The second starting flight of the World Poker Tour Malta played to completion on Wednesday at the Portomaso Casino. An additional 139 players bought into the event for 3,300 Euro, creating a total field of 240 players and a prize pool of just under 698k Euro. Tommy Vedes led the day with 115,500 chips.
Vedes’s last major live tournament victory came in 2009 when he won WPT Festa al Lago for a staggering $1.2 million. He has over $2.6 million in career live tournament winnings, making him a force to be reckoned with as play continues on Day 2.
Some of the biggest names to join the action on Day 1b included McLean Karr, Steven Kelly, Sam El Sayed, John Eames, Dragan Galic, Ivan Freitez and Phil Hellmuth. Some of these players were eliminated on Day 1a, but bought in a second time thanks to the event’s re-entry format. Hellmuth, for example, lasted only 14 minutes on Day 1a after arriving late for the 6th level of play. Hellmuth, Galic and Eames survived the day, albeit with small chip stacks. Hellmuth is relatively dangerous at 34,075. Eames will have to fight back if he wants to advance past Day 2, as he’s holding just 17,100 chips.
A total of 49 players hit the rail on Day 1b, meaning that 90 will advance to join the Day 1a survivors and bring the total competitor field to 154. Even Vedes’s stack isn’t big enough to match that of Fabien Sartoris, who ended with the overall chip lead after Day 1a.
A number of big name pros will join Sartoris, Vedes, Hellmuth and company, including William Thorson, Steve O’Dwyer, Tobias Reinkemeier, Marvin Rettenmaier, Sofia Lovgren and Antoine Saout. Some of the players who weren’t as successful and hit the rail early include Kara Scott, Fabrice Soulier, James Akenhead, Vladimir Geshkenbein and Davidi Kitai.
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