The first starting flight of World Poker Tour Malta played from 101 entrants down to 64 just a couple of days ago, and Fabien Sartoris is currently dominating the field with 127,350 chips. Thomas Wolff, Christian Nitsche, Franco Guastamacchia and Matt Giannetti round out the top five. Giannetti is perhaps the most notable player thanks to his current spot on the WSOP Main Event final table.
Some of the more notable players who didn’t make the Day 2 cut include McLean Karr, Fabrice Soulier and Arnaud Mattern. Soulier seemed strong with A-K suited, but it wasn’t enough to top the pocket kings of Andreas Klatt given a board that provided no help to either player.
Karr faced a similar fate when he combined 9-7 suited with a K-7-7 flop. After pushing all in, Alessandro Borsa showed A-7, giving him the stronger kicker by a large margin. The 10 and 8 on the turn and river had no effect on the rest of the hand, and Karr hit the rail.
Perhaps the biggest name to bust on Day 1a was Phil Hellmuth, who showed up late and busted from the very first table. After buying in on Level 6, Hellmuth attempted a complete bluff, pushing all-in with garbage hole cards. He missed the flop, turn and river, losing to the ace-high of his opponent. It’s likely that Hellmuth will seek redemption on Day 1b thanks to WPT Malta’s re-entry format. John O’Shea, John Eames, Marvin Rettenmaier and Mihai Manole are likely to do the same.
Justin Bonomo’s semi-permanent move to Malta, largely to continue his online poker career, proved to be a good one as he survived Day 1a. Some of the notables joining him include Tony G, Dominik Nitsche and David Vamplew.
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