This Tuesday was especially important to all surviving players participating in the Malta Poker Festival €550 Grand Event. The eight remaining players returned to their assigned seats once again and, as it was later confirmed, Emanuele Onnis proved he is the one worthy of the trophy coming with the first place. Cash prize for his excellent performance throughout the even reached €150,000.
This Final Table was special for a number of reasons but what really made it stand out was the fact that this is the poker festival’s inaugural edition. Players considered reaching this far a feat of sorts and all eight of them were striving to reach the top positions on the official leader board. They performed best among all 1,366 entries of this last for the poker congregation tournament, generating an overall prize pool of €662,510.
Day 3 Chip Leader Enters Ready for Poker
With the start of poker action on Day 4 of the Grand Event, Fabian Gumz was the chip leader with some 9,845,000 in chips. Such a considerable amount of chips reserved him a fair advance before his rivals for the throne, but not for long. It was only a matter of time before tables turned and the first player had to make his way out. This was Steven Iglesias from Norway who claimed the minimum cash payout on Day 4 €14,710.
Nicolaj D’Antoni was the player who eliminated Iglesias and added a significant amount of chips to his own chip stack. Shortly after that another promising participant, Borge Dypvik has to bid farewell to his dreams of winning the first-ever MPF Grand Event. The leading player at the end of Day 2 battled with Gumz and could not outplay him, hence the 7th place and a cash payout of €20,600. It was not long before Espen Uhlen Jorstad had to dive head first in a fight against D’Antoni, once again seeing the Italian player prevail over his rival.
Jorstad then bagged €28,000 for his sixth position on the official rank list joining his fellow Norwegian players on the way out. Italy was also well-represented with three players, all claiming some of the top positions. Giovanni Salvatore was the first among them to exit the race with €34,000 following a meeting with the winner Onnis. Following a brief break, participants returned refreshed and at this point, Gumz was on an elimination streak. He kickstarted action by defeating Henning Andre from Sweden, who bagged €40,000.
Leading Players Bid Farewell to the Throne
Only three participants were remaining on their seats by this level and they were all determined to go far, as they had proven over the span of the entire day that defeating rivals is what they do best. The first one among them to leave the race was D’Antoni, who was eliminated by Gumz, receiving the bronze. The Italian pro bagged €50,000 for his performance, which is one-third of the champion’s payout.
Live now on Twitch the final table of the Brilliant @the_malta tune in now and watch all the action.https://t.co/RQaeSox8AR
— Donna Morton (@darkangel709) November 6, 2018
Germany’s very own Gumz was then ready to enter the heads-up duel against Onnis, both having set their eyes on the prize. He managed to climb all the way from Day 1a to this Final Table and come the heads-up duel he had some 25,670,000 in chips against the 8,450,000 belonging to Onnis. Ups and downs on the felt led to Onnis doubling and slowly but surely increasing the gap between him and his German opponent.
Right before the end of this Final Table, Gumz had a chip stack of 14,000,000 against the 20,000,000 one nursed by Onnis. Ultimately, Gumz had to settle for the runner-up position and the consolation prize of €85,000 bringing a wrap up to the culminating event and the poker festival as a whole. The poker congregation is planned as a recurring festival and all participants are already eager to enter its second edition.
