Malta Team Poker – Tournament report
3:08 pm in Casino Di Venezia, Live Poker, Poker News by Etienne Licari
Malta Team Poker Casino di Venezia
The Malta Team Poker tournament was easily one of the most original concepts in the Maltese Poker scene that we’ve seen in a very long time. Although a similar event had taken place at the Casino di Venezia during the Malta Madness tournament (Poker Idol), it only took the role of a side event. That event was reasonably well attended, yet was largely overshadowed by the main event of €1,100. That was September 2010…fast-forward to May 2011 and the Team Poker tournament has taken on a life of its own!
Team Poker - Fabien Mezanger & Anna Colley
Largely anticipated by scores of Malta’s card sharks and poker fanatics, the tourney featured a very attractive buy-in at just €30 permitting players with all kinds of experience levels to participate.
At the tourney’s announcement approximately two months ago, numerous teams started to fill up the original 30 team places allocated to players. Following its hugely positive response and numerous requests, this number of teams was eventually increased to 42 teams when the event kicked off on Saturday the 7th May, as 126 players got together at the waterside Casino di Venezia for the wackiest tournament of the year.
The concept for the tournament was nothing like most players have had time to get accustomed to so far…chip dumps, player time outs, seat changes, team captains….the Team Poker tourney made all this possible and more! The instructions to the players were quite straightforward – Pick three members per team, choose similar clothing, colours, or accessories and most of all enjoy the team aspect in what is usually a very different kind of game, where traditionally, every player fends for himself.
Team Poker - Vodka JB UP
The casino floor was filled with many team players from different backgrounds each clad in their themed attire…and with team names like “Pink Piggies, Gallinari Prodigies, Kabocci, Vodka JB Up” the field was nothing short of colourful. At €30, many amateur players were expected, however it didn’t detract the more experienced players from joining the action at the Casino di Venezia for this year’s most affectionately spoken about local tournament…The Casino di Venezia seems to have some tricks up its sleeve after all.
As far as the tourney progression went, 126 total participants from 42 teams took the prize pool up to €3,780 and the game officially begun at 8:30pm on Saturday the 7th May 2011.
Throughout Day 1, excitement levels were pretty high for everyone at the felt, this was the first time that most of them ever played in a team poker tournament, which outlined the following rules.
Seat swaps were allowed between team members once per break. Any team that wished to do a swap had to notify the TD around 10 minutes before the break. When swapping, seats players were not allowed to take their chips with them and had to assume the rights or the new seat occupied.
Team Poker '3Sum'
Chip dumps were also allowed at a rate of once per break. Chip dumps were also limited to a maximum of 20% of the player’s stack. Teams were also permitted to discuss seat swaps and chip dumps by stepping outside the tournament area.
Players from the same team were not allowed to sit at the same table unless two tables remained at which point if 3 players from the same team were still in the game, they would be split on the remaining 2 tables appropriately.
The final table only allowed one player per team meaning that if two players from the team remained at the onset of the final table, their chips would be added together when ‘the chosen one’ would start playing. Players were also allowed to swap their seats during the breaks. Teams were also given two time-outs in order to discuss the current hand with their team members. Time outs were limited to 60 seconds during which time the tournament clock would be put on pause.
The set of rules applied to the Team Poker tournament literally broke all the traditional rules that players are accustomed to! Considering their regular No Limit Texas Hold’em experience, this gave players a whole new set of weapons with which to progress to the final table adding another strategic element to the immensely popular card game!
Team Poker - Franco Portelli - Suited Connectors
With the addition of the team factors, the 20 minute blind levels progressed at a ‘blindingly’ fast pace giving players with sub average stacks a hard time at keeping up against the more aggressive/fortunate of their opponents. By the end of it, day 1 ended with 25 teams left in the game and 38 players from the initial 126. Players’ average stacks went up to 42k from the average of 15k (45k per team). The tourney came to a close on day 1 at the 11th level, as players were getting eliminated relatively quickly. The last hand in fact, saw 7 players exit the tournament simultaneously.
The Team Poker tournament, brought in Many new players who experienced the Casino Di Venezia for the first time. This was confirmed by Christine Sammut, Tournament Director at the Team Poker Tournament, who pointed out that “We saw many new faces at the Casino thanks to the Team Poker tournament, which is great, considering that this was quite an innovative event. It makes me really happy to see that it was so well received amongst our regular customers and all the new players I had a pleasure to meet throughout this week-end”
Day 2 started with Martinez Lenivet from the Pastaga team in the lead as he held 197,900 chips. The average stack was 42,000 and the level had reached 1.5k/3k with a running ante of 400. Lenivet was followed by Justin Camilleri (Poker Babies) with 131,900 and Jacques Balzan Demajo (Poker Sharks) in third with 96,700. Some of the more familiar players at the top of the list included Goerge Galea (Gallinari Prodigies) with 61,000 and Fabien Mezanger (FBI) with 60,000.
As the event progressed through the final table stage, players started to keep their focus on the prize pool and as they got nearer to the bubble, the game slowed down slightly as is natural at such stages of the tournament. After numerous tight plays though, Oliver Said was the unlucky player who was the first one out of the money. He was the last player from the ‘Gallinari Prodigies’ left in the game, which brought their tourney to a end. After that, the game picked up the fast pace that was prevalent all throughout the two day team poker-fest.
Team Poker - Ivan Farrugia - Brady Bunch
The game carried on with Ivan Farrugia from the ‘Brady Bunch’ in the lead holding €557k followed by Sylvie Phan from the ‘Pink Panther’s in seat 5 with 535k. Third biggest at the felt was Noel Dark from the ‘DarkFighters’ with 358K in seat 1. Maris Ziglavis from ‘The Incredibles’ team followed in fourth with 318k at seat 6, and Edward Borg from ‘Team Gejms’ came in with 98k after a series of swings which left him hanging on, but slightly wounded at such a late stage of the tourney.
Following a quick break, the players were back at the felt at around 21:40 where the blinds had reached 20k/40k + 5k in antes. Ivan Farrugia had lost some of his stack and his lead in the tourney when he went pushed with JJ against an opponent who held 77 and hit trips giving him an advantage and taking a large portion of the chip leaders (Ivan’s) stack. Ivan Farrugia tried to recuperate some of his lost fortune when on the button, after the whole table had folded, he pushed all-in with 57d in an attempt to get the BB to fold and earn the round of blinds and antes. Edward Borg, who was on the Big Blind held AQ and had slightly more chips than Ivan couldn’t let his hand down and called Ivan’s push dominating him and sending Ivan Farrugia (Brady Bunch) out in 5th place taking €264 for his placing.
After Farrugia’s exit, Sylvie Phan (Pink Panthers) pushed all in with a pair of Queens and Maris Ziglavis called with K9. He paired a 9 but it didn’t get stronger by the river, and Sylvie quickly made a double up taking her stack up to 150k. By then, blinds had increased to 25k/50k and antes 5k.
Team Poker - Sylvie Phan - The Incredibles
We saw another all in from Sylvie Phan with 99 and once again she got called by Maris Ziglavis. This time he held KQ yet she managed to hit trips on the flop and sent him out in 4th place which gave him €415. Maris Ziglavis (The Incredibles) had a much better fate that his female team counterpart who was the first player out of the tournament earlier on day 1.
With 3 players left in the game, the tension started to rise even further. Noel Dark and Borg were relatively close in numbers, until Sylvie and Noel Dark went up against each other and Sylvie’s AJ didn’t hold up to Noel’s KK. Sylvie managed to pair a Jack but didn’t gain any further strength which resulted in a win for Noel Dark, giving him a considerable chip lead over his final opponent Edward Borg (Team Gejms). Sylvie was awarded €642 for her placing 3rd in the Team Poker Tournament.
Team Poker - Edward Borg - Team Gejms
The battle between the final two players was rather swift. After some discussion as to whether or not to agree on a deal, the finalists decided to go for the trophy and played it till the end.
Eventually, Noel Dark (Darkfighters) emerged victorious with a paired King against Edward Borg, who had one of the biggest poker roller-coaster rides of his life. Borg started the day with the 5th biggest stack of the tournament but was reduced to 6,000 at one point and managed to work his way up to the 2nd place throughout in the tournament – Quite a remarkable performance from the only remaining player of the ‘Team Gejms’ group.
So another tournament came to a close last week-end at the Casino di Venezia. An interesting tournament which got many of the Maltese Players together in a fun filled two-day poker adventure. Our congratulations go out to the DarkFighters for enduring throughout the tourney and making it to the top spot! Well done guys! 2 thumbs up also goes out to the Casino di Venezia for hosting a tournament which was a very welcome break from the norm!
DarkFighters Team Poker Winners
The DarkFighters
• Noel Dark
• Dennis Pace
• Thomas Harvey
The DarkFighters team donated part of their winnings to the “Puttinu Cares” charity, in an act of good will that was brought up and supported prior to the tournament by some of the more active poker players in the local Poker scene. Needless to say, such acts are well respected in the community and should serve as inspiration for the players who often win several thousands at the large multi table international tournaments that take place around our warm Poker active islands! Remember, sharing is caring !
Here are some more photos from the Team Poker tournament!
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