On Monday the Battle of Malta Spring Edition  continued at the Eden Arena and Casino Malta, at the Intercontinental Hotel. Although the busiest part of the iconic festival has now passed, there was still plenty of action, with another full schedule of tournaments scheduled.

Benoit Kuhn Bags Chip Lead in Main Event

While many nursed hangovers and creaky vocal chords from Sunday evening’s player party, for the 58 players who returned for Day 4 of the Main Event, the goal was to keep a clear head and make it through the day. Play resumed at 1pm in the Eden Arena in what turned out to be a short session of play, lasting for only four hours.

As expected the chips were flying in a fast and furious manner and four players busted within the first 10 minutes of the day. The pace of eliminations did not slow down much after that and by the first break of the day, just 31 competitors remained with their tournament lives intact.

Kuhn played strongly and confidently throughout the day and by the time Terry Jordan was eliminated in 25th place, his stack had grown to almost 7.5m, which would be almost the average stack for the final table. Adrian Ziemichod lies in second place with 6.635m and the effervescent Rasmus Lundstroem is still bubbling alonh nicely with 5.535m. He owes his ongoing continuation in the championship to a great call he made in during level 23 when he busted a bluffing Aristeidi Aftias to win a 7m pot.

There are still two players left in who graced the 2024 Autumn Edition final table and both will be looking to go back-to-back and secure a seat in the final eight. Bulgarian Ivaylo Eftimov who was 8th in November’s final table goes into Day 4 with a stack of 2.29m, while Alessandro Siena takes 1.725m into the last 24.

Remarkably there are still three starting day chip leaders left in the event. Benoit Kuhn is one of those, the others are Clement Kerrien and Shai Biner.

Only five players have above average stacks and there are quite a few shorties still in, Although Day 4 is typically quite a long day, the chip distribution could result in some early fireworks when play recommences.

Top 10 Chip Counts

 

To view the full chip counts and Day 4 seating draw for all 24 remaining players, click here.

 

Vito Burgio Wins High Roller

The Amazingbet High Roller returned for its second and final day with 49 players who had survived Sunday’s Day 1. It featured a regressive structure, which meant that the clock was rolled back five levels at the start of Day 2 and late registration re-opened until the end of level 12.

Another 139 players chose to pay the €1,100 buy-in, bringing the total entries up to 261, building a prize pool of just under €250,000 and a top prize of €45,000!

It was an extremely late finishing event, with play continuing until after 9am, when Italian Vito Burgio emerged victorious after the longest sessions of play ever witnessed at the series. He defeated local James Paris to claim the victory.

One of the players who made the final table in the High Roller is still in the Main Event. Along with several other players in the final 24 of the Main, Alessandro Siena decided to jump into the HR soon after the early finish of Day 3. The other Main Event survivors who also registered for the High Roller all busted fairly quickly and will have had the opportunity to get some good sleep before play restarts. However Alessandro eventually busted in 8th place and will have had reduced slumber time to recover before he’s back in action once again.

Flavia Guedes Wins FLIP Ladies Event for the Third Time

Four side events also ran on Monday, including the FLIP (Fantastic Ladies In Poker) Ladies event, in which Gia Carnestrom was trying to defend the title she won at the 2024 Autumn Edition. Before play began there was an afternoon tea party for all FLIP participants, which looked very tasty indeed.

Gia was not able to repeat the feat this time, but there were other former winners of the event who were also looking to increase their title tally. One of these was Emzy Oliver, a two-time BOM Ladies winner, but she did not make it deep o to the event this time.

The victory went to another double BOM Ladies champion, Flavia Guedes, who becomes the event’s very first 3-time winner! It’s actually her fourth FLIP title, as she has won one at another festival also. Congratulations to Flavia, who took home the €1,650 first prize. She defeated Estonian Maili Tannbaum heads up, who was also the runner up in the same event last year.

There was live blog coverage throughout the Ladies event on PokerPro, covered masterfully by Alek Gillies. It’s well worth a read to see how the full story of the tournament unfolded.

The Poker Fever Tour Event

The €170 (€150+€20) Poker Fever Tour was the busiest side event of the festival, with 353 entries. It was another late finishing event and was won by Italian Rosario Saddemi for €9,580. Compatriot Roberto Cilia was the runner up for €6,490 while Claudio Di Lorenzo (€4,710) completed an Italian 1-2-3 on the metaphorical poker podium. The UK’s Colin Lovelock was 4th for €3,660.

The other side events of the day were the €200 Novibet Road to Greece and the €150 Hyperturbo. The Novibet event was won by Mikael Riku for €2,020, while Gianluca Sardella claimed the nightly Hyperturbo for €2,350. Daily show host Jason Glatzer also made the final in the Hyperturbo, busting in 9th place.

Daily Talk Show Named

The new Battle of Malta talk show ran for four episodes without a name, but it has now been revealed that it has been named The Battle Booth. Originally there were no plans to continue the show until the very end of the series, but due to popular demand, there will be further episodes recorded throughout the last two days of the festival.

Yesterday there were two editions that dropped. The second of these was a bumper edition filmed during Saturday’s players party at The Eden leisure complex. You can watch this entertaining edition below. Look out for the shark and a fine display of bowling from one of the media team members…who could that be? Hit play to find out.