Category Day 1C

Day 1c of the 2024 Malta Poker Festival Spring Edition €550 Grand Event was a massive success at Portomaso Casino as the €300,000 guarantee was smashed with 277 entries bringing the total in the kitty up to €360,000 with still three opening flights to go on Saturday and Sunday.

Ashley Harrison surpassed the 1,269,000 in chips bagged by Matte Karjalainen on Day 1b to not only finish on top of the 42 survivors but to also take the overall chip lead after ending the day with a massive stack of 1,648,000. Harrison was relentless near the end of the day, putting pressure on all of his opponents, and will be a force to watch out for on Sunday’s Day 2.

Kelly Kellner also bagged more than 1 million in chips with Jamie Scannell, the entertaining Colin Cooper, and Jorgen Jessen rounding out the top five players on Day 1c.

Meanwhile, perhaps Amanda Smith was the happiest to find a bag despite there not being a ton of chips inside of it. She qualified through a raffle to play in her second live event ever outside of a pub and was elated to earn the €900 min-cash that players already earned simply by finding a bag into Day 2.

The action resumes tomorrow for Day 1d at 1 p.m. In the meantime, check out all of the chip counts below from Day 1c.

Place	Player	Chips	Big Blinds
1	Ashley Harrison	1,648,000	165
2	Kelly Kellner	1,190,000	119
3	Jamie Scannell	656,000	66
4	Colin Cooper	507,000	51
5	Jorgen Jessen	504,000	50
6	Petteri Miettinen	500,000	50
7	Paul High	458,000	46
8	Oliver Mihajlovski	445,000	45
9	Boro Skalonja	434,000	43
10	Eddy Shaw	393,000	39
11	Thomas Jakobsen	384,000	38
12	Stuart Oliver	367,000	37
13	Yves Thalmann	364,000	36
14	Daniel Stacey	340,000	34
15	Jonathan Schuman	328,000	33
16	Piotr Kuszczak	325,000	33
17	Wai Man Kwan	305,000	31
18	Colin Bidwell	290,000	29
19	Jozsef Dobos	282,000	28
20	Tomasz Brzezinski	277,000	28
21	Frank Hofener	273,000	27
22	Ashley Scott	273,000	27
23	Andrea Agnoletto	271,000	27
24	Antonio Merone	256,000	26
25	Domenico Gala	254,000	25
26	Liutauras Armanavicius	247,000	25
27	Mark Vella	242,000	24
28	Florian Guertler	241,000	24
29	Sebastian Pfeiffer	233,000	23
30	Jordi Ribatallada Ruiz	218,000	22
31	George Warnock	189,000	19
32	Wilhelmine Connolly	178,000	18
33	Thomas Hofmann	174,000	17
34	Ludovic Uzan	149,000	15
35	Florin-Radu Postole	135,000	14
36	Pontus Magnusson	122,000	12
37	Alex Montgomery	108,000	11
38	Julien Da Silva	100,000	10
39	Alex O’Brien	95,000	10
40	Daniel Kuhlmann	86,000	9
41	Amanda Smith	73,000	7
42	Salvatore Dimartino	63,000	6

Level 15: 6,000/12,000 (12,000)
Entries: 42/279

Massimo Bruno jammed for 42,000 from early position and was called by Domenico Gala from the small blind. A hand at another table was taking its time to play out while a crowd emerged around this table.

Massimo Bruno: 6♠3♣
Domenico Gala: A♠Q♦

Bruno bricked the J♥10♣J♣7♥Q♠ board and the rest of the field celebrated that they were in the money for at least a min-cash of €900.

“Oh wow!” said the short-stacked Amanda Smith who was playing in just her second tournament outside of pub league games. “I can’t believe it!”

Stay tuned for the final chip counts from Day 1c of the Main Event and see you back on the floor for Day 1d starting on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Level 15: 6,000/12,000 (12,000)
Entries: 43/279

The first hand in hand-for-hand mode took a bit of time to play out on Table 2. Domenico Gala was put to the test after betting 65,000 into a pot of a lot more with the 10♣Q♠K♦2♣10♠ on the board after the turn.

Jorgen Jessen jammed over the top for 187,000 and Gala tanked for more than five minutes before he folded.

A crowd emerged during this hand in anticipation of something big. While they didn’t get the all-in and call they were searching for they were still dazzled after Jessen opted to table his 10♥10♦ for quad tens.

Jorgen Jessen – 500,000
Domenico Gala – 150,000

Verneri Hakkinen and Clint Jeffery both hit the rail to leave 43 players remaining. The clock has been paused for hand-for-hand action on the Day 1c end-of-the-day and money bubble with 42 or fewer players advancing into Day 2 tonight.

Level 15: 6,000/12,000 (12,000)
Entries: 45/279

Nico Lambrechts jammed for about six big blinds and was called by Ashley Scott from the blinds.

Nico Lambrechts: A♦7♦
Ashley Scott: A♥J♠

Lambrechts was out the door near the Day 1c money bubble after his ace-seven suited didn’t pull ahead of ace-jack on the 8♥9♠3♣4♥5♣ board.

Meanwhile, Jason Ekridge also hit the rail to leave 45 players remaining and 42 advancing to Day 2.

Ashley Scott – 237,000
Nico Lambrechts – 0

Level 14: 5,000/10,000 (10,000)
Entries: 47/279

A bit of fun broke out on Table 2. It began when Colin Cooper opened for 25,000 from the button. Domenico Gala three-bet shoved for 120,000. Cooper was in the tank for about five minutes, during which time tons of banter took place.

“What do you have?” asked Cooper. “Pocket nines?”

“No,” responded Gala after rechecking his cards.

“Do you have tens?” asked Cooper. “Check your cards again.”

Gala checked his cards before denying he had tens.

“Do you have jacks?” Cooper was quick to ask. “Check again.”

The entire table erupted in laughter at this point and Cooper went back into the tank.

“Book says I shouldn’t call,” Cooper humorously said. “But I haven’t read the book.”

“I will show you one card if you fold,” said Gala. “You get to see two if you call.”

Cooper folded about a minute later and Gala was a man of his word. His opponent chose the A♣.

“What did you have?” asked Gala.

“A lot of paint,” responded Cooper before the entire table laughed. “Was hoping for undercards to my paint.”

Meanwhile, Marcin Jaworski, Karl-Heinz Metz, Paul Hunt, Roy Trickett, Mattias Andersson, Timothee Rey, and Jakub Chmelensky were all eliminated during the early portion of Level 14 to leave just 47 players remaining with 44 reaching the money.

Colin Cooper – 375,000
Dominico Gala – 160,000

The final 54 players are on their final 15-minute break of Day 1c. Blinds will increase to 5,000/10,000 with a 10,000 big blind ante.

Theo Drach hit the rail just before the break and will have to try again during one of the other three opening flights if he wants another chance at advancing to Day 2 and beyond in the Grand Event.