Thursday was the hump day of the festival and it was a hump with a bump, with a full schedule of events and buy-ins ranging from €70 to €5,300. The €3,000 MILLIONS main event was one of the events that started today, in parallel with day 2 of the €5,300 Hydra Entertainment High Roller. Starting days for the Grand Prix also resumed and mixed game fans were sated with a €330 single day Omaha freezeout.
One of two events to reach its conclusion, the €5,300 Hydra Entertainment High Roller saw Belgian Bart Lybaert outlast a field of 44 players to take down the €72,864 first prize and a rather magnificent looking trophy. Second place went to Michel Molenaar of the Netherlands, who was looking to make it a second €5k event win in Malta this year.
| Party Poker MILLIONS Malta 2023 – #13 €5,000 + €300 Hydra Entertainment High Roller | |||
| Position | Player | Nationality | Prize |
| 1 | Bart Lybaert | Belgian | €72,864 |
| 2 | Michel Molenaar | Dutch | €49,632 |
| 3 | Kamil Sokol | Czech | €31,680 |
| 4 | Teun Mulder | Dutch | €24,288 |
| 5 | Farrid Jattin | Colombian | €17,952 |
| 6 | Leo Margets | Spanish | €14,784 |
| Total Entries | 44 | €211,200 | |
| Re-entries | 3 | ||
| Uniques | 41 | ||
MILLIONS Day 1A
Sebastian Mortensen leads the field after the day 1a of the Party Poker MILLIONS Malta Main Event. The Danish player will take a 165k chip stack into Saturday’s Day 2 along with 26 other players who made it through the day from the 51 who started. Party Poker Team Pro Matt Staples also secured a safe passage into day 2, finishing well on 85k. Also still in contention is Dzmitry Urbanovich, who had entered the Hydra High Roller earlier in the day.
| Party Poker MILLIONS Malta Day 1A Survivors | |||
| Position | Player | Nationality | Chips |
| 1 | Sebastian Mortensen | Danish | 165,100 |
| 2 | Jakub Wojtas | German | 162,100 |
| 3 | Villr Jyrki santeri Pohjalainen | Finnish | 161,400 |
| 4 | Thomas Clack | English | 155,600 |
| 5 | Mario Trattou | English | 126,100 |
| 6 | Clement Meunier | French | 106,100 |
| 7 | Enrique Mayor Martinez | Spanish | 104,300 |
| 8 | Junjie Li | Chinese | 103,000 |
| 9 | Richard Bouette | French | 97,500 |
| 10 | Nachman Berlin | American | 89,000 |
| 11 | Matthew Staples | Canadian | 85,300 |
| 12 | Scott Fingland | Canadian | 74,900 |
| 13 | Florian Ribouchon | French | 72,600 |
| 14 | Dzmitry Urbanovich | Polish | 61,400 |
| 15 | Clement Bonnant | French | 58,600 |
| 16 | Alex Peffly | English | 54,700 |
| 17 | Sylvere Paillot | French | 47,000 |
| 18 | Jun Beum Chun | South Korean | 46,200 |
| 19 | Ferran de Antonio Canela | Spanish | 45,500 |
| 20 | Mattia Brusoni | Italian | 40,000 |
| 21 | Conor O’Sullivan | Irish | 40,000 |
| 22 | Thomas Powell | English | 40,000 |
| 23 | Diego Santos Ferreira | Spanish | 40,000 |
| 24 | Martin Emmanuel Planiscig | Argentinian | 35,300 |
| 25 | Marcin Kruk | Polish | 30,600 |
| 26 | Ricardo De la Roas Moran | Spanish | 24,300 |
| 27 | Spyridon Valakos | Greek | 18,900 |
Grand Prix €1m GTD Day 1C
After a 3-day hiatus, play in the €1m guaranteed Party Poker Grand Prix resumed, with the 3rd of its eight starting days. 23 out of the 151 players (15%) who started the day secured their ongoing participation in the €550 buy-in tournament and will return on day 2, which takes place on Sunday. The chip leader from day 1C is Austrian Daniel Montagnolli, who is the second player from the live starting days to breach the 1m chip barrier. There have now been 581 entries across the three live day 1s to have taken place so far, with another five yet to come.
| Party Poker Grand Prix Malta Day 1C Survivors | |||
| Position | Player | Nationality | Chips |
| 1 | Daniel Montagnolli | Austrian | 1,063,000 |
| 2 | Eran Cohen | Israeli | 763,000 |
| 3 | Luigi Mario Grisa | Swiss | 715,000 |
| 4 | Lee Dillon | German | 644,000 |
| 5 | Bhavin Kathri | English | 606,000 |
| 6 | Francesco Squillaci | Italian | 522,000 |
| 7 | Ivane Khazaradze | Georgian | 401,000 |
| 8 | Dario Barone | Italian | 269,000 |
| 9 | Emmanouil Zacharakis | Greek | 269,000 |
| 10 | Aleksandar Sunjevaraic | Slovakian | 258,000 |
| 11 | Mauro Tarantini | Italian | 235,000 |
| 12 | Giovanni Petrone | Italian | 221,000 |
| 13 | Michael Nagy | English | 215,000 |
| 14 | Fabio Assennato | Italian | 192,000 |
| 15 | Alfonso Simone | Italian | 190,000 |
| 16 | Nicky Levene | English | 174,000 |
| 17 | Emanuele Giufre | Italian | 138,000 |
| 18 | Rico Schultz | German | 136,000 |
| 19 | Salvatore Merendino | Italian | 117,000 |
| 20 | Edison Salobehaj | Greek | 116,000 |
| 21 | Alessandro Marano | Italian | 102,000 |
| 22 | Neil Barron | English | 101,000 |
| 23 | Adam Owen | English | 64,000 |
Single Day Omaha
Today saw the first of the two Omaha tournaments on the schedule take place. This was the lower buy-in of the two, with a €330 price tag to enter, while Sunday’s version costs €1,100 to get a seat at the table. Many of the players who had participated in Tuesday’s H.O.R.S.E event were amongst the 52 players who took part today, vying for the €5,245 first prize. Play started off quite seriously, but the appearance of Martin “Franke” Von Swiegbergk provoked a jovial atmosphere. Despite taking numerous lengthy breaks from the table during the tournament Franke, renowned for loose play favouring re-entry tournaments, somehow managed to make the final table, but narrowly missed the money, finishing 9th. The top honours went to two Danish players, who fought it out for the trophy. Pater Kramer Sandberg outlasted countryman Martin Buur Christensen after a 30 minute heads up battle, to take the title.
| Party Poker MILLIONS Malta 2023 – #18 €300 + €30 Omaha Freezeout | |||
| Position | Player | Nationality | Prize |
| 1 | Peter Kramer Sandberg | Danish | €5,245 |
| 2 | Martin Buur Christensen | Danish | €3,370 |
| 3 | Joaquin Matias Ruiz Travi | Argentinian | €2,250 |
| 4 | Mark Adams | English | €1,500 |
| 5 | Rocco Criscio | Italian | €1,120 |
| 6 | Hugo Loustau | French | €820 |
| 7 | Joe Grech | Maltese | €670 |
| Total Entries | 52 | €14,975 | |
Today is the 7th day off the festival and its a busy one! There are two Grand Prix starting days, another MILLIONS starting day and the side event is a turbo version of the MILLIONS, but with a more accessible buy-in at €275+€25. Here’s the schedule for today, Friday 29th September, 2023:
| Start Time | Event # | Event | Buy-In |
| 12:00 | #3 | Grand Prix $1m GTD Day 1D | €500+€50 |
| 15:00 | #21 | Grand Prix Satellite to event #3 | €60+€10 |
| 18:00 | #3 | Grand Prix $1m GTD Day 1E | €500+€50 |
| 21:00 | #19 | MILLIONS Day 1B | €2750+€250 |
| 21:00 | #22 | Turbo Millions Single Day | €275+€25 |
| 22:00 | #23 | Grand Prix Hyper Turbo Satellite to event #3 | €60+€10 |
The full festival schedule of events can be found here
Photos from the event can be found here
Photography by Jean Marc Zerafa
Jonathan Raab
Party Poker MILLIONS Malta Media Coordinator
The post Bart Lybaert Triumphs in Hydra Entertainment High Roller at the Party Poker MILLIONS Festival Malta appeared first on Online Poker News and Updates | partypoker Blog.
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