The first of two starting days of the €800 Mega Poker Series Malta attracted a total field of 79 entries at the Casino Portomaso and only about half a dozen of those were re-entries. After eight 60-minute levels it was Daniel Jarosch who seized the lead with 327,500, edging out local hero and Maltese “poker mama” Jackie Cachia on 321,500. MPS Season 3 leader board winner Aristotelis busted very early on and re-entered to finish with 212,300 and claim the last spot on the overnight podium.
Robert Jan Hoogendoorn was among the players to shoot two bullets on Day 1a of the DeepStack Main Event but neither attempt was crowned with success, eventually sending the majority of each stack to the two end-of-day chip leaders. Jean Marie Vandeborne busted on the feature table within the last two levels of play and shortly after the four last hands of the day were announced, Guillaume Jenner and Roland Gerga busted within quick succession.
Big stacks and notables through to Day 2 on Friday include Dieter Aebi (201,100), Jari Hurri (142,100), Theo Steimer (140,500), Season 3 leader board runner-up Andris Resevskis (129,700), Season 2 leader board champion Adrian Apmann (129,000) and World Series of Poker bracelet winner Michael Gathy (111,500). They will all be returning for level 9 at blinds 1,000-2,000 with a running ante of 300 and 52 players are already guaranteed to show up again.
The second €50 Rebuy Satellite doubled its guarantee and awarded 10 seats worth €800 each as well as €450 to the 11th place finisher, among the ticket winners was MPS regular Jacek Pustula. There is another €80+10 Turbo Satellite as of 13:00 local time with two Main Event entries guaranteed. Day 1b then featured the vast majority of all online qualifiers, the Poker Royale team from Wiener Neustadt as well as many Italians.
Full Chip Counts Day 1a
Day 1a chip leader Daniel Jarosch
