600
14
Dzmitry Urbanovich
Polish
61,400
15
Clement Bonnant
French
58,600
16
Alex Peffly
English
54,700
17
Sylvere Paillot
French
47,000
18
Jun Beum Chun
South Korean
46,200
19
Ferran de Antonio Canela
Spanish
45,500
20
Mattia Brusoni
Italian
40,000
21
Conor O’Sullivan
Irish
40,000
22
Thomas Powell
English
40,000
23
Diego Santos Ferreira
Spanish
40,000
24
Martin Emmanuel Planiscig
Argentinian
35,300
25
Marcin Kruk
Polish
30,600
26
Ricardo De la Roas Moran
Spanish
24,300
27
Spyridon Valakos
Greek
18,900
Grand Prix €1m GTD Day 1C
After a 3-day hiatus, play in the €1m guaranteed Party Poker Grand Prix resumed, with the 3rd of its eight starting days. 23 out of the 151 players (15%) who started the day secured their ongoing participation in the €550 buy-in tournament and will return on day 2, which takes place on Sunday. The chip leader from day 1C is Austrian Daniel Montagnolli, who is the second player from the live starting days to breach the 1m chip barrier. There have now been 581 entries across the three live day 1s to have taken place so far, with another five yet to come.
Party Poker Grand Prix Malta Day 1C Survivors
Position
Player
Nationality
Chips
1
Daniel Montagnolli
Austrian
1,063,000
2
Eran Cohen
Israeli
763,000
3
Luigi Mario Grisa
Swiss
715,000
4
Lee Dillon
German
644,000
5
Bhavin Kathri
English
606,000
6
Francesco Squillaci
Italian
522,000
7
Ivane Khazaradze
Georgian
401,000
8
Dario Barone
Italian
269,000
9
Emmanouil Zacharakis
Greek
269,000
10
Aleksandar Sunjevaraic
Slovakian
258,000
11
Mauro Tarantini
Italian
235,000
12
Giovanni Petrone
Italian
221,000
13
Michael Nagy
English
215,000
14
Fabio Assennato
Italian
192,000
15
Alfonso Simone
Italian
190,000
16
Nicky Levene
English
174,000
17
Emanuele Giufre
Italian
138,000
18
Rico Schultz
German
136,000
19
Salvatore Merendino
Italian
117,000
20
Edison Salobehaj
Greek
116,000
21
Alessandro Marano
Italian
102,000
22
Neil Barron
English
101,000
23
Adam Owen
English
64,000
Single Day Omaha
Today saw the first of the two Omaha tournaments on the schedule take place. This was the lower buy-in of the two, with a €330 price tag to enter, while Sunday’s version costs €1,100 to get a seat at the table. Many of the players who had participated in Tuesday’s H.O.R.S.E event were amongst the 52 players who took part today, vying for the €5,245 first prize. Play started off quite seriously, but the appearance of Martin “Franke” Von Swiegbergk provoked a jovial atmosphere. Despite taking numerous lengthy breaks from the table during the tournament Franke, renowned for loose play favouring re-entry tournaments, somehow managed to make the final table, but narrowly missed the money, finishing 9th. The top honours went to two Danish players, who fought it out for the trophy. Pater Kramer Sandberg outlasted countryman Martin Buur Christensen after a 30 minute heads up battle, to take the title.
Party Poker MILLIONS Malta 2023 – #18 €300 + €30 Omaha Freezeout
Position
Player
Nationality
Prize
1
Peter Kramer Sandberg
Danish
€5,245
2
Martin Buur Christensen
Danish
€3,370
3
Joaquin Matias Ruiz Travi
Argentinian
€2,250
4
Mark Adams
English
€1,500
5
Rocco Criscio
Italian
€1,120
6
Hugo Loustau
French
€820
7
Joe Grech
Maltese
€670
Total Entries
52
€14,975
Today is the 7th day off the festival and its a busy one! There are two Grand Prix starting days, another MILLIONS starting day and the side event is a turbo version of the MILLIONS, but with a more accessible buy-in at €275+€25. Here’s the schedule for today, Friday 29th September, 2023:
Start Time
Event #
Event
Buy-In
12:00
#3
Grand Prix $1m GTD Day 1D
€500+€50
15:00
#21
Grand Prix Satellite to event #3
€60+€10
18:00
#3
Grand Prix $1m GTD Day 1E
€500+€50
21:00
#19
MILLIONS Day 1B
€2750+€250
21:00
#22
Turbo Millions Single Day
€275+€25
22:00
#23
Grand Prix Hyper Turbo Satellite to event #3
€60+€10
The full festival schedule of events can be found here
Photos from the event can be found here
Photography by Jean Marc Zerafa
Jonathan Raab
Party Poker MILLIONS Malta Media Coordinator