Matte Karjalainen and Ronny Albrigtsen Chip Millionaires on Day 1b
Day 1b of the €300,000 guaranteed 2024 Malta Poker Festival Spring Edition €550 Grand Event is in the books with a banner turnout of 291 entries to bring the total up to 468 entries when taking into account yesterday’s Day 1a with still four opening flights to go.
The day was scheduled to end once the field was down to 45 hopefuls to join the 27 players that found a bag on Day 1a into Sunday’s Day 2. However, Norway’s Ronny Albrigtsen sent two players packing in the same hand by delivering a bad beat to both Svajunas Seduikis and Pavle Peclej to end the day with more than 1 million in chips.
While this was better than the 858,000 that Day 1a chip leader Indre Stanaityte bagged on Wednesday, it wasn’t good enough to take the overall chip leader as Finland’s Matte Karjalainen earned that honor with nearly 1.3 million in chips after cruising most of the day.
Several other notable players found a bag including John Forsman, Garry Spinks, Angelo Vietti, Andrew Cutajar, Richard Kellett, Jonty Willis, poker author and The Chip Race podcast cohost Dara O’Kearney, Maltese all-time leading live tournament poker winner according to The Hendon Mob Joseph Grech, Cory Desmond, Mark Attard, and Antoine Talvard.
The action will resume on Friday at 1 p.m. with Day 1c. In the meantime, check out the chip counts from the Day 1b survivors below:
| Place | Player | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Matte Karjalainen | 1,269,000 | 127 |
| 2 | Ronny Albrigtsen | 1,046,000 | 105 |
| 3 | John Forsman | 695,000 | 70 |
| 4 | Simon Taylor | 693,000 | 69 |
| 5 | Kai Vater | 683,000 | 68 |
| 6 | Lennart Bernett | 628,000 | 63 |
| 7 | Emanuele Napolitano | 614,000 | 61 |
| 8 | Jordan Dumas | 600,000 | 60 |
| 9 | Garry Spinks | 578,000 | 58 |
| 10 | Angelo Vietti | 546,000 | 55 |
| 11 | Vilde Ekren | 506,000 | 51 |
| 12 | Damjan Pulejkov | 477,000 | 48 |
| 13 | Ian Tabone | 425,000 | 43 |
| 14 | Krystian Nalepka | 413,000 | 41 |
| 15 | Enes Hasic | 401,000 | 40 |
| 16 | Niel Adams | 375,000 | 38 |
| 17 | Andrew Cutajar | 370,000 | 37 |
| 18 | Richard Kellett | 288,000 | 29 |
| 19 | Aleksi Heikkinen | 284,000 | 28 |
| 20 | Jonty Willis | 280,000 | 28 |
| 21 | Dara O’Kearney | 265,000 | 27 |
| 22 | Joseph Grech | 238,000 | 24 |
| 23 | Igor Bukowski | 211,000 | 21 |
| 24 | Stephen Barnes | 204,000 | 20 |
| 25 | Lee McRoe | 204,000 | 20 |
| 26 | Jan Stigter | 201,000 | 20 |
| 27 | Per Alstig | 194,000 | 19 |
| 28 | Thomas Cazaletz | 194,000 | 19 |
| 29 | Paul Coles | 192,000 | 19 |
| 30 | Gary Morgan | 158,000 | 16 |
| 31 | Terence Newton | 150,000 | 15 |
| 32 | Cory Desmond | 149,000 | 15 |
| 33 | Ivan Furniet Martinez | 143,000 | 14 |
| 34 | Alexander Jank | 136,000 | 14 |
| 35 | James Paris | 128,000 | 13 |
| 36 | Stefan Trevelyan | 117,000 | 12 |
| 37 | Sven Lorenz | 114,000 | 11 |
| 38 | Mark Attard | 87,000 | 9 |
| 39 | Thore Boedefeld | 82,000 | 8 |
| 40 | Julija Drevina | 82,000 | 8 |
| 41 | Paul Hopper | 75,000 | 8 |
| 42 | Antoine Talvard | 48,000 | 5 |
| 43 | Matthew Gray | 30,000 | 3 |