Oliver Hutchins Wins PPC Malta Main Event on €74,000; PPC UK Kicks off from April 16th

Oliver Hutchins has marked himself as one of the earliest entries to the partypoker LIVE history books on April 5th, when he has managed to take down the inaugural partypoker Players Championship (PPC) Malta Main Event. Hutchins is a poker player from the United Kingdom. In order to achieve this victory, he had to overcome a total field of 847 opponents and beat Damir Savio of Croatia during a heads-up duel. As a result, Oliver Hutchins took home €74,000 in total winnings and Savio had to settle for a runner-up prize of €58,000. What’s more fascinating is the fact that Hutchins has won his PPC Malta Main Event seat for $109 via a satellite hosted online at partypoker. Eventually, he has turned that $109 into career-best €74,000. 

Partypoker has also announced that the Players Championship (PPC) UK will be kicking off on April 16th. PPC UK will run online at partypoker and at a live venue. The live venue will be the home of British poker, Dusk Till Dawn. The online portion of the festival will run from April 16th to April 27th at partypoker. The Live section will be kicking off on April 28th and will run through to May 2nd. Read on for more details and the full PPC UK schedule. 

Oliver Hutchins Wins PPC Malta Main Event

Day 3 of the PPC Malta Main Event has started with 15 players in the hunt for the title. Victor Allain was the first elimination of the final day, with Some Lombardo, Mariusz Lewoniewski, Lukasz Fraczek, and Andrea Bettini joining soon after in the same order.

The final table of the tournament has been set when K Q of Nicolan Plantin lost to the A 3 of Savio thanks to a three on the flop and a five-high straight on the turn. This bursting hand has allowed Savio to get into the chip lead into a nine-handed final table where each of the finalists was guaranteed to take home at least €6,400. 

Giuseppe DiBella was the next player to crash out in ninth place when Federico Petruzzelli opened to 250,000 with Q J and DiBelle three-bet shoved for a total of 435,000 with 5 4 of hearts. However, Petruzzelli has flopped two pair and a full house on a turn, which has decreased the total player count by one. 

Soon after that Bradley Gudgeon saw his impressive run end in an eight-place for a total prize of €8,000. It started when Savio min-raised to 240,000 under the gun and Gudgeon three-bet shoved for 1,600,000 from the small blind. Savio responds with a quick call. It turns out that Savio had A K, which was superior to the Gudgeon’s pocket kings when the board ran 8 6 5 A 8. This has ended Gudgeopn’s participation. However, we need to note that Gudgeon has won his seat in the PPC Malta Main Event for only $11 through a satellite. 

The first five-figure score was awarded to Federico Cirillo when he lost a coinflip against Savio for €10,000. Cirillo has opened to 330,000 from the button with his pocket jacks and called when Savio three-bet all-in with his A K. The flop showed 10 7 5, which gave Savio more outs to his overcards. The ace on the turn put him into the lead and a 4 on the turn confirmed Cirillo’s elimination in the seventh place. 

A double-elimination during the 100,000/200,000/200,000a blind levels has only left four players in contention for the PPC Malta Main Event title. Wouter Schuurbiers has decided to open-shove for 1,600,000 with pocket queens. Massimo Rossi, who was the chip leader at the start of the day, re-shoved with A and Cirillo went all-in. The board showed 10 5 8 A 10, which has sent two players from the final table. 

Even though Massimo Rossi has managed to win those chips thanks to that double elimination, he was the next player heading to the cashier’s desk. Hutchins was able to double through Rossi, and then Rossi committed his last ten big blinds with A 10 after Jingchun Yu opened with Q J. Yu has decided to call and caught a queen on the flop. The board ran 7 6 Q 4 10. 

The final three players went on a break. Once they returned, Yu busted out on the very next hand back. He decided to open-shove for 21.4 big blinds from the small blind with his K 4. Hutchins looked him up with dominating K Q of hearts as a response. Eventually, Hutchins came out on top when the board ran A 3 7 K A. 

Hutchins had a 16,100,000 to 9,400,000 chip lead over Savio once the tournament continued as a heads-up duel between the two. At first, it seemed that Hutchins could get the job done fairly quickly. However, Savio was putting up a good fight. The heads-up duo went on a scheduled break after an hour of exciting poker action. By that point, the stacks have almost leveled with each other. Eventually, the two has decided to strike a deal while on reak that left €13,000 more for the champion. 

After the deal was confirmed, Savio was able to get into a brief lead, but Hutchins has managed to strike back before getting into the lead himself. The final hand took place when the blinds reached the 400,000/800,000/800,000a level. At that point, Savio jammed all-in for 5,100,000 and Hutchins responded with a call. Savio had K 9 and had to beat pocket eights of Hutchins. The board ran 2 2 J 7 Q, which has busted Savio in second place and left Hutchins to become the 2022 PPC Malta Main Event champion. 

Here are the PPC Malta Main Event final table results:

PPC UK Online Events

The first PPC UK online event will shuffle up and deal on April 16th at 18:05 GMT with the $200,000 guaranteed Opener. There will be several $162 buy-in Day 1s, which will allow players to test their poker skills as they try to progress to the final day on April 18th. Needless to say that a deep run in the Opener will set you and your bankroll up nicely for the rest of the festival. 

The online PPC UK schedule is full of exciting tournaments, however, there are two that stand out from the rest of the crowd. The first one is Event #8 Mini Main. It has a $109 buy-in and will have a $250,000 guaranteed prize pool. There will be several satellites that will let you qualify for cheap. Day 1s will run from April 22nd to April 24th with the final day kicking off on April 24 at 18:30 GMT. 

On top of that, you can also start your quest for Main Event from the comfort of your home or on the move via the partypoker Mobile App. There are two online Day 1s scheduled for the £550 buy-in and a £500,000 guaranteed PPC UK Main Event. They will start at 19:05 GMT on April 24th and on April 27th. Each online Main Event Day 1 will wrap up its action when only 15% of the total field will remain. Anyone with even a single chip will make it through to Day 2. It will take place at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham, United Kingdom, on May 2nd. Everyone who managed to reach Day 2 will be in the money and the min-cash will make it to your partypoker account within 24-hours of your Day 1 finish. 

Here is the full schedule of PPC UK Online Events:

PPC UK Live Events

As mentioned previously, the live portion of the PPC UK festival will run from April 28th through May 2nd. The definite highlight will be the £560 buy-in and £500,000 guaranteed Main Event. There are also several side events for many types of players. For example, the £2,200 High Roller with a £100,000 guaranteed prize pool promises to deliver some exciting poker action. Other side events of interest are the Win the Button, a £340 freezeout, the £250 DTD Cup, a bounty tournament, and the series-ending Closer. 

Here is the full schedule of PPC UK Live Events: