Looked at a undeniable way, every poker tournament could seem a daunting, insurmountable task for any person to triumph over. Take the Italian Poker Tour Malta Main Event, a tournament that drew 775 competitors. Each arrived with an idea of conquering what might initially seem a nearly impossible to defeat, multifarious foe, the remainder of field being some more or less elusive, difficult to capture beast.
But someone always does finally end up alone on the end, and the tale of the tournament somehow becomes that player's story. Such was the case for the person from Hamburg, the talented Ismael Bojang who becomes the central protagonist of the IPT Malta Main Event way to his victory.
Ismael Bojang, IPT8 Malta Main Event champion
As a type of prologue to today's adventure, three days of poker ended last night with a dramatic double-knockout, with Israel's Daniel Portiansky falling in seventh and Poland's Filip Demby taking eighth to establish today's finale.
The final six competitors included some top talent, encouraging us to arrange for a heady and maybe lengthy battle between them. But after a few orbits and comparatively minor back-and-forthing of chips, a tidal wave of activity swiftly reduced the sector from six right down to two in a question of minutes.
First it was one of the vital two Russians, Alexander Lakhov -- winner of a Sunday Million, an excellent Tuesday, a SCOOP, among other live and online successes -- getting caught in a single those terrible, almost inescapable situations that experience trapped many a tournament player -- the feared set-over-set.
Having turned a suite of fours in a hand versus Bojang, Lakhov bet the river after an innocuous-looking seven fell, and Bojang raised enough to position him all-in. Lakhov called without hesitation, then looked with dismay as Bojang tabled the pocket sevens that unluckily sent Lakhov railward.
Alexander Lakhov - 6th place
It was a trifling three hands later 2014 PokerStars Caribbean Main Event champion and wunderkind Dominik Panka open-raised his short stack all-in, Bojang called from the button, then the Frenchman Johan Guilbert pushed his similarly small stack in from the small blind. The action back on Bojang, he called the small difference and the trio all tabled their hands.
All three had an ace, while Bojang's second card -- a king -- was better than Guilbert's queen and Panka's five. A queen came at the flop to intensify Guilbert's hopes, but a king fell with a thud at the river, striking down either one of Bojang's opponents in one blow, reminding all the conclusion of play on Saturday.
As the shorter-stacked of the 2 at-risk players, Panka earned fifth-place prize money, adding one more line to the Polish player's growing poker résumé.
Dominik Panka - 5th place
Meanwhile Guilbert -- a former theatre actor -- had played heroically to outlast all but three from the sector of 775 to take fourth.
Johan Guilbert - 4th place
There was no time to mirror on what was happening, though. Another wave was about to crash. At the very nexthand, Italian Francesco Leotta pushed all-in from the small blind, and after a brief study the shortest stack left -- Russia's Vladimir Shalabin -- made the call.
He was instantly glad about his decision, tabling pocket fives while Leotta showed a couple of threes. But a 3 at the flop left Shalabin soliciting for fives, and when none came for the net pro he was out the door in third.
Vladimir Shalabin - 3rd place
That was four eliminations in lower than 10 minutes -- and never even 45 minutes into the day! Heads-up had arrived, with Bojang enjoying a slight result in start versus Leotta.
Before the battle
Leotta -- a relative poker newcomer who carried the chip result in today's final day -- seized the advantage back right away, however, and after building upwards had Bojang all-in and in danger. Bojang had ace-queen, and Leotta was taking his chances another time with a couple of threes, the hand with which he'd knocked out Shalabin.
The threes were good in the course of the turn, but a river queen saved Bojang and the duel continued.
Bojang continues the fight
A little later Leotta was the only all-in and in rough shape holding king-eight versus Bojang's ace-king, and yet again the primary four community cards were no help to the all-in player. However the river this time put a second pair at the board, creating a split pot and allowing the Italian to maintain his seat.
Leotta keeps his seat
Between the sooner flurry of busts and the near-elimination experiences of the overall two, the tournament's final day had felt like a ship rocking from side to side on an increasingly restless sea. Eventually things needed to break up, it seemed, and finally they did in a last all-in confrontation.
The ending involved no dramatic river twist, but rather began with an easy all-in from Leotta with ten-nine suited. And no, he didn't say "Call me, Ismael" -- he did not have to, as Bojang's ace-nine suited provided enough fortification for him to take action. The board ran out clean, and the tournament's narrative ended, with Bojang the story's hero.
Ismael Bojang, main character of the IPT Malta story
Stick just about the PokerStars Blog, as still more epic poker adventures await here in Malta.
IPT8 Malta Main Event
Date: October 18-23, 2016Buy in: €1,000+€100Players: 775Prize pool: €751,750
| 1 | Ismael Bojang | Austria | PokerStars player | € 101,940 |
| 2 | Francesco Leotta | Italy | € 75,690 | |
| 3 | Vladimir Shabalin | Russia | € 56,200 | |
| 4 | Johan Guilbert | France | € 41,720 | |
| 5 | Dominik Panka | Poland | PokerStars player | € 30,970 |
| 6 | Alexander Lakhov | Russia | PokerStars qualifier | € 23,000 |
| 7 | Daniel Portiansky | Israel | € 17,070 | |
| 8 | Filip Demby | Poland | PokerStars player | € 12,670 |
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog; photography by Manuel Kovsca
Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Italian Poker Tour]
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