POTD #230 Almost FT Friday: 11 Left in the EPT Malta Main vs Niall "Firaldo" Farrell
A belated Robbie Burns day to all.
I was looking at POTD hands I had forgotten to pair with a hand I’ve played, and was struggling to come up with something to pair with POTD #84, Kenny Hallaert folding AKo at the final table of the WSOP Main Event. Then I remembered I had a hand where I folded AKo with two tables left of a Main Event that I also final tabled. Now, being five-handed in the WSOP Main Event is a slightly different beast than making the final 11 of EPT Malta, and one day I hope I will have the privilege of punting at the WSOP Main Event Final Table, but it is not happened yet, so today we are taking a trip eleven (!) years ago to EPT Malta. Usually poker stops are a huge grind, but EPT Malta was a small-field Main Event and I made the final table, which meant I played almost no side events and since the EPT Main Event schedule is the same for 2k player Main Events and 500 player Main Events, my trip to the final table had many short days. The most stressful moments I had on my way to the final table were while staying up late at night to watch the Toronto Blue Jays lose game 6 of the 2015 ALCS in heartbreaking fashion.1
The eventual champion of the tournament was one Niall “Firaldo” Farrell, and I thought, what better way to honour the champion and only Scotsman to win an EPT Main than by posting a POTD on Robbie Burns Day? My wife often refers to my knowledge of non-poker things as being “mile wide and inch deep,” and my trivia brain knew that Robbie Burns Day was celebrated by Scots eating haggis in the winter, but unfortunately the specific “winter” was actually three weeks ago, January 25th to be precise. I have a little less than a year to wish Firaldo and all the Scots reading this a Happy Burns Day, but this year, they’ll have to suffice for a belated Burns day and a retelling of this classic hand.
€5,300 2015 EPT Malta Main Event
(15k/30k/4k) (SB/BB/Ante) 11 Left. Average is 1.77M
It folds to Niall “Firaldo” Farrell (2M) who makes it 70k in the CO, Gianluca Escobar (1.572M) makes it 175k on the button, I (2.6M) make it 475k in the SB with A♦️K♠️, it folds back to Firaldo who jams, Gianluca calls all-in, I fold. Firaldo has T♠️9♠️ and cracks Gianluca’s Q♠️Q♣️ and goes on to win the tournament.
