Bart Lybaert Triumphs in Hydra Entertainment High Roller at the Party Poker MILLIONS Festival Malta

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