WPT Malta day 2 live updates

05:07

Day Two Ends

This feel like the longest day in the world!

30 players made it through with Cecilia Pescaglini destroying everyone in her path. You can read the full recap here.

04:00

Chip Counts

1. Cecilia Pescaglini 990,000
2. Marvin Rettenmaier 390,000
3. Filippo Bianchi 260,000
4. Mats Karlson 290,000
5. Tristan Clemencon 280,000
6. Christofer Williamson 270,000
7. Zsolt Vizsnylczai 260,000
8. Salvatore Biano 260,000
9. Matt Giannetti 220,000
10. Isaac Haxton 195,000

03:40

Giannetti Applies The Pressure

Vitalii Minakov raises to 6,000 and Matt Giannetti makes the three-bet from the cut-off. Marvin Rettenmaier is seated on the button and four-bets to 38,500. Minakov folds and Giannetti moves all in for over 200,000. Rettenmaier asks for a count but eventually surrenders pocket tens face up.

03:25

Marvin Rettenmaier Eliminates Andreas Berggren

Andreas Berggren raises on the button and Marvin Rettenmaier moves all-in from the big blind and Berggren snap-calls. When the cards are turned over Rettenmaier was in a world of hurt.

Berggren: A♦ A♣
Rettenmaier: J♣ 10♥

Then the dealer gave us the flop and Rettenmaier’s dreams all came true at once.

Flop: K♦ Q♣ 9♥ – The stone cold nuts.

Turn: K♠

River: 5♥

Rettenmaier ~ 390,000

03:15

Bonomo’s Tens Hold Strong

Antti Karkainen raises to 6,500 in early position and Justin Bonomo calls to his direct left and the big blind also comes along for the ride. The flop is K♥ 9♣ 4♠ and after the big blind checks Karkainen bets 8,000, Bonomo calls and the big blind folds. The turn is the 7♣ and Karkainen bets 7,000 and once again Bonomo calls before both players check down the J♥ river.

“Ace high,” says Karkainen

Bonomo: 10♠ 10♣ and 166,000 chips.

03:00

Tony Sanguedolce Will Not Be Making the Money

Viktors Vorobjovs opens to 7,000 from early position and Tony Sanguedolce moves all-in on the button for 56,500. Vorobjovs makes the call and we have a showdown.

Vorobjovs: A♣ J♦
Sanguedolce: 4♦ 4♠

Board: J♥ 8♠ 10♦ K♠ Q♥

Vorobjovs ~ 210,000

02:10

Chip Counts

We are having one last ten-minute break and then we will play the final level before we all go to bed.

1. Cecilia Pescaglini 750,000
2. Marvin Rettenmaier 290,000
3. Salvatore Biancoi 290,000
4. Zsolt Vizsnyiczal 280,000
5. Filippo Bianchi 260,000
6. Matt Giannettin 240,000
7. Nesrine Kourdourli 232,000
8. Simon Trumper 278,000
9. Isaac Haxton 210,000

01:45

Phil Hellmuth Has Been Eliminated

Phil Hellmuth has been eliminated after losing two pots in quick succession. In the first pot there was a raise by Salvatore Bianco who made it 5,000 to play and Phil Hellmuth three-bet out of the small blind for a total of 17,000 and Bianco calls. The flop is [Ax] [7x] [3x] and Hellmuth fires a c-bet and Bianco calls. The turn is the 8♣ and Hellmuth fires his second barrel and Bianco once again calls. The last card is the K♣ and Hellmuth bets 65,000 into a 70,000 pot and Bianco calls. Hellmuth verbally mucks his hand and Bianco turned over [9x] [7x] to take down a monster pot and cripple Hellmuth with a lowly pair of sevens.

Bianco ~ 360,000

The exit hand was even more bizarre that the first!

Hellmuth has around 20,000, starting the hand, when he raises to 7,200 in the cut-off. Andras Fekete is on the button and he makes it 12,000 and when the blinds fold he overturns his cards and shows K♥ J♠.

“Wow buddy, I still have chips left,” says Hellmuth.

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

“Well I aint folding, says Hellmuth.

Hellmuth decides to just call leaving himself 8,000 behind and flop comes down A♠ 10♥ 6♠. Hellmuth checks, Fekete moves all-in and Hellmuth cant wait to join him. When the cards are turned over Hellmuth is the overwhelming favourite with his A♦ 9♣.

Turn: 9♠

You can hear the crowd grown and people start talking about the potential flush.

River: 10♠

Hellmuth, who doesn’t look very well, is out and his next call of duty at WPT Malta will be to commentate on the final live stream itself.

01:20

Cecilia Pescaglini Loses a Pot

Matt Giannetti raises to 6,000 from mid-position and Cecilia Pescaglini three-bets from position, making it 13,500 to play. The hands are mucked in unison until Giannetti calls. The flop is 8♥ 7♣ 3♣ and Giannetti check-calls a 19,000 Pescaglini bet. The turn is the 2♣ and once again Giannetti checks and Pescaglini keeps up her aggression with a 23,000 bet. Back to the shade wearing American and he check-raises to 64,000. Pescaglini starts talking to herself in Italian but you can hear the word, “flush” being spoken several times before she folds her hand.

Giannetti ~ 340,000
Pescaglini ~ 660,000

01:00

James Sudworth Has Been Eliminated

James Sudworth three-bet jammed his last 35,000 and was called by Filippo Bianchi. Sudworth held [Ax] [9x] and Bianchi had the superior [Ax] [Kx] and it held.

Bianchi ~ 280,000

00:55

Tobias Renkemeier Has Been Eliminated

Filippo Bianchi has just eliminated Tobias Renkemeier in unfortunate circumstances. Renkemeier rivering a back door queen high flush but Bianchi had rivered the back door straight flush!

Bianchi ~ 235,000

00:45

One Woman Wrecking Machine

Cecilia Pescaglini is on a heater of a lifetime!

She has just been moved to the right of Tony G and by all reports has already eliminated two players. One of them was Julian Herold who was eliminated in a three-bet pot against the chip leader. All of the money went in on a flop of [Kx] [Tx] [Tx] and Pescaglini was holding [9x] [Tx] and Herold had [Ax] [Ax].

Pescaglini ~ 700,000

00:45

Phil Hellmuth on Drugs!

00:30

Chip Counts

1. Cecilia Pescaglini 395,000
2. Tony G 386,000
3. Matt Giannetti 290,000
4. Vitalii Minakov 280,000
5. Simon Trumper 245,000
6. Isaac Haxton 220,000
7. Nesrine Kourdourli 200,000
8. Tony Sanguedolce 195,000
9. Phil Hellmuth 150,000

00:15

Steven Van Zadelhoff Has Been Eliminated and Bonomo Hurt

Vitalii Minakov opened up the action with a 5,100 bet, Justin Bonomo comes into play with the cold call and the short stacked Steven Van Zadelhoff moves all-in on the button for around 40,000. Minakov is the first player to act and he tries to isolate van Zadelhoff by moving all-in for 117,000. Bonomo has both players covered and after having a count he makes the call and this was the situation going to the flop.

Bonomo: J♠ J♣
Van Zadelhoff: 7♥ 7♣
Minakov: A♥ Q♣

It didn’t take long for the misery to start for Bonomo and van Zadelhoff as the Q♠ A♣ 6♠ flop propelled Minakov into the lead. The next two cards didn’t improve the situation Minakov won a monster pot.

Minakov ~ 280,000
Bonomo ~ 95,000
van Zadelhoff ~ Out

00:10

G-Force!

Tony G has been climbing the chip counts very quietly today but he has just hit the top two spots with a bang. We catch the action on the turn and 22,000 up for grabs. The board is showing 8♦ 7♠ 2♣ J♦ and Christian Nitsche bets 11,500 and Tony G nonchalantly flips in the price of the call. The last card to hit the deck is the Q♦ and Nitsche checks to Tony G who overbets the pot with a 50,000 bet and Nitsche calls.

Tony G: A♦ 9♦

Tony G ~ 386,000
Christian Nitsche ~ 110,000

23:45

Hellmuth Again!

We just can’t stop finding pots with this man at the moment.

We catch the tail end and the dealer has already done his job. There is 70,000 in the pot and K♠ 10♥ A♥ 7♦ J♥ on the felt. Alexander Kuhn has bet 18,000 from the cut-off and Phil Hellmuth is considering his options from the button. He eventually makes the call and Kuhn shows him Q♣ J♦ for the straight and Hellmuth shows [Ax] [Jx] for two pair.

Kuhn~ 112,000
Hellmuth ~ 150,000

23:35

Joel Benzinou Has Been Eliminated

Joel Benzinou just lost a pre flop all-in, and was eliminated, after his pocket jacks went head to head with the pocket queens of his opponent.

23:25

Bounty Tournament Anyone?

On a flop of J♣ 8♦ 3♦ Tony Sanguedolce bets 6,600 into a pot of around 14,000 and Isaac Haxton makes the call. The turn of 9♠ is checked through as is the 9♦ on the river. Sanguedolce turns over 7♥ 9♥ and Haxton taps the felt in acknowledgement. Then as Sanguedolce is collecting his chips someone from the rail hands the Dealer two €500 notes and announces that he is putting a €1,000 bounty on the head of Sanguedolce!

Let the games begin!

Sanguedolce ~ 195,000
Haxton ~ 220,000

23:15

Hellmuth is Back in the Race

On a flop of A♥ Q♣ 8♥ and 21,000 in the pot Phil Hellmuth bets 8,000. Andras Fekete has been having a bit of verbal with Hellmuth all day, and he raises it to 19,700 from his direct left. Hellmuth considers his options before raising to 42,000 and Fekete moves all-in.

“I guess you have a set but I have to call,” says Hellmuth.

The players flip them over and it is Hellmuth who is ahead with top two pair A♦ Q♥ and Fekete has bottom two pair with A♣ 8♣

Neither the turn 7♠ nor the river K♣ helps Fekete and Hellmuth is right back in this tournament.

Hellmuth ~ 175,000
Fekete ~ 47,000

22:45

Hellmuth Loses a Chunk

There is a raise from under the gun and the price to pay is 3,600. Three people decide to pay that price including Phil Hellmuth in early position. The flop is delivered and it is A♥ J♠ 3♠ and the original raiser bets 6,100 and only Hellmuth calls. The turn is the 8♣ and the original raiser bets 12,200 (leaving himself around 15,000 behind). Hellmuth assesses the situation before putting him all-in and the call is made.

Original Raiser: A♦ J♦
Hellmuth: A♠ 8♠

“I was afraid of that,” says Hellmuth.

Turn: 8♣

River: K♥

Tony G was standing in the crowd watching the action, “Get the counsellor!”

Phil Hellmuth ~ 76,000

22:25

Chip Leader Cecilia Pescaglini Gets a Call Out of Brauner

Thomas Brauner raises to 3,200 under the gun, Nesrine Kourdourli cold calls as does Cecilia Pescaglini in the big blind. The flop is 8♣ 6♠ 6♥ and all three players tap the felt. The turn is the Q♥ and Pescaglini comes out firing with a bet of 4,000 and only Brauner calls. The river is the 8♥ and Pescaglini bets 19,000. Brauner thought and thought and thought. All the while Pescaglini would not stop jabbering away at him in Italian. The dealer eventually called time and as he motioned one second remaining Brauner verbally declared a call. Pescaglini slammed down her hand on the table and it had Brauner beat.

Pescaglini: J♥ 3♥
Brauner: Mucked.

Pescaglini ~ 335,000
Brauner ~ 100,000

22:10

Let’s Play Poker!

Kenny Hallaert raises to 3,500 in late position and when the action folds around to Phil Hellmuth in the small blind he three-bets to 8,600. Back to Hallaert and he folds and Phil Hellmuth turns over [6x] [3x].

“You want to play boys? Let’s play. You won’t be stealing my blinds anymore,” said Hellmuth.

22:00

Giovanni Rizzo Bumpy Ride

We have just seen Giovanni Rizzo wandering around the tournament floor rambling to himself. We looked at the table and can see that he has lost a flip [Ax] [Kx] v [8x] [8x]. This knocked him down to 60,000 but another intrepid reporter has just advised us that he has since doubled back up to 120,000 again.

21:45

Sofia Lovgren Talks About Bluffing Phil Hellmuth

20:30

Dinner Break

We will be back at 21.50

20:15

Giovanni Rizzo Eliminates Claire Renaut

Claire Renaut raises to 3,000 in middle position and a player on the button cold calls. Giovanni Rizzo three-bets in the small blind with a bet to 6,800. Julien Claudepierre is sat in the big blind and he makes a four-bet to 15,000. Back onto the blonde bombshell and she moves all-in and so does Rizzo. Claudepierre decides three is a crowd and he folds his hand.

Renault had 50,000 and Rizzo had her covered.

Renaut: A♥ K♠
Rizzo: A♦ A♠

Board: 4♠ 3♣ 3♥ 2♦ 9♥

Rizzo ~ 155,000

19:55

Giannetti Eliminates Yaiche

Basil Yaiche raises from early position with a bet of 2,800 and Matt Giannetti three-bets to 8,100 in the cut-off. Yaiche moves all-in and Giannetti quickly calls.

Giannetti: A♠ K♥
Yaiche: 8♦ 8♠

A King in the window put an end to the WPT hopes of the young Frenchman.

Giannetti ~ 175,000

19:35

What Are The Players at WPT Malta Day Listening To?

19:25

Kuhn Angers Hellmuth

Alexander Kuhn raises in the hijack and Phil Hellmuth makes the call in the cut off. The flop is a lowly looking 8♠ 2♦ 2♠ and Kuhn check-calls a 4,000 Hellmuth bet. The turn is the A♠ and once again there is a check-call from Kuhn but this time the price is a little higher – 6.200. The river is the 9♣ and both players check. Kuhn is the first player to reveal his cards and they are A♦ 5♦ and Hellmuth just stares at them in disbelief. He eventually mucks his hand, shakes his head and gets up and goes for a walk.

“Here we go,” says a player on the table.

Hellmuth sits back down, “I can’t believe it. I fold 30 times in a row and this guy calls a 4,000 flop bet with A♦ 5♦.”

Hellmuth ~ 52,000

19:15

Franco Guastamacchia Doubles Up Through Bonomo

Franco Guastamacchia raises to 3,200 in the hijack and Justin Bonomo calls in the small blind. The flop is 9♥ 8♣ 7♥ and Bonomo moves 7,000 across the line. Guastamacchia moves all-in for around 15,000 and Bonomo calls.

Bonomo: Q♦ 9♣
Guastamacchia: 10♦ 7♠

So Bonomo is ahead going to the turn but the dealer places the J♣ on the felt and Guastamacchia takes the lead. The river is the J♥ and Guastamacchia doubles up.

Guastamacchia ~ 40,000
Bonomo ~ 90,000

18:55

Nesrine Kourdourli Takes a Big Hit

Bejjani Kamal raises to 3,200 in the hijack and Nesrine Kourdourli three-bets from the button making it 8,700 to play. Action back on Kamal who likes to makes his decisions nice and simple and he moves all-in for 80,000. Kourdourli asks for a count before eventually calling and when the cards were turned on their backs Kourdourli was in trouble.

Kourdourli: Q♦ Q♥
Kamal: A♥ A♠

Board: K♦ 6♠ 7♣ 6♥ 5♣

Kamal ~ 160,000
Kourdourli ~ 120,000

18:40

Sofia Lovgren Has Been Eliminated

Sofia Lovgren is absent and James Sudworth told us that she ran a bluff into the open arms of Nesrine Kourdourli who had top two pair.

18:25

Wolff and Giannetti Clash

Matt Giannetti raises to 2,400 in the hijack and Thomas Wolff three-bets to 6,200 one seat to his left. Giannetti calls out of position and the dealer gives us a flop of J♥ 8♠ 6♦ just before Giannetti check-calls a 7,800 Wolff bet. The turn is the 4♠ and Giannetti checks once more. Wolff doesn’t slow down and he bets 16,700. Giannetti goes deep into the tank and when he finally resurfaces he decides to fold.

Giannetti ~ 170,000
Wolff ~ 125,000

18:15

Giovanni Rizzo Doubles Up

Giovanni Rizzo has just reached 100,000 after doubling up in an all-in pre flop war with pocket tens versus the pocket sizes of his opponent.

17:25

Mad Marvin Doubles Up

A player bets 2,400 from middle position and Marvin Rettenmaier three-bets to 6,200 on the button. The players in the blinds fold one after the next and the original raiser four-bets to 12,800. Pressure on Rettenmaier and he responds by five-betting to 23,600. The original raiser moves all-in and Rettenmaier calls.

“You are good,” says the original raiser.

Rettenmaier: J♦ J♥
Original Raiser: A♦ 8♦

Board: 5♣ 5♠ 2♦ J♣ 7♦

Yes he was. Rettenmaier moves up to 150,000 and his unnamed opponent is down to 30,000.

17:20

Cecilia Pescaglini Eliminates Another Player

All the money goes in pre flop with Cecilla Pescaglini holding A♥ K♥ and Georges Georgiou holding J♥ J♣.

Board: 2♣ 2♥ 4♦ A♦ 9♥

Pescaglini shouts something jubilant in Italian and gathers in her 395,000 chips.

17:00

Simon Trumps Giannetti

Matt Giannetti raises to 2,000 in the hijack and Simon Trumper defends his big blind. The flop is 10♦ 6♥ 4♥ and Trumper check-calls a 3,000 Giannetti bet. The turn is the 3♦ and both players check. The river is the 10♣ and Trumper bets 3,500 but Giannetti raises it up to 11,000 and Trumper makes the call.

Trumper: J♥ 10♠
Giannetti: 10♥ 9♥

Trumper ~ 95,000
Giannetti ~ 180,000

16:15

Dragan Galic Has Been Eliminated

Dragan Galic has been short all day and eventually got it in with pocket eights. He ran into pocket queens and despite the flop turning out [6x] [7x] [9x] he never got the cards he needed to remain in this WPT hunt.

16:25

Justin Bonomo Talks to Violet Dillon

European Royal Flush Girl Violet Dillon talks to Justin Bonomo about moving to Malta.

15:55

Rettenmaier Misses His Flush

The flop shows J♥ 8♥ 5♦ and there is 9,000 in the pot. Marvin Rettenmaier checks to Letterio Pirrota who bets 3,500. Action back on the German and he calmly check-raises to 11,300. Pirrota moves all-in in a heartbeat.

“I knew that was going to happen,” said Rettenmaier, “count please.”

The count was 49,000 and Rettenmaier made the call before turning over A♥ 2♥. Pirrota tabled A♦ A♠ and the turn Q♠ and the river 9♦ handed Pirrota a 115,000 pot and reduced Rettenmaier to 34,000.

15:55

Day 1b Chip Leader Interview – Tommy Vedes

15:45

Cecilia Pescaglini Is Looking Down at Everyone

Aleksandr Konstantinov raises to 2,000 in early position and Giovanni Rizzo (small blind) and Cecilia Pescaglini (big blind) both make the call. The flop is 9♠ 9♦ 4♠ and Rizzo checks the play to Pescaglini who bets 5,000. Konstantinov moves all-in, Rizzo folds and Pescaglini makes the call.

Pescaglini: 10♠ 7♠
Konstantov: Q♣ Q♦

The turn: 6♠ meant that Konstantinov was drawing pretty thin and the 10♣ river sealed the deal and Pescaglini moved up to 230,000 and into the chip lead.

15:35

Tony G Up to 75,000

The player on the button raises to 1,400, Christian Nitsche calls in the small blind and Tony G makes it a threesome from the big blind. The flop is Q♦ 8♣ 6♣ and all three players check. The turn is the 4♦ and the play checks around to NItsche who bets 1,600. Back to the G man and he pops it up to 5,500 and both players fold and Tony G is now up to 75,000.

15:20

Kenny Hallaert Eliminates Matteo Gambino

Kenny Hallaert moves up to 83,000 after getting it all-in pre flop with [Ax] [10x] versus the [Ax] [7x] of Matteo Gambino.

15:10

John Eames is Eliminated

John Eames has once again been eliminated from a major tournament going heads up against an under pair. This time it was a pair of aces versus a pair of jacks – all-in pre flop. The jack on the flop busting the young Englishmen.

“What am I going to do with you?” Says Tony G “I have spent the last two days nurturing you son. Now get on your bike back to the UK!”

15:10

James Sudworth Interview

Sudworth talks about superstition, playing Chinese Poker against John Eames during Day 1b gameplay and online cash games v live tournament play.

14:55

Simon Trumper Eliminates Sergey Kolyshevsky

Sergey Kolyshevsky threw his last 2,500 into the pot and Thomas Wolff calls in the the hijack seat before Simon Trumper three-bets to 10,300 from the small blind. Wolff folds allowing Kolyshevsky and Trumper to have their heads-up confrontation.

Trumper: A♥ 6♣
Kolyshevsky: Q♣ 8♥

Board: J♥ J♦ 9♥ A♥ 6♣

Trumper ~ 70,000

14:40

Table 15

Table 15 is shaping up very nicely at the moment. The November Niner and Day 1a front-runner Matt Giannetti occupies seat one, Daniel Carter occupies seat two, Antoine Saout is sat in seat six Cecilia Pescaglini in seat eight and the day 1b chip leader Tommy Vedes in seat nine. There are so many chips not he table we may need re-enforced legs.

Zsolt Vizsnyiczai raises to 1,150 in the cut-off and after a series of folds Matt Giannetti defends his big blind. We see a low flop of 7♣ 3♦ 3♥ and after Giannetti checks, Vizsnyiczai makes a c-bet that is quickly called. The turn of 5♠ is checked through before the dealer gives us the J♦ on the river. Giannetti makes a bet of 5,100 and Vizsnyiczai snap calls.

Vizsnyiczai: J♣ 8♣
Giannetti: 9♠ 9♣

Vizsnyiczai ~ 102,000
Giannetti ~ 117,000

14:25

Justin Bonomo Takes One Down

Justin Bonomo raises to 1,400 in early position and he receives two callers. The flop is J♥ 10♥ 10♠ and all three players check. The turn is the 9♣ and a 3,300 Bonomo bet takes down the pot.

Bonomo ~ 18,000

14:15

Phil Hellmuth On The WPT Live Stream

14:10

Phil Hellmuth Doubles Up

Tony Sanguedolce raises to 1,350 in early position and Mats Karlson cold calls one seat to his left. The action folds around to Phil Hellmuth in the big blind (who had just sat down) and he raises to 6,400. Tony Sanguedolce is next to act and he folds but Karlson moves all-in and Hellmuth cannot get his money in quick enough.

Hellmuth: A♠ A♥
Karlson: J♠ J♣

Board: 8♣ 3♦ K♦ 10♣ 4♦

Hellmuth doubles up in his very first hand and now has 70,000 whilst Karlson has been knocked down to 62,000

13:55

Giovanni Rizzo Starts Well

Giovanni Rizzo raises to 1,525 on the button and the Day 1b chip leader Tommy Vedes calls from the small blind as does Georges Georgiu in the big blind. The dealer gives the table the first flop of the day and it is K♣ 6♠ 2♦. Both players check to the raiser and Rizzo bets 2,500 and only Georgiu calls, The turn is the 7♦ and both players check. The river is the 5♠ and after Georgiu checks Rizzo bets 3,200 and Georgiu folds.

Rizzo ~ 43,000
Georgiu ~ 50,000

13:42

Welcome to Day Two of WPT Malta

Good afternoon and welcome to the Portomaso Casino here in sunny Malta. The first few strands of the 154 player field are starting to filter into the room and take their seats.

Action starts at 14.00 (CET) and we will be playing 90-minute levels. There will be a quick 10-minute break at the end of each level and dinner will be at 20.30 (CET). The dinner break will last for 75-minutes and we will end Day Two when we chop our field down to 27-players.

Interesting table confrontations include:

James Sudworth sharing a table with stable mate Sofia Lovgren and WPT Grand Prix de Paris casher Nesrine Kourdourli.

Phil Hellmuth will be battling with David Vamplew and centurion Tony Sanguedolce.

Justin Bonomo has interesting match ups versus Jacob Karlsson and Basil Yaiche.

Tony G is yet again sat next to his son John Eames.

Our chip leader Tommy Vedes is next to Giovanni Rizzo and Julian Herold.

13:28

Chip Counts and Table Draw