The second full day of Battle of Malta Autumn edition was another busy one at the….cut cut cut, stop! Start again…

Its usual in these kind of poker event reports to reference how busy the event was on the day being reported on. But when it comes to the Battle of Malta, every day is usually a busy one, so it’s really not necessary to labour the point. It was packed, you get the picture!

It was Halloween yesterday and those who made it in to the Eden Arena at Casino Malta and the Intercontinental hotel by 1pm, were treated to a spooky start to the day, with a horror themed opening day starting ceremony. There were ghosts, there were ghouls, there were skeletons, a lot of scary nuns and even a fake Sheikh. The TD, hosts and Telly put on a dramatic display and one of the most memorable opening day ceremonies to-date.

Over 500 Contest Day 1c of the Main Event 

A total of 533 runners battled it out on a marathon of a day in which 80 players (15 %) advanced to Sunday’s Day 2 and are already in the money.

Bulgaria’s Ivalylo Eftimov earned the €10,000 chip leader bonus for Day 1c after spinning his 40,000 starting stack up to 817,000 to squeeze past Malta’s James Paris who earned a €5,000 bonus for second place after bagging 804,000. Georgia’s Ivane Khazaradze was a bit further behind this group but earned the €3,000 third place bonus for finishing with a stack of 681,000.

This trio is still well behind both the Day 1a chip leaders Humberto Lopez Galindo (1,146,000) and Michael Kim Falcon (1,106,000).

Here are the top 10 chip counts from the Day 1c flight below.

Position	Name	Chips
1	Ivaylo Eftimov	817,000
2	James Paris	804,000
3	Ivane Khazaradze	681,000
4	Itzhak Dagmi	660,000
5	Alessandro Siena	615,000
6	Eirik Presterud	600,000
7	Dario Berisa	585,000
8	Quentin Balique	566,000
9	Matija Grgic	526,000
10	Nils Jall	519,000

 

The full list of chip counts can be found in this previous blog post by Jason Count Von Glatzer

21 Progress from Day 1d

Day 1d of the 2024 Battle of Malta Autumn Edition Main Event at Casino Malta and the Eden Arena at the InterContinental Malta was the second of the half-price €300 opening flight on the schedule. The format has been adjusted to create parity with the regular €600 opening flight. The 40,000 opening stack has been halved to 20,000, as have the blind levels, from 40 to 20 minutes.

But that’s not all, as instead of 15 percent advancing, just 7.5 percent will progress from these flights. Also, the end-of-day bonuses are awarded to the top two players instead of the top three, with a total of €7,000 in bonuses instead of €18,000.

Day 1d witnessed 274 entries getting into the half-price mix, with just 21 of them finding a bag. On Sunday’s Day 2, they will start the day with at least a minimum amount of cash in hand, worth €800.

Jorris Neron posted the Day 1d chip lead after nurturing his 20,000 stack up to 62,000. This was good enough for him to earn the €5,000 bonus, while Bartosz Jablonski banked an extra €2,000 for bagging the runner-up stack on Day 1d with 502,000. Here are the top ten chip counts below from the 10 Day 1b survivors.

Name	Chips
Jorris Neron	762,000
Bartosz Jablonski	502,000
Joe Mcloughlin	474,000
Dan Maricuta	451,000
Francisco Moreno	445,000
Antonis Poulengeris	418,000
Charles Wilson	375,000
Gaetano Cammilleri	358,000
James Clarke	251,000
James Macpherson	208,000

 

The full list of chip counts for all 21 Day 1d survivors can be found here.

Mystery Siege Gets Even Bigger

The Mystery Siege of Malta had already smashed its o €100,000 guarantee before the third of its four starting days began and it has now breached the €250,000 mark! After the first two starting days it had had 350 entries and a further 330 entered on Day 1c alone to bring the running total up to 680 with one day to go. No details of chip counts are available at present, but check the blog throughout the day, as we will update on this when the information becomes available.

Winamax 6-Max Day 1a

The €400 Winamax 6-Max has the best structure of the festival, according to Irish player Daragh Davey, who dropped by the media desk yesterday, sadly for him after busting, not far off the money and a place in Saturday’s Day 2. The day ended when 12 of the 80 players who began remained, with Victor Fryda bagging the chip lead on just over half a million cookies. There is a further starting day on Friday at 3pm.

Satellites Smashing It!

Thursday’s schedule was similar to that on the opening day, with nine events scheduled and it got off to a flying start, with 508 entries in the 11am satellite, producing 50 qualifiers for the Main Event. In fact both the satellites were extremely busy with a further 459 took their seat, adding another 45 entries to the tally, bringing the number of Main Event seats won this week up to 210 already. 

Polish Glory in Thursday’s Side Events

Just two events on Thursday produced winners. It should have been three, however due to the popularity of the Main Event satellites, the late night Hyper Turbo was unfortunately cancelled. The two events that did conclude were both won by Polish players. Congratulations to…

Gregorz Wyraz who won the €330 Pot Limit Omaha, outlasting a field of 78 players to claim the €6,100 first prize. Sergej Babingev took €4,350 for his second place finish while Vladimir Cocis was third for €2,850. Vladimir was also the first player to be eliminated from the tournament, but will be glad he fired a second bullet.

Michal Janczaski who was the second Polish winner of the day. He won the evening’s €200 Dark Knight, which had 85 runners. defeating Terence Ponsonby to pocket the €3,657 first prize. Ponsonby cashed for €2,530 while Spain’s Jose Matos completed the podium, taking €1,670 for his third place finish.

Results of these and all other completed events can be found on the soon to be updated results page.

Friday’s Action At The Battle of Malta

The schedule today at the Battle of Malta has many similarities with what was on offer on Thursday. The day begins with a Main Event satellite, which is already in play at the time this report was published. It has all the signs of being another smasher, with almost 300 entries before the end of the second level. There is also another Main Event satellite at 9pm.

The fourth and final starting day of the Mystery Siege of Malta is next up at 11.30am. It’s an unusually early start, but is required, in order to be completed before Day 2 of the event begins, at 7pm. Despite the early start, it’s expected to be packed as players make one last attempt to secure a shot at the mystery bounties, which kick-in on Day 2.

The next event is a private event run by Redtooth. It’s usually a fun event and we’ll report more on this during Friday’s blog coverage.

Day 1e of the Main Event begins at 1pm and could be the biggest one yet, but it has to top 533 to take that status. This flight will be the main focus of our blog coverage today.

The second of two starting days in the Winamax 6-Max event, which has a €400 buy-in (€340+€60) starts at 3pm. Today’s non Hold’em offering is another €330 (€300+€30) Pot Limit Omaha.

The single day Hold’em side events today are the €200 (€170+€30) White Knight at 6pm and the €150 (€130+€20) Hyper Turbo at 10pm.