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