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At the start of day 2, with an average stack of 73K at the Malta Poker Dream main event many of the local poker fan’s eyes were fixed on Martin Kjaer and Keith Boniface who held 152k and 140k respectively. George Galea was still far off at that point of the tournament holding 47,200 which was just about half the average stack.  As blind levels started to increase throughout day two though, the remaining local players starting dropping out, either from being card dead, or the occasional bad beats that naturally hit players during long tourneys.

As Day 2 went along, Galea showed his true strengths at the felt though.  He was the only Maltese player who made it through the end of day 2.  He started the day with 47k, went up to 95, then 140k, 220k (with 114 players left) and then dropped slightly to 176k as the second tournament day came to an end with 72 players left in the field.

He started day 3 with a bang, quickly taking his 176k stack to 310k, which was the average stack at the time.  This gave him a well-needed gasp of breath, offering him more options on how to play his opponents at the felt.  He kept increasing his stack, made it in the money, and eventually finished the day with a very pleasant 617K as the player count dropped to just 35 players.

George Galea at the Malta Poker Dream

Galea started day 4 as the 11th strongest player on the field of remaining 35 players from the starting count of 408.  The average stack was up to 582k by then.  Galea had 617k chips so he was hovering above average although not comfortably enough to play loosely and take wild chances at doubling up. He maintained his stack for a large part of the game and took down a very tasty pot giving him a leg up to around 1.1million chips.  This was the highest that Galea had reached, and as players started to drop out, due to squeeze as a result from the ever-increasing blinds, Galea adapted his play accordingly.

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Geroge Galea - The last remaining player at the Malta Poker Dream Main Event

George Galea is the only Maltese player left in the tourney.  There are only 51 players left at the event.  Average stack is now up to 400,000 and George is hanging in there with 440,000.  He just doubled up after pushing all in with 88 vs an opponent who called with 77.  George also hit trips on the river, but didn’t bust his opponent – although he severely wounded him.

The blinds are now at the 22nd level at 8k/16k with 2k blinds

Here are the payouts for the Malta Poker Dream main event!

1 € 75.000,00
2 € 50.000,00
3 € 35.000,00
4 € 25.000,00
5 € 20.000,00
6 € 16.000,00
7 € 13.000,00
8 € 10.000,00
9 € 7.500,00
10 € 6.000,00
11 € 5.000,00
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Mark Attard - Malta Poker Dream

Mark Attard started off the day with just over 100,000 chips but he busted out of the tournament after 2 hands that  his hurt his stack and ended his tournament prematurely.

We caught up with Mark as he shared with us the last moments of his Malta Poker Dream experience.

MA: I’m disappointed  as I came here today with high hopes, as everyone knows I was the first Maltese Player in the tournament as regards to chip count, but as Poker goes, I got a bad hit and ended up bleeding really badly. Usually strong opponents always raise when they have something strong, but I encountered a different play – kind of a strange hand. I had 4 7 and I had to play because I was on the BB, nobody raised and I hit 2 pairs on the flop.

A 2 pair with 47 cannot be thrown away so I had to bet, a player raised and I had to call, then he went allin with 40k and I called it.  He showed 44 so he hit trips against my 2 pairs.
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