Day 1c of the MPF Grand Event Starts at 2 p.m.

Welcome back to our coverage of the 2023 Malta Poker Festival (MPF) €550 Grand Event at the luxurious Portomaso Casino.

Today will feature the third of five opening flights with Day 1c kicking off today at 2 p.m. The first four opening flights, including Day 1c, feature an identical structure with players starting with 50,000 in chips (500 big blinds) and battling it out for 13 blind levels of 40 minutes each. Players re-enter twice per opening flight until late registration closes before the start of Level 9.

Saturday evening’s Day 1e is a turbo-charged affair with 20-minute blind levels. Otherwise, the structure is the same.

The field has thus far attracted 469 entries including 215 on Day 1a and 254 on Day 1b. We don’t want to jinx ourselves too much but it should be safe to say that the lofty €300,000 guarantee slapped on this event will be smashed at some point today. Now it is just a question of really of how big the Grand Event will become.

Thus far there are a total of 117 players finding a bag into Sunday’s Day 2 with 59 players coming through on Day 1a and another 58 players advancing on Day 1b.

Day 1a chip leader Marko Luksa is currently on the top of the pack heading into Day 2 with 687,000 followed by Day 1b chip leader Shaun Halliday with 656,000 in chips.

The only other players thus far to advance with at least 500,000 were Michal Gavurnik (577,000) and Chris Da Silva (500,000).

In addition to the Grand Event, the much-anticipated two-day The Hendon Mob €230 Championship begins today at 4 p.m. Meanwhile, tonight will feature the final €70 Grand Event satellite at 6 p.m. and the €250 Friday Shark Deepstack powered by Hibet at 8 p.m.

Our coverage will begin when cards are in the air shortly at a few minutes past 2 p.m. after announcements are made by MPF founder Ivonne Montealegre and Ludos Academy CEO Danilo de Berardinis.