Cecilia Pescaglini may not be a name that poker fans are familiar with but her name is the one emanating around the Casino at Portomaso as she is the overwhelming chipleader in the WPT Malta Main Event. The platinum-blonde Italian goes into Day 3 armed with 976,000 chips, more than double the 415,000 that Marvin Rettenmaier will start with.
Pescaglini started Day 2 as chip leader and finished in the same position after going on a massive heater, curshing anyone who dare go to showdown with her. She hit draws like they were going out of fashion, won coinflips and even cracked the aces of Julian Herold with ten-nine when the flop came down Kx-10x-10x. But along with running well she proved she can also play poker too, as demonstrated in a hand she played with Rettenmaier. On a board reading Qc-10c-6c-10c Rettenmaier bet 72,500 but made an agonising fold when Pescaglini moved all in. Rettenmaier actually folded Ac8c for the nut flush so must have feared a full house but his opponent had nothing like a full house, she held Jc3c!
This duo will start the day on the same table and directly next to each other, when play resumes at 1600 local time. Table 2, where they are seated, is certainly the so-called “Table of Doom” as it is the home to a number of talented individuals including Nesrine Kourdourli who recently finished 10th at WPT Grand Prix de Paris, November Nine member Matt Giannetti, Britain’s Simon Trumper and the infamous Tony G! It is such a shame that there is no television crew present until the final table because if there was ever a table that deserved to be a TV Feature table then this is it.
Also still in contention are Justin Bonomo and Isaac Haxton, two of the best tournament poker players on the planet. Both players recently moved to Malta from the United States of America after “Black Friday” so they could continue to play online poker and with all eyes being focussed on Table 2, the American pair will not have as much pressure on them (not that is matters to this duo) and they could be dark horses to go on and win this tournament.
Play resumes at 1600 local time and will continue until only the final table of six players remain. Thirty players remain and of those only 27 of them will be paid. Who will be the bubble boy? Who will make it to the final table and who will be crowned WPT Malta’s champion. Return over the weekend to find out the answers to these questions.
