Joris Ruijs Wins Malta Poker Festival Autumn Grand Event

The ever-popular Malta Poker Festival Autumn attracted 1,987 entrants to its marquee €550 Grand Event, which unfolded across eight days of play. When play concluded, it was Joris Ruijs who stood alone as champion.

Hosted at the stunning Portomaso Casino, with its backdrop of crystal-clear water and Maltese sunshine, the Grand Event featured eight starting flights, reflecting the scale and popularity of the festival.

The tournament guaranteed €500,000, but the turnout pushed the prize pool to an impressive €903,498 as players packed the venue across all flights. When the starting flights concluded, 298 players advanced to Day 2, each assured a cash prize but all chasing the same goal: the €141,000 awaiting the eventual champion.

Only one could claim that prize, and by outlasting all others, Ruijs triumphed.

€550 Grand Event Final Table Results

Winner’s Reaction

“I mean, it feels absolutely amazing. This is what you come to play for, and this is the most amount of buy-ins I’ve ever won, the most amount of people I’ve ever defeated. So in a lot of ways, it was like a very fun experience. I mean, to win a tournament is something that doesn’t come around very, very often. So like when it happens, I really enjoy it.”

Ruijs reflected on how different his approach is when playing in such a large field, one that includes not only professionals but also recreational players and those just there to have fun.

“I mean, a lot of changes in some sense that you have to think a lot more about how people might perceive you, what the money might mean for people, how they will adjust through different phases of the tournament. And at the same time, you don’t know a lot of your opponents, like sometimes when I play higher buy-ins, I already have a lot of knowledge about what my opponents are like and how they play, and this one I have to figure it out on the fly a little bit. It can be challenging at times.”

He added that even when facing less experienced players, the small margins in poker require constant respect for every opponent and every decision.

“I mean, poker is a game of small margins. So, even if you’re opponents are less experienced, you still have to respect your opponents and you still have to respect the margins of the game a little bit.”

Later, discussing the final table, he again underscored the need to treat every opponent with respect, noting the quality of his competition, while executing his strategy.

“There was a bunch of very good and smart and aggressive players in there, so I just wanted to treat my opponents respectfully and try to play my A-game, you know, make sure I don’t make any mistakes. And I felt like I pretty much did that.”

He executed that approach with precision, maneuvering through the final table and adjusting to the ever-shifting stacks and table dynamics.

On maintaining his passion for the game, Ruijs spoke about the enduring joy of poker and the new adventures each tournament brings.

“I mean, the game itself, I just love the game and it’s, you know, it’s gone away from me in years and it’s come back to me, but I’ve always really, really enjoyed playing, you know, like even in the different buy-in levels, the different types of fields, different tournament stops, the different locations. It’s always a bit of a new adventure. So like there’s, yeah, there’s plenty of adventures still left.”

Final Table Action

Calling the final table anything other than action-packed would be a serious understatement — it had everything.

Within just a couple of hours, the start-of-day short stack had surged to chip leader, there were cold decks, brutal bad beats, and more drama than anyone could hope for.

The first elimination came swiftly, with Jeffrey Gregor on the receiving end of a cruel bad beat. His ace-king all-in preflop ran into ace-queen, and the board did the rest.

Next to fall was Vester Vergeest, eliminated by Toni Ravnak, who then went on to deal one of the tournament’s most unforgettable hands: a set-over-set cooler against Benjamin Nicault. The hand flipped fortunes, sending the start-of-day chip leader to the bottom of the pile while Ravnak found himself atop the rankings.

Giuseppe Bellinghieri was next to go, his pocket sevens falling to the queen-jack of eventual champion Ruijs on the river.

Before long, the tournament had whittled down to three-handed play as two quickfire eliminations saw Nicault fall in fifth, quickly followed by Ravnak in fourth, leaving just the final trio.

From this point onwards, the action began to tilt in Ruijs’ favor. With a commanding portion of the chips in play, he controlled the table and dictated the tone. Eventually, the pressure told, and Thomas Grahs was the one to exit in third place.

Starting with a near 4:1 chip lead, Ruijs made light work of Vincent Schueler, whose remarkable run ended in second place, and Ruijs claimed the championship.