September 23 2011, Donnie Peters

Day 2 of the 2011 World Poker Tour Malta took place on Thursday with 154 players returning to action. At the end of the day, 30 of them remained and Cecilia Pescaglini was leading the way with a stack of 976,000. She’s well ahead of the rest of the field, including her closest competitor, Marvin Rettenmaier, who is in second place with 415,000.

The top 27 spots are set to be paid out, which means that the money bubble has yet to break. That will happen on Day 3, but Day 2 still saw plenty of action.

Dragan Galic, David Vamplew, Dominik Nitsche, David Peters, Steve O’Dwyer, William Thorson, Tobias Reinkemeier and Day 1b chip leader Tommy Vedes were all eliminated on the day. Phil Hellmuth was anther notable player to hit the rail, falling in Level 14 according to the WPT Live Update Team.

Hellmuth lost all of his chips in two quick pots. On the first hand, Salvatore Bianco raised to 5,000 with the blinds at 1,200/2,400 with a 400 ante and Hellmuth three-bet to 17,000 from the small blind. Bianco called and the flop came down . Hellmuth bet and Bianco called to see the fall on the turn. Again, Hellmuth bet and Bianco called. The river completed the board with the and Hellmuth bet 65,000 into a pot around 70,000. Bianco called holding for a pair of sevens. Hellmuth mucked his hand and Bianco scooped the chips.

Shortly thereafter, Hellmuth, who began the hand with around 20,000, raised to 7,200 in the cutoff seat. Andras Fekete made it 12,000 to go from the button. The two blinds folded and Fekete exposed his hand, revealing the . “Wow buddy, I still have chips left,” said Hellmuth.

“Sorry, I’ll understand if you fold,” responded Fekete.

“Well, I ain’t folding,” said Hellmuth.

Hellmuth then just called the raise and was left with about 8,000 behind. The flop came down and Hellmuth checked. Fekete moved all-in for Hellmuth quickly called. He held the to go against Fekete’s already-exposed . The turn brought the and the river the . Fekete made a spade flush on the river to send Hellmuth to the rail in bizarre fashion.

A few other notables bustouts included Sofia Lovgren, Julian Herold, John Eames and Nicolo Calia.

Of those advancing to Day 3, Giovanni Rizzo is the shortest stack left with 59,500 in chips, as well as Tristan Clemencon, Tony G and Isaac Haxton, who all have below-average stacks. Sitting above the mean is November Niner Matt Giannetti with 370,000 in chips. He has the fourth largest stack that will be returning for Day 3.

Day 3 will take place on Friday starting at 1630 CEST (1530 BST). The plan for the day is to grind it out until the final table of six is set. First place is over $273,000, but no one is guaranteed anything just yet. Be sue to stay tuned to PokerNews for the daily recap of the action after play is through.

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*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour

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July 31 2011, Josh Bell

There was a sense of déjà vu kicking around the Crown Poker Room in Melbourne, Australia, as Day 3 of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Melbourne Main Event came to a close. Phillip Willcocks yet again bagged a staggering amount of chips and ended the night as the chip leader.

Willcocks began the day with almost double his nearest competitor and after nine hours of play, Willcocks again found himself with almost double his nearest competitor. Willcocks will begin the final table with 2,317,000 in chips, which happens to be over quarter of all the chips in play.

How Willcocks managed to accumulate such a massive chip stack became the story of the day. It can be attributed to a misstep from the young Koray Turker. After the bubble burst, both Willcocks and Turker had dominating chip leads, and there were no players close to the towering stacks of these two. All they had to do was stay away from each other and they would both be primed for a deep run and almost certainly a final table finish.

All was well until Turker tried to get tricky with a busted straight draw on a board showing . Turker had already fired bullets on the flop and turn, and continued this aggression on the river, when he jammed his remaining 650,000-chip stack into a pot of around 400,000 on the river. Willcocks made the call with for a flush, and Turker showed his , exiting the building in 28th place for a $8,600 score.

Some of the prominent names who managed to finish in the money, but fell short of the elusive final table include, PokerStars Team Online Pro Keiran Harris, Ricky Kroesen, Antonis Kambouroglou, Michael Guzzardi and James Obst.

When Aharon Shabtay was eliminated in 10th place after almost nine hours of play, there was applause and handshakes galore as the nine remaining players reveled in their impressive final table finish.

Willcocks with the dominating chip lead, is the man to beat. He will begin the final table with a staggering 30 percent of all the chips and in good position to win the title of APPT Melbourne Main Event Champion.

Not only will the nine returning be playing for the title and being able to make a name for themselves as one of the best players in the Australasian region, but they will also be vying for the $330,000 first-place prize that goes with all the bragging rights.

Join PokerNews for continuous live updates of all the action until the 2011 PokerStars.net APPT Melbourne Main Event champion is crowned. It all kicks off at 1410 AEST (2100 PDT).

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