Travel Report: EPT13 Malta, Day 9 & Departure -- Blowing Through

The wind has been howling here in Malta the last couple of days. I know that’s an overused expression, but in this case it’s entirely apt.

The last two evenings I’m guessing the gusts have been in the 20-plus miles per hour range at least, which means at night there’s a constant whipping sound happening outside.

There’s also a soft whine coming in through the sliding glass doors of my room, which putting down towels and pillows doesn’t seem to lessen. I’m up on the sixth floor, and when I took up the towels this morning I could smell the salty sea on them even this high up.

This was my last day of helping report on the European Poker Tour Malta festival, and again I was on the €10K High Roller as it worked down to tomorrow’s finale. Things are moving along quickly both in this one and in the Main Event, which I imagine is probably going to make for a relatively short day for the fellas tomorrow. (I’m free to speculate this way without worrying about jinxing anything, since I’ll be on a plane and homeward bound.)

We made it back down to the Blue Elephant for another nice dinner, and afterwards a few of us went for a walk around the harbor out back and got knocked around by the wind which again was fierce. Could practically lean against it -- I’m not joking.

The whole trip ended up blowing by as well, perhaps because I was so busy throughout the entire time I’ve been here. I’m definitely ready to get back to the farm, though, even if only for a couple of days before I head back out again to New Jersey next week.

Flying back through Munich on Saturday, which will put me home late afternoon -- just in time to help feed some horses, I expect. Check the PokerStars blog to see who ends up winning these last two big events in Malta, and I’ll catch up with you again next week once I’ve ridden the wind back stateside.

Image: “KNOW MALTA,” Peter Grima. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Travel Report: EPT13 Malta, Day 8 -- Quick Circuits

A quick post to describe a lot of things going quickly today in Malta.

First off, since I didn’t punch in until later in the afternoon to go help report on Day 1 of the European Poker Tour Malta €10K High Roller, I was able to do a couple of things I’d wanted to do since I got here over a week ago.

One was to take a quick swim in the pool. The skies were overcast but it was warm and there was not much wind, and so it was a refreshing 15 minutes or so splashing around for a few laps. I’ve had a couple of trips where I’ve managed to work in a short dip in the mornings after breakfast and before the workday begins. In addition to physical benefits, there are mental ones, too, as it gives that vacation feeling even in the middle of a lot of work.

Another was to take a quick cab ride over to Mdnia to the Ta’ Qali Crafts Village for a little gift-seeking. Whereas I’ve been staying over on the east coast of Malta, Mdnia is over in the central part of the island, so the drive was essentially due west. Got to see once again all of the building and construction happening all over the place, reminding me of the local joke that the national bird is the crane.

Once at Mdina I didn’t really get to explore all that much as my cabbie agreed to wait for me as I looked around. Mdina is well known for glass blowing and ceramics, as well as for lace making and honey. So it wasn’t too hard to find some nice items and get on back over in good time to get ready for the day of work. Another quickly-traced circuit by your humble scribbler.

After I got back Howard told me a little about how a number of films were produced in Malta, including Robert Altman’s Popeye (1980) (a spectacular box office flop). Now there’s a whole Popeye Village in the northwestern part of the island. Would be something to explore, I think, on a return trip.

Okay, to review the poker quickly, too, where again I watched the chips and cards go round and round...

The High Roller (with a single re-entry option) attracted a decent number of entries -- over 130, with late registration still open until the start of Friday’s Day 2. Alexander Ivarsson ended with a big chip lead among the 73 surviving, with Martin Finger and Stephen Chidwick among the big stacks. Over in the Main Event they played down to 14 with Mats Karlsson of Sweden leading and Dominik Panka lurking with a big stack. Also coming back to short stacks will be Benjamin Pollak and Ole Schemion.

Only one more day working for me as I’ll be jetting off a little early to get some time on the farm before heading back out to New Jersey early next week. As always visit the PokerStars blog to follow along.

Global Poker Masters Plays Out This Weekend

The two-day Global Poker Masters kicks off tomorrow in Malta. The European Poker Tour is there now, too, the first visit for the EPT to the island just south of Italy. They’ve got a huge series going there, with 69 events total (I believe) and the Main Event getting started tomorrow.

As far as the GPM is concerned -- a.k.a., poker’s “World Cup” (as the GPI is dubbing it) -- on Saturday there will be five rounds of play scheduled starting at 12 noon Malta time (GMT+1, or five hours ahead of me in the ET zone). Then on Sunday comes the quarterfinals, semis, and finals, again starting at 12 noon.

Each of the five rounds on Saturday is comprised of eight-handed sit-n-gos with one representative from each of the eight national teams -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and United States -- at each table. The structures will be fast, with every SNG due to finish within two-and-a-half hours. There will be a 30-second “shot clock,” too, to speed things up.

The players’ finishes for the day (with points given for each place) will all be tabulated with the eight teams being ranked accordingly, then the eighth-place team will be eliminated from the competition -- kind of an interesting idea which at a glance appears to make the Saturday SNGs more meaningful since not everyone automatically gets through to the “tournament” on Sunday.

But even though they start out Sunday playing something called the “quarterfinals,” it isn’t really that.

Teams are seeded according to their finishes on Saturday, then on Sunday will start with the five-person teams playing heads-up matches against each other. The top-ranked team gets a bye in the quarterfinals, with the other six remaining teams playing No. 2 vs. No. 7, No. 3 vs. No. 6, and No. 4 vs. No. 5.

Rather than just have the team winning the most heads-up matches advance from each of those three contests, they’ll again tally points, rank the six teams, then eliminate the one with the lowest points. That means six teams survive the “quarterfinals” to go on to the “semifinals.”

The six teams then pick one player from each to play a relatively deeper-stacked SNG (as the “semis”). Sounds like they can “tag” players in and out, too, if desired. I believe the starting stacks will be different, too, for this SNG, corresponding to how the six teams fared in the “quarterfinals.” (Not sure how the stack of the team with a bye will be determined.)

Once this SNG gets to heads-up, the five players from the two players’ teams then all sit down to play heads-up matches, with each match starting with stacks that equal the stacks of the two players in the SNG. Think of the heads-up match suddenly being cloned four times over. The five matches are then played out, with the team winning three or more winning the title.

It resembles in part the “Americas Cup of Poker” I had a chance to cover at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure this year (for the PokerStars blog here and here), although throws in some extra twists on the second day to divert from that formula. The whole sucker will be streamed over on Twitch, and it’ll be hard to resist dipping in over there this weekend from time to time just to see what it’s all about (while I have the NCAA on the teevee, of course).

I’m wondering what kind of stories might be produced by the GPM, aside from who wins (which I think isn’t necessarily the most compelling part of it). The number viewing the Twitch channel will be of interest, probably. So, too, might some especially compelling hands, if they arise. There could be other, unexpected stories, perhaps even including some related to this whole campaign to “sportify” poker the event is intended to highlight.

Anyhow, even if there will be a more compelling team game to keep my attention this weekend (for me, anyway), I am nonetheless curious to see what happens with the GPM the next couple of days.