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With just 18 players left in the game, the 3 remaining tables are being broken down to the 2.  George Galea, who has been having an incredible tournament so far, is holding less than average stack, at around 680k.  The average is currently 1,1m and players just went on a short break before continuing at the new seating arrangement at the new blinds level at 25k/50k

We took the break as a perfect opportunity for a group photo with George and all his supporters here at the Malta Poker Dream tournament venue – the superb Grandmaster hall at the Portomaso Complex!

George Galea's supporters at the Malta Poker Dream tournament

Vanja Torbarov Unibet Open Malta 2011

Amongst the crowds of players who took part at the Unibet Open Malta Poker Tournament, we took a minute with local player, Vanja Torbarov’s, after he exited the tournament for an in depth look at his tournament progression. Whilst commenting on the tournament itself, he also gave us a technical look into some of his plays throughout the early stages of the tournament, as well as the most crucial hands in his Unibet Open experience.

PM: What attracted you to take part in this tourney
VT: I missed a few of these International tourneys recently as I was abroad and couldn’t play. I was speaking with some colleagues of mine who mentioned the tournament to me and thought, ‘why not?’. I wanted the experience but I didn’t have time for satellites so I invested the €1,700 buy-in and gave it my best.

PM: What were your impressions of the tournament
VT: Well, I didn’t last too long, but while I was there it all seemed to go fairly well. The tournament was well organized, I cannot complain, smooth registration without queues; Tourney started on time…so really it was all fine.

PM: Your thoughts about the tournament structure and your progress?
VT: Maybe for €1,650 we could have had 20k to start off with, but the blinds were slow so it compensates. When I went out, before the hand started, I managed to come back to 8k. Previously I had dropped to about 5/6 k and I picked some hand then went up to 8k. With the BB at 150 its still a decent stack, but then…. Read the rest of this entry →

Currently, the Portomaso is leading the pack when it comes to Poker in Malta, hosting dozens of international Poker tournaments at the centrally located Maltese casino.  Hosting events for clients such as Pokerstars, Unibet, Betsson, and many more, the casino has set the benchmark for others to follow.  We met up with Josef Borg – operations manager at the Portomaso Casino – to find out more about the Poker operation at the Portomaso and their plans for the future of Poker at the Portomaso Casino.

PM: There’s a massive poker boom in Malta at the moment.  What do you think are the main things that attract people to play poker and why do they get so passionate about it?

JB:Poker is made up of the most important ingredients for success; fame, money and social status, so this boom was naturally inevitable.  People love to play poker because it has become a lifestyle for most.

PM:  On a worldwide scale, Poker has come a long way in the last few years, and Malta has also experienced a Boom in the industry.  What can you attribute this ‘Boom” to?  globally, and on a national level?

JB:  I attribute the Global boom to television coverage, as Texas Hold’em was played since the early 1900’s but became popular in the 2000’s due to exposure on television, the internet and popular literature. It was inevitable that Malta’s poker scene grew in proportion with the rest of Europe.

PM:  We are also seeing a lot of interest from foreign organizers who are looking at Malta as their choice of preference when it comes to multi table European Poker tournaments.  Why do you think this is the case?

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Mateusz Moolhuizen Unibet Open Malta Winner

Mateusz Moolhuizen is the Unibet Open Malta Winner!

Mateusz Moolhuizen was doing all the raising in the last levels of the final table. He took control of the table and his opponent started to lose out chips to him in a slow but consistent way. Peters limped in way too many hands for his own good, and Mateusz Moolhuizen kept retaliating with shoves and pushes applying pressure and putting his oopponent in tough positions.

When Peters finally got a decent hand (KT) to call Moolhuisen with, he lost against Moolhuizen’s AK who doubled up to about 2.5 million chips compared to Peters’ 1.9 million.

Peters received his final strike in the form of two pairs when Moolhuizen pushed 2.04 million chips holding KT and Peters called with his K6. A King on the flop paired both the players Kings and the turn card did nothing to help any of them. Moolhuizen’s supporters burst with joy when he hit his second pair on the river leaving his opponent to content himself with the 2nd place at the final table.

Here are the payouts for the money finishers at this year’s Unibet Open Malta tournament!

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We lost two more players and are now down to the last three at the Unibet Open Malta 2011! First out was Mikkel Christensen who in the small blind moved all in for 375,000 chips with his T8.  He got instantly called by Mateusz Moolhuizen from the big blind with QQ.  The flop showed JAK58 and Moolhuizen successfully managed to knock out Christensen leaving us with four players at the felt..

Next out was Rodolfo Gaddo in 4th place, when he moved in with his last remaining 550,000 chips whilst in the SB.  He got called by Tobias Peters from the BB.  Gaddo showed K5 against Peter’s AT.  The dealer proceeded to uncover the T89QQ giving the victory to Peters and €32,000 to Gaddo for finishing in 4^th place.

Unibet Open Malta 2011

The 293 players who participated at the Unibet Open Malta 2011 tournament have – for the most part – exited the tournament with only 9 players left for the final table which will start later on today at 14:00hrs.

The Unibet Open has been a great tourney which hit the expected participation rate for such an internationally renowned tour.  The tourney hit a chunky prize pool of €417,000 brought about by the €1,650 buy-in and the 293 players from Nordic regions who made it to Malta for the first stop of the Unibet Tour this year.

155 players started off on Day 1A and Day 1B attracted another 143 players who each were given 15,000 chips as their starting stack.

"Re-Raise!" by Franco Portelli Unibet Open Malta 2011

We saw participation by the local regulars Jacques Balzan Demajo, Keith Boniface, Franco Portelli, Vanja Torbarov, Jorryt Van Hoof, Milly Uylenbroek, Jesper Hougaard, and Georg Westin.  Amongst these, Franco Portelli and Jacques qualified for the tournament through a satellite butneither of them did it past their starting days.

From the locals, Keith Boniface made it furthest into the tournament by making it to day 2, but he started with just 19,400 chips and eventually exited a few hours into the second day of the tourney.

The Unibet Open attracted several Poker Professionals from around the poker world and featured personalities like:

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