September 17 2012, Matthew Pitt

Day 1b of the World Poker Tour Malta Main Event has drawn to a close after eight action-packed 60-minute levels were completed inside the vast Casino at Portomaso. A number of notables took to the felt during the course of Day 1b, but Jackson Genovesi had out-chipped everyone by the end of the night. In fact, he has more chips than anyone still in the tournament.

Genovesi didn’t have the easiest of tables when Day 1b began because Table 3 was home to Steve van Zadelhoff, World Series of Poker bracelet winner Ronnie Bardah, Fabrice Soulier, and PartyPoker Pro Kara Scott. Genovesi didn’t let the fact he was surrounded by stars faze him, though. If anything, quite the opposite was true.

During the fifth level of play, with blinds at 150/300/25, there was a raise to 700 and four callers before Scott stuck in a raise of her own and made it 2,300 to play from the small blind. Both Bardah and Genovesi made the call, and the dealer fanned out the flop. Scott continued her aggression and led out for 5,000 only to see Bardah raise to 18,000. Genovesi then flat-called Bardah’s raise, Scott also called, and action was three-handed to the turn.

“What is going on in this hand?” shouted Bardah as he looked up to the heavens, “You just flat 18k?” he motioned to Genovesi, “I have been in some tough spots before, but this is one of the toughest…I have put over 20,000 of my chips into this pot and I have to fold…I have outs too,” said Bardah before finally folding his hand. Genovesi then pretended to fold and the whole table burst into raptures and laughter at the reaction on Bardah’s face. Genovesi pulled his cards back and called.

Scott showed and needed a queen or a seven to survive because Genovesi held for the nut flush. The was not one of Scott’s outs and she headed to the sidelines while Genovesi became the new chip leader with 110,000 chips and from that moment, the young Italian never looked back.

For Bardah’s take on the hand, check out this video.

As mentioned, among the 105 entries were some of poker’s most familiar names and some of those who made it through with chip stacks intact included Giovanni Rizzo (95,800), Alessio Isaia (77,500), Erik Cajelais (74,800), Ilan Boujenah (62,100), Jason Mercier (56,600) and Fabrice Soulier (49,500). Vanessa Selbst (29,500), Tony G (17,600), Andrew Badecker (15,700), Marvin Rettenmaier (13,375) and Anton Wigg (12,700) also made it through but will have a little more work to do when play restarts.

Play resumes at 1300 CET (0400 PDT), and we are told the plan is to play between five and six 90-minute levels, depending on how quickly the field thins early on. The PokerNews Live Reporting team will be there to bring you all of the action as it unfolds.

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April 27 2012, Lee Davy

Day 2 of the PokerStars.com and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final has come to an end with Team PokerStars Pro Max Martinez sitting atop the chip count with a stack of 456,300. Martinez began Day 2 quickly growing his stack to join the plethora of players fighting for the higher ground. Then in the penultimate level of the day, disaster struck.

Martinez and Fabrice Soulier were involved in a 210,000-chip pot where Martinez was holding and Soulier held . The pot would have pushed Martinez right into contention, but a foul queen on the flop handed the pot to Soulier and left Martinez lamenting his luck with only 65,000 chips.

In the last level of the night, Martinez went on what can only be described as an almighty tear in which he grew his 65,000-chip stack to a sumptuous 456,300, climaxing in the elimination of Ivan Kudriavtcev after Kudriavtcev ran his pocket sevens into Martinez’ pocket tens.

But long before Martinez popped up on our radar, Day 2 began with a number of high-profile eliminations. Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Selbst, Ville Wahlbeck and Victor Ramdin joined Kevin MacPhee, David Vamplew and Samuel Chartier out of the door. PokerStars qualifier Malte Moenning began the day ninth in chips and was the first player to eclipse Nick Yunis at the top with 220,000 chips.

Team PokerStars Pro Pius Heinz started to gather some momentum as did his teammate Angel Guillen, while at the other end of things Joe Cada and Daniel Negreanu exited stage left. Sam Trickett left the field after a series of unfortunate coolers, and as Level 11 began, the newly crowned “100,000 Super High Roller winner, Justin Bonomo took the chip lead after eliminating two players in a three-way all-in to take him to 242,000 in chips. Hanging onto the coat tails of the “1,600,000 man were the likes of David Sands, John Eames, Nick Yunis and Malte Moenning.

In Level 12, David “Doc” Sands was the first player to pass the summit of 300,000 chips. Also in Level 12, Eames was eliminated, as was former EPT champion Vladimir Geshkenbein. Then there was a clash involving Mohsin Charania and Nick Yunis that thrust Charania into the EPT Grand Final spotlight for the first time.

With the blinds at 800/1,600 and an ante of 200, both Nick Yunis and Mohsin Charania had a 143 big blind stack and 131 big blind stack respectively. You would have thought that the pair would have sailed into Day 3 without breaking sweat, but Yunis had other ideas. Ben Vinson raised to 3,500 in first position, Mohsin Charania three-bet to 8,000, also in early position, before Yunis cold-four bet for 18,000 in middle position. Vinson stepped aside, Charania five-bet, Yunis six-bet for everything, and Charania was wondering if somebody was going to wake him up and tell him that it was all a dream. Charania had the preflop nuts – – and Yunis had the dominated . Five community cards later and Charania was the new chip leader with 380,000 chips and Yunis was down, and a few hands later, out!

When you have a man with an aura like Phil Ivey, then you need to get him on your TV table. It’s just a shame that the man was eliminated in the very first hand that he played after the crew announced lights, camera and action!

Team PokerStars Pros Barry Greenstein and Humberto Brenes left the party and Brits Chris Brammer and Ben Vinson started to grow their chip stacks. Brammer doubled through Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri and Vinson just ground away on a table with Annette Obrestad and Mohsin Charania.

In the depths of the last level Dario Minieri, Liv Boeree, and Fabrice Soulier were eliminated and when the final count came in 130 players left to play poker on Day 3.

End of Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts

Day 3 action begins at 1200 CET (0300 PDT) and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there to bring you all the action as the field heads toward the money bubble.

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