Day 3 of the Battle of Malta Autumn Edition Main Event saw the field reduced from 290 to just 36 after a long day in which 9 x 75-minute levels were played. It’s a record breaking event, with both the 5,799 entries and the €2,578,172 prize pool setting new heights for the 12-year old event.
All 290 players who returned to the felt on Monday were already guaranteed at least €2,110, but aiming for a much higher score, such as the €300,800 first prize. When play resumed at 1pm, the rate of eliminations picked up where it had left off on Sunday, with many players put to the sword in the first few levels of the day. Antonis Poulengeris (28nd), James McPherson (242nd) and Jordi Ruiz Ribatallada (240th) among those to depart during the early exchanges.
Humberto Galindo, who had been the Day 1a chip leader almost made it half-way though the day, but was ousted in 146th place. He will be consoled by the fact that he scooped an additional €10,000 for his Day 1a big stack, to secure a total prize of €12,460, which is worth more than the 8th placed player on the final table will receive.
As the day progressed the rate of eliminations slowed down and by the time the day ended, after level 31, it was Miguel Branco who had emerged as the leader, with a towering stack of 15,225,000 chips. Alexandru Farcasanu and Pasquale Gregorio followed closely behind Branco with stacks of 13,575,000 and 12,875,000 respectively. Meanwhile, defending champion Vasileios Zisis continued to make his presence felt with a stack of 11,550,000 chips, and is a serious contender to become the first two-time champion of the Battle of Malta Main Event. Will he go back-to-back?
Day 4, the penultimate day of the event resumes at 1 p.m. Here are the full chip counts of all 36 remaining players.
Position | Name | Chips | Big Blinds |
1 | Miguel Branco | 15,225,000 | 102 |
2 | Alexandru Farcasanu | 13,575,000 | 91 |
3 | Pasquale Gregorio | 12,875,000 | 86 |
4 | Vasileios Zisis | 11,550,000 | 77 |
5 | Ivaylo Eftimov | 9,700,000 | 65 |
6 | Clement Kerrien | 9,150,000 | 61 |
7 | Phanishsarn Tanapatr | 9,100,000 | 61 |
8 | Alessio Vanni | 8,250,000 | 55 |
9 | Kyriakos Papadopoulos | 8,075,000 | 54 |
10 | Ionut Arvatu | 6,700,000 | 45 |
11 | Ivan Furniet Martinez | 6,075,000 | 41 |
12 | Marco Arcodia | 5,975,000 | 40 |
13 | Konstantinos Karkanidis | 5,975,000 | 40 |
14 | Davide Iannaco | 5,400,000 | 36 |
15 | Robert Shearing | 5,100,000 | 34 |
16 | Hendrik Blokdijk | 4,875,000 | 33 |
17 | Alessandro Siena | 4,750,000 | 32 |
18 | Marton Lugosi | 4,700,000 | 31 |
19 | Panagiotis Petrou | 4,675,000 | 31 |
20 | Stephen Dallaire | 4,475,000 | 30 |
21 | Cristian Mihu | 4,425,000 | 30 |
22 | Davide Ingegnere | 4,400,000 | 29 |
23 | Niklas Aahlund | 4,025,000 | 27 |
24 | Maruen Zormati | 4,000,000 | 27 |
25 | Parminder Kandola | 3,850,000 | 26 |
26 | Marius Iftimia | 3,600,000 | 24 |
27 | Shervin Ghassemlou | 3,400,000 | 23 |
28 | Niccolo’ Cadoni | 3,150,000 | 21 |
29 | Cosme Gomez Martinez | 2,950,000 | 20 |
30 | Anthony Ouillon | 2,675,000 | 18 |
31 | Daniel Mendoza | 2,575,000 | 17 |
32 | Georgian Georgescu | 2,400,000 | 16 |
33 | Viktor Waal | 2,300,000 | 15 |
34 | Sokratis Oikonomou | 2,250,000 | 15 |
35 | Christou Christos | 2,200,000 | 15 |
36 | Berend Hooijer | 775,000 | 5 |
Payouts for all players who were eliminated on Day 3 can be found here.
It was also an extremely busy day for the rest of the schedule at Casino Malta and the Eden Arena at the Intercontinental Malta. There were multiple side events taking place simultaneously, all attracting sizeable fields.
Gia Carnestrom Wins Ladies Event
The Battle of Malta ladies event took place on Monday and a lively field of 121 fillies lined up for the start of the FLIP (Fantastic Ladies In Poker) sponsored event. There were many recognizable faces in the €150 tournament, including several Battle of Malta regulars, such as Emzy Oliver and the event’s host, Patricia rimfire. However defending champion Champagne Peng Tang did not make the journey from China to Malta to defend her title.
The tournament was played in good spirits with players enjoying a glass of fizz during the first break. The TV table was used to stage the final in the middle of the Eden Arena. Unfortunately, the cameras were not rolling this time to witness a very competitive final table, but by the time they got three-handed, a deal was done, leaving €800 to play for, for the winner. The last three received entries into next years battle of Malta main event as as a prize added by Casino Malta.
Flavia Guedes finished in third place and FLIP founder Daiva Byrne took second, but the victory went to the very stylish Swedish poker matriarch Gia Carnestrom, sporting her trademark hat throughout. Gia is a regular at many European poker festivals and has had a good 2024 so far, with this being her second tournament victory in Malta this year.
Quigioco High Roller Extends To Third Day
The €1,100 High Roller, sponsored by Quigioco had begun on Sunday, but registration remained open for the first three levels on Monday, resulting in many more players entering the tournament to bring the final number of entries up to 540. Originally this tournament has been scheduled to be completed on Monday, however due to the large attendance this was not possible. By the time play was suspended, 29 players were left. They will return today at 2 PM to complete the tournament, chasing the €100,000 top prize.
Here are the chip counts and Day 3 seating draw of the survivors.
Position | Name | Table | Seat | Chips |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Yinchian Liu | 16 | 6 | 2,360,000 |
2 | Frederik Rydahl Brink | 18 | 6 | 2,035,000 |
3 | Dan Larsen | 16 | 8 | 1,710,000 |
4 | Jacob Pahuus Witt | 15 | 2 | 1,700,000 |
5 | Aleksandar Zuberovski | 16 | 4 | 1,575,000 |
6 | Martin Tsvetanov | 16 | 5 | 1,505,000 |
7 | Robert Rudolf Rohr | 19 | 6 | 1,425,000 |
8 | Christian Frimodt Pedersen | 19 | 2 | 1,385,000 |
9 | Erik Lars Allan Lindqwist | 18 | 1 | 1,360,000 |
10 | Francesco Gambino | 15 | 7 | 1,100,000 |
11 | Lorentzo Or Lorenc Botsi Or Boci | 15 | 3 | 970,000 |
12 | Anders Bisgaard | 18 | 8 | 950,000 |
13 | Claudio Schifano | 15 | 4 | 905,000 |
14 | Vangelis Kaimakamis | 19 | 1 | 870,000 |
15 | Cosimo Raffaele Solazzo | 19 | 8 | 825,000 |
16 | Francesco Caramazza | 15 | 6 | 720,000 |
17 | Christoph Hillinger | 19 | 7 | 710,000 |
18 | Idan Levy | 18 | 4 | 575,000 |
19 | Josef Daoud | 15 | 8 | 560,000 |
20 | Candido Gabriele Cappiello | 18 | 3 | 545,000 |
21 | Vladas Burneikis | 19 | 3 | 505,000 |
22 | Gianfranco Gaspare Picone | 16 | 2 | 480,000 |
23 | Sergej Babingev | 18 | 5 | 430,000 |
24 | Gaetano Brignone | 18 | 2 | 360,000 |
25 | Joao Marques Da Silva Gaspar | 16 | 1 | 330,000 |
26 | Andrea Radicchi | 19 | 5 | 315,000 |
27 | Benjamin Garcia Rivera | 15 | 1 | 290,000 |
28 | Cristoforo Pascale | 16 | 7 | 290,000 |
29 | Erik Eisen | 15 | 5 | 225,000 |
Full Tilt Catania Bounty
The €70,000 Guaranteed Full Tilt Catania Bounty also began its second day on Monday, also with a further three levels of late registration. The structure is described as regressive, which means that when day to become blinds were rolled back by three levels to the start of level eight. As per the Highroller, a large number of players exercised the right to enter the €300 buy-in event on day two, creating a total field of 535 entries. This tournament did managed to reach its natural conclusion and was won by Romanian Andrei Roman-Tamaduianu for €9,580.
IPC Deepstack Won by Jakub Szczotka
The first event to come to a conclusion on Monday was the €400 NLH IPC Deepstack. There were a total of 96 entries and it was won by Jakub Szczotka from Poland for €8,430. This is the third victory by a Pole at the Battle of Malta Autumn edition.
Saso Lipovsek Wins IPF €10k GTD
The €200 PF €10k Guaranteed event had 214 entries, creating a prize pool of €32,528, more than three times the €10,000 guarantee. It was won by Slovenian Saso Lipovsek, for €6,320, claiming his first ever live tournament win.
Victor Gonzales Claims Novibet Ultradeep PKO Title
The Novibet Ultra deep was the final event of the evening to begin. Progressive knockout tournaments are rare to find live as it is more complicated to operate than online. As PKO’s are one of the most popular tournament formats, it was no surprise that this became the third side event of the day to exceed 500 entries. When registration closed, 523 players had paid the €330 (€150+€150+€30) buy-in.
It was won by Spain’s Victor Gonzales who secured the €10,500 first prize, plus a further €9,825 in bounties.
Full Results of all completed events can be found on the results page.
Tuesday’s Schedule
Tuesday is the last full day schedule at the Battle of Malta Autumn Edition. By the end of the day only the Super High Roller and the Main Event will still be unresolved. Even though the series is now drawing to a close, there’s still quite a lot on for any poker players who are staying until the very end.
The Main Event resumes at 1pm and High Roller at returns at 3pm. At 2pm the €2,200 (€2,000+€200) Luxon Super High Begins, as does the €350 (€315+35) NLH 8-Max IPC sponsored event.
Mixed Games are also back on the schedule today, with the €330 (€300+€30) H.O.R.S.E at 4pm.
The White and Dark Knights are also back for another double act today at 5pm & 7pm respectively and the final tournament on the schedule is the €150 Hyper Turbo at 9pm.
Time | Event | Buy-in | Fee | Starting Stack | Duration |
13:00 | BOM Day 4 €1,500,000 GTD | – | – | – | 90 min |
14:00 | NLH LUXON PAY Super Highroller | €2,000 | €200 | 50K | 50 min |
14:00 | NLH 8max IPC €10,000 GTD | €315 | €35 | 30K | 20 min |
15:00 | NLH QUIGIOCO – HIGH ROLLER €300.000 GTD – Day2 | – | – | – | 40 min |
16:00 | HORSE | €300 | €30 | 30K | 25 min |
17:00 | NLH White Knight | €130 | €20 | 15K | 20 min |
19:00 | NLH Dark Knight | €170 | €30 | 20K | 20 min |
21:00 | NLH HYPERTURBO | €130 | €20 | 20K | 10 min |