Domenico Lando Strikes Back to Win Malta Poker Festival Grand Event

Domenico Lando brought balance to the felt at the Malta Poker Festival Grand Event, navigating his way through a talented final table to emerge victorious and claim the title, trophy and €140,000 prize.

Lando picked his spots wisely in the final stages en route to topping the record-breaking 2,045 entry field, where the €941,568 prize pool was paid out to the top 306 players. Lando’s triumph in the biggest MPF Grand Event was somewhat of an underdog story. The Italian player had only $13,400 in live earnings before registering for the event, with a best cash of just $6,077.

Lando toppled Nikolaos Konstas in heads-up play, after the latter appeared to have one hand on the winner’s spoils, but as is ever with poker, someone’s fortune can change completely with a turn of a card.

2024 MPF Grand Event Final Table Results

Final Table Recap

Angelo Vietti came onto the final table as the short stack, with just a few big blinds. He looked to begin his comeback with a double-up and appeared to be moving out of the danger zone after he picked up jacks and got it in against Lando’s tens. However, a ten on the flop had Vietti with one foot out of the door, and his second soon followed as Lando finished off his compatriot with a boat.

Salih Kaya fell in eighth place after his last two big blinds went in on a six-high flop. Runner-up Konstas held queen-six and saw off Kaya after the latter’s king-seven failed to improve. Just before, Antonio Alba doubled up and found another through Konstas after Kaya exited. However, Charles Eichner woke up with jacks and sent Kaya and his tens to the rail in seventh.

Konstas soon bagged his second final table elimination and ousted local player Andre Grech in sixth place. Konstas held eights, and Grech failed to find his three-outer on the runout to set up five-handed play. Konstas’ ascent to the top of the counts continued moments later, getting some big river value with a set of deuces against Eichner, who dropped into second on the chip leaderboard.

Momentum was well and truly with Konstas as he out-flopped the jacks held by Jaroslaw Falkowski, who departed in fifth. Konstas was a one-man wrecking ball but handed the chip lead to Theodoros Ampelikiotis after the former’s mistimed jam with king-jack ran into Ampelikiotis’ pocket queens for a 40 million chip pot.

Lando left Eichner as the short stack, winning a flip of his own before Ampelikiotis finished the job with Big Slick a few hands later.

Konstas wrestled back the chip lead, holding over half of the chips in play as the final three duked it out for the win. But like before, Ampelikiotis was Konstas’ dethroner as his jacks held out to scoop in a 54 million chip pot against ace-king. Ampelikiotis’ time at the top was short-lived as the Greek duo flipped again, with Konstas prevailing. A fourth and final coin toss between the two players set up heads-up as Konstas’ queens held out against Ampelikiotis’ ace-king.

Konstas held a 4:1 chip lead, but two key hands saw Lando burst into life. Lando received a full double with Broadway against top two pair and took a 3:1 lead with a pair of eights on a king-high board after withstanding Konstas’ aggression.

The final hand saw Konstas move all in with jack-ten. Lando called with ace-five and found an ace on the flop. Konstas was drawing to Broadway, but the turn and river kept Lando ahead, and with that, he took home the title, trophy and €140,000 grand prize.

_{Images courtesy of Malta Poker Festival}

Calum has been a part of the PokerNews team since September 2021 after working in the UK energy sector. He played his first hand of poker in 2017 and immediately fell in love with the game.

Calum has written for various poker outlets but found his home at PokerNews, where he has contributed to various articles and live updates, providing insights and reporting on major poker events, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

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