September 16 2012, Matthew Pitt

Just hours after Matt Salsberg won the World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris, the Main Event at WPT Malta kicked off at the beautiful Casino at Portomaso in St. Julien’s. Day 1a of the “3,300 buy-in tournament attracted 64 players, but only 34 made it through to Tuesday’s Day 2. Casper Toft of Denmark finished Day 1a on top of the chip counts with 123,600.

Part of Toft’s stack is made up of the last remaining chips from European Poker Tour Snowfest champion Vladimir Geshkenbein, who Toft eliminated with pocket eights against Geshkenbein’s ten-nine.

Although Day 1a’s field size was slightly less than anticipated, mainly due to how close this particular tournament is to Grand Prix de Paris and the fact there are some major WCOOP events taking place online, there were still plenty of familiar faces in the crowd; none more recognizable than that of Phil Hellmuth.

The 12-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner bought in right at the end of Level 6, the latest permitted, and he took his seat on Table 1. As is usually the case when Hellmuth plays in a major live event, the eyes of the other players and those of the media focused on him. Hellmuth looked happy, was sporting a wide smile and talking to his opponents until Spider-Man made an appearance!

In this very tournament last year, Andras Fekete, a Hungarian who lives in Malta, was responsible for eliminating Hellmuth. During Season X’s edition of WPT Malta, Hellmuth was bitten by what he thought was a spider and the bite gave him some discomfort. Fekete then produced a video of himself blasting cardboard figures of Hellmuth, vowing to bust him out again! Tony G loved the idea and decided to buy Fekete into this year’s tournament in exchange for performing some tasks for him.

One such task was dressing up as Spider-Man and trying to put Hellmuth on tilt! To be fair Hellmuth took it all in great spirits, though did not seem too pleased when Spider-Man called the clock on him! Hellmuth made it through to Day 2 and will start with 48,600 chips.

Joining Hellmuth and Toft are WPT Venice Grand Prix third-place finisher, Andrea Dato (106,300); the sixth-place finisher at the recent WPT Merit Cyprus Classic Kiryl Radzivonau (94,800); Dominik Nitsche (91,400), Jeffrey Rossiter (82,400), Casey Kastle (43,900), Jonathan Duhamel (40,900), Dan O’Brien (36,900), Arnaud Mattern (13,900) and Ozzy Sheikh (13,400), among others.

Some of the players who will have to reenter on Day 1b if they want to progress to the latter stages of this tournament because they busted out during Day 1a include Cecilia Pescaglini (who finished second here last year), Erik Cajelais, WPT Champions Club member Sean Jazayeri and Marvin Rettenmaier who could become the first player to bust out twice and still go on to win a WPT title after he busted out, reentered, and busted out again all during the eight 60-minute levels!

Day 1b will commence at 1300 CET (0400 PDT) and continue until eight 60-minute levels have been completed. Join the PokerNews Live Reporting team on Monday for all of the action from the WPT Malta main event at the Casino at Portomaso.

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September 14 2012, Rich Ryan

On Friday, the World Poker Tour Season XI Grand Prix de Paris continued with Day 4 of the six-day reentry event. After nearly nine hours of play, the chip leader at the official final table is the executive producer of Showtime’s Weeds Matt Salsberg with 1.757 million chips. Joining him at the final table are Mohsin Charania, Timothy Adams, Theo Jorgensen, Philipp Gruissem, and Fabian Quoss.

At the beginning of the day, 24 players had their sights set on the official final table, but only six could survive the day. There was a flurry of eliminations during the first level of play. The first player to bow out was Nicolas Cardyn, who ran into Kyle Cheong’s . Cheong held, and Cardyn was out in 24th place.

Following Cardyn out the door were Andrew Lichtenberger, Dan Djorno, and Bruno Lopes. Djorno open-jammed with from under the gun, Jérome Douieb re-shoved on his direct left with , and Bruno Lopes also shoved with . Douieb won, eliminating Djorno and crippling Lopes, who was eliminated shortly thereafter.

The next two players eliminated were Juha Helppi and Jean-Philippe Rohr. Both players were busted by Salsberg, who held aces against Helppi and kings against Rohr.

After the two-table redraw, Kyle Julius was the first to bust. Julius open-jammed his last 70,000 or so with , and Jorgensen called on the button with . The board ran out , and Julius hit the rail.

Florian Leconte, Michael Kwierk, and Bryan Colin were eliminated in 17th, 16th, and 15th place respectively, and then things started to slow down. In fact, the next elimination didn’t come for a full hour.

In one of the final hands of Level 19, Jacques Enjoubault opened in early position, and the action folded to Salsberg, who moved all in from the big blind. Enjoubault called with , which dominated Salsberg’s , but the board ran out and Enjoubault was eliminated in 14th place.

Daniel Amara and Raphaël Abitbol were the next two players eliminated. Amara was all in preflop with against Charania, who held two tens and flopped quads. Charania then won a race to bust Abitbol, who was all in and at risk with . Charania had , and the board ran out .

Grégoire Boissenot was eliminated in 11th place when he made a pot-sized shove on a board of . Adams called the jam with , which dominated Boissenot’s , and the turn and river came , respectively.

Hand-for-hand play stretched out for nearly an hour, until Joe Serock busted in 10th place. Serock four-bet most of his stack preflop, and was called be Jorgensen. The flop was , and Serock checked to Jorgensen who put him all in. Serock tanked for a bit, then called with . Jorgensen was ahead with , and the turn and river came , .

At the beginning of Level 21, the unofficial final table was set:

On one of the first hands at the final table Cheong three-bet jammed with deuces, and Salsberg iso-jammed with jacks. The jacks held and Cheong was out in ninth.

A few hands later, Idris Ambraisse was eliminated in eighth place. Ambraisse opened from under the gun, and was called by Charania, Gruissem, and Douieb. The flop fell , and when checked to, Ambraisse moved all in. Charania re-shoved, the action folded around and the hands were opened:

Charania faded an ace and diamonds as the turn and river came , , and Ambraisse was out.

Play slowed considerably on the official final table bubble, and for the next two hours the seven remaining players battled long and hard. One of the players who benefited the most from the bubble was Charania. In one particular hand, Charania opened to 24,000 from under the gun, and Gruissem and Adams called. The flop fell , and the action checked to Charania who continued for 33,000. Gruissem raised to 90,000, Adams cold-called, and Charania reraised to 233,000.

Gruissem and Adams folded, and Charania picked up the pot.

Quoss nearly busted on the final table bubble. Quoss found himself all in and at risk holding against Salsberg’s , but the board ran out , doubling Quoss.

Unsurprisingly it was Salsberg who busted the eventual bubble boy; Douieb. In the final hand of the evening, Quoss opened to 35,000 from under the gun, Douieb moved all in for 281,000 on his direct left, and the action folded to Salsberg, who reshoved having both players covered. Quoss quickly folded, and the hands were tabled:

Salsberg held as the board ran out , and Douieb was eliminated in seventh place.

Here’s how the final table looks:

To date, Salsberg’s biggest live score was for $108,412 when he finished 70th in the 2011 WSOP Main Event. All the other players have multiple six-figure scores, including Jorgensen who won this event in Season IX. If Jorgensen, the only WPT Champions Club member remaining, were able to win on Saturday, he would become the first player to ever win a WPT event at the same stop twice.

The final table will begin at 1600 CEST (0700 PDT) on Saturday. Be sure to follow the PokerNews Live Reporting Team as they provide up-to-the-minute updates straight from the Aviation Club de France.

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