History is Made as WSOP Circuit Malta Kicks Off With Two Mini Main Event Flights

It was a long time coming, but it’s finally here. The World Series of Poker Circuit has landed in Malta for the very first time, with the first cards hitting the felt on Friday, September 25, at Casino Malta in St. Julian’s. The festival runs through Monday, October 5, with twelve WSOP Circuit rings up for grabs across eleven days and every winner is walking away with a $5,000 WSOP Paradise Bahamas package on top of everything.

Day 1 kept things simple with two starting flights of Event #1, the €300 NLH Mini Main and Andre Scerri taking an early lead for the first WSOP Circuit ring event in Malta’s history.

• Read more: WSOP Circuit Malta Starts Tomorrow, Main Event Satellite Kicks Things Off Tonight
• Read more: The WSOP Circuit Is Coming to Malta for the First Time: Everything You Need to Know
• Read more: The Full Breakdown Every WSOP Circuit Malta Ring Event (Sept. 25 – Oct. 5)

Cards in the air at the Mini Main Event

Flight A drew 203 entries, with Flight B adding another 95 as the two combined already built a €74,297 prizepool, with two more flights to come on Saturday, September 29. As is standard for the format, 15% of each flight’s field advanced to the Sunday’s Final Day, with everyone already locked into min-cash. That works for 30 players from 1A, and 13 from 1B flight.

Maybe fittingly for a historic opening day like this, it was Malta’s own Andre Scerri who set the pace on home soil, bagging up the biggest stack of Flight A with 602,000, good for 75 big blinds. France’s Florian Bonnet Eymard sits second with 397,000 (49 big blinds), and Belgium’s Christophe Buntinx rounds out the top three at 379,000 (47 big blinds).

Top 10 Chip Counts from Mini Main Event Day 1A

Position	Player	Country	Chips	Blinds
1	Andre Scerri	Malta	602,000	75
2	Florian Bonnet Eymard	France	397,000	49
3	Christophe Buntinx	Belgium	379,000	47
4	Antonio Gramazio	Italy	376,000	47
5	Junyu Liu	China	293,000	36
6	Philip Pearson	United Kingdom	282,000	35
7	Holling Renzo Corne Maria	Netherlands	277,000	34
7	Federico Fulciniti	Italy	277,000	34
9	Ivan Botvinkin	Russia	272,000	34
10	Christopher Agius	Malta	268,000	33

Israel’s Alon Huberman leads the way with 510,000 or 63 big blinds from Flight B. Albania’s Elton Malaj is the closest challenger with 303,000 (37big blinds), and France’s Anthony Gos completes the top three with 274,000 (34 big blinds).

Top 10 Chip Counts from Mini Main Event Day 1B

Position	Player	Country	Chips	Blinds
1	Alon Huberman	Israel	510,000	63
2	Elton Malaj	Albania	303,000	37
3	Anthony Gos	France	274,000	34
4	Victoria Ailloud	France	272,000	34
5	Hugo Gotuzzo Montes De Oca	Spain	251,000	31
6	Stamojevic Luka	Serbia	218,000	27
7	Franck Bain	France	186,000	23
8	Riccardo Gubser	Switzerland	184,000	23
9	Kenneth Aquilina	Malta	169,000	21
10	Hen Barak	Israel	141,000	17

Saturday, September 26 Schedule at WSOP Circuit Malta

Two more starting flights remain before the Mini Main Event field is united. Flight C fires on Saturday, September 26, at 12:30, followed by a turbo-paced Flight D at 20:00. As said, all four flights’ survivours get together on Sunday, September 27, for the Final Day where Malta’s first-ever WSOP Circuit ring will be awarded.

Besides the Mini Main, Landmark Satellites to the Main Event run twice during the day, offering a €180 route into the €1,500 Main Event that starts on Wednesday, September 30.