At the Portomaso Grand Opening festival in Malta, it was another very intense Saturday. The Malta Poker Festival Special Edition has concluded, while the Diamond 5k Million will have its finale today with Barakat, Alioto, and Levato at the final table. And there are many Italians qualified in the NLH Mystery Million.
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MPF Special Edition: Golden… shoe in Malta
The first of the major events scheduled at the Portomaso Grand Opening has concluded: the Malta Poker Festival Special Edition with a €2,000 buy-in and a €1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. Despite the presence of five Italians at the final table, the victory went to the Croatian regular Andro Scarpa, who came back in heads-up against the excellent Matteo Garofali. Here is the payout for the final table:
| FINAL POSITION | PLAYER | NATION | PRIZE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andro Scarpa | Croatia | €161,500 |
| 2 | Matteo Garofali | Italy | €100,850 |
| 3 | Giuseppe Stallo | Italy | €72,100 |
| 4 | Laurentiu-Florin Dumitru | Romania | €55,380 |
| 5 | Françoise Reidles | France | €42,620 |
| 6 | Elia Salerno | Italy | €32,780 |
| 7 | Marios Trattou | England | €25,220 |
| 8 | Gabriele Savà | Italy | €20,680 |
| 9 | Giuliano Boellis | Italy | €17,230 |
NLH Mystery Million: a shower of qualified Italians
Two flights were played yesterday for the NLH Mystery Million, day 1F and day 1G. In total, another 337 players joined the tournament, while 49 qualified for day 2 from Saturday alone.
Day 1F
120 players populated day 1F of the €1,150 NLH Mystery Million. Eighteen qualified, in a flight literally dominated by Alex D’Amore. In addition to the well-known regular, there are seven other Italians qualified from the aforementioned flight, the details of whom we provide:
| POSITION | PLAYER | NATION | STACK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alessandro D’Amore | Italy | 1,745,000 |
| 2 | Anastasios Vardalis | Greece | 820,000 |
| 3 | Piero Aldo Resta | Italy | 755,000 |
| 4 | Francisco Javier Dopazo Paz | Spain | 470,000 |
| 5 | Umberto Caiazzo | Italy | 450,000 |
| 6 | Artemios Angelos Fournaris | Greece | 385,000 |
| 7 | Svetoslav Nikolov | Bulgaria | 350,000 |
| 8 | Gianluca Cabitza | Italy | 300,000 |
| 9 | Roberto Vaira | Italy | 295,000 |
| 10 | Alex Bertuletti | Italy | 265,000 |
| 11 | Ovidiu Chirieac | Romania | 265,000 |
| 12 | Marios Trattou | England | 250,000 |
| 13 | Fortunato Festa | Italy | 230,000 |
| 14 | Antonio Sciacca | Italy | 225,000 |
| 15 | Tobias Peters | Netherlands | 220,000 |
| 16 | Javier Zarco Sanchez | Spain | 150,000 |
| 17 | Lawrence Robert Whyte | USA | 115,000 |
| 18 | Dimitrios Tampoultzis | Greece | 95,000 |
Day 1G
Day 1G of the €1,150 NLH Mystery Million welcomed as many as 207 players and, by the rule that 15% of the field qualifies, sends another 31 players to day 2 from this flight alone. In this case, the Italian presence is particularly pervasive:
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| POSITION | PLAYER | NATION | STACK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elia Salerno | Italy | 1,045,000 |
| 2 | Lulei Hu | Italy | 910,000 |
| 3 | Timur Sattarov | Russia | 735,000 |
| 4 | Babawande Olusegun F. Obadun | England | 725,000 |
| 5 | Stefano Fiore | Italy | 650,000 |
| 6 | Corrado Martinelli | Italy | 610,000 |
| 7 | Alec Michael Torelli | USA | 600,000 |
| 8 | Diogo Filipe Simoes Da Silva | Portugal | 580,000 |
| 9 | Fabrizio Capillo | Italy | 570,000 |
| 10 | Vasyl Popsha | Ukraine | 505,000 |
The other Italians
As mentioned, the Italians in this flight performed particularly well. In fact, 21 out of the 31 qualifiers are Italians. Here are the remaining names, outside the top 10:
| POSITION | PLAYER | STACK |
|---|---|---|
| 11 | Gabriele Sava | 500,000 |
| 12 | Angelo Marrone | 480,000 |
| 13 | Andrea Schettino | 435,000 |
| 14 | Silvio La Rosa | 415,000 |
| 16 | Andrea Calabria | 405,000 |
| 18 | Arturo Piscitelli | 375,000 |
| 19 | Lorenzo Pannunzi | 310,000 |
| 20 | Sergio Gandolfo | 255,000 |
| 21 | Luca Laurenzana | 225,000 |
| 22 | Andrea Cannizzaro | 200,000 |
| 23 | Renato Hysenbelli | 200,000 |
| 24 | Marco Leonzio | 200,000 |
| 25 | Fabio Assennato | 150,000 |
| 27 | Mirko Numerato | 135,000 |
| 29 | Vincenzo De Donato | 115,000 |
| 30 | Fabrizio Zucca | 85,000 |
Diamond 5k Million: Barakat, Alioto, and Levato at the final table
The circle is closing on the Diamond 5k Million, a €5,000 buy-in tournament with a guaranteed €1 million prize pool, which was not reached, despite a notable field of 192 players. At the end of day 2, eight players remain, competing for a title worth €202,600. Three of them are Italian, as can be seen from the details:
| POSITION | PLAYER | NATION | STACK |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | “No Need Money” | Germany | 12,400,000 |
| 2 | Youness Hussein Barakat | Italy | 9,675,000 |
| 3 | Tom-Aksel Bedell | Norway | 4,620,000 |
| 4 | Dario Alioto | Italy | 3,240,000 |
| 5 | Ernst Christian Stratmeyer | Germany | 2,890,000 |
| 6 | Sander Floris Van Wesemael | Netherlands | 2,875,000 |
| 7 | Marco Levato | Italy | 2,360,000 |
| 8 | Jonas Kronwitter | Germany | 1,525,000 |
Four of our players were eliminated in the money:
11th Ermanno Di Nicola €20,800
13th Angelo Vietti €17,200
18th Manuel Persico €10,600
19th Francesco Canzonieri €10,600
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Cover image: Andro Scarpa (courtesy Portomaso, MPF & Imperium Events)
