The Mystery Siege of Malta was won by Emmanouil Chalkiotis from Greece. He defeated a field of 617 entries to claim €23,600 in prize money (including bounties). Greek players dominated the business end of the 2-day tournament, with three of the last four players standing being of Hellenic persuasion. They all earned good paydays, but were denied a Grecian trio on the podium by the UK’s Ashley Scott, who was the runner up in a late night finish at the Eden Arena.

The day began with Day 1c, which was predictably the biggest of the event’s third starting flights with 286 entries, 43 of whom joined the 50 who had already booked their spots in Day 2 on Thursday. Neither of the chip leaders from the opening flights managed to progress far on Day 2, as Jonathan Wong departed in 29th and Michael Leng capitulated immediately afterwards in 28th place.

Emmanouil had posted the second largest stack on his starting day is no stranger to Battle of Malta final tables. He finished 6th in the same event in October, when he also won the IPC 8-Max, for just less than he has cashed for today. In fact Emmanouil had already chalked up a significant win in January this year, when he took down the Vamos Poker Tour Milan Main Event, for €18,000. He’s one to watch in the Main Event also.

At the Battle of Malta, pulling of bounties is done during extended breaks in play, to help add a little excitement to the event. It sure does draw a crowd of onlookers and not just those that were fortunate enough to get to draw one, or in some cases multiple bounties.

The biggest bounties were mostly drawn by players who didn’t make it to the final table. Gil Preter (8th place) and Carmelo Fangano (18th) scooped the two biggest €10,000 bounties.

However the biggest winner of bounty prizes was eventual 16th placed finisher Rasmus Lundstroem, who captured the second biggest €7,500 prize, and split the €5,000 along with a €2,000 and some other smaller prizes for a total mystery bounty haul of €12,700.

Rasmus Lundstroem

Mystery Siege of Malta Result*

*Prizes include bounties

Emmanouil Chalkiotis, Mystery Siege Winner