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.
Day 1d of the 2024 Battle of Malta Autumn Edition Main Event at Casino Malta and the Eden Arena at the InterContinental Malta boasted a half-price €300 opening flight. The rules were different to create parity with the regular €600 opening flight. The 40,000 opening stack was halved to 20,000, as were the blind levels from 40 to 20 minutes.
This is not all, as instead of 15 percent advancing, just 7.5 percent was slated for 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 mix, with just 21 players 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 bagged the Day 1d chip lead after pushing his 20,000 stack into 762,000. This was good enough for him to earn the €5,000 bonus, while Bartosz Jablonski earned an extra €2,000 for bagging the runner-up stack on Day 1d with 502,000. Check out the full chip counts below from the 21 Day 1d 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 |
Paolo Santagati | 171,000 |
Karl Gustavsson | 161,000 |
Italo Mafrici | 156,000 |
Federico Fulciniti | 136,000 |
Ioannis Koulopoulos | 113,000 |
Christoph Hillinger | 110,000 |
Ulrich Imbach | 108,000 |
Vincenzo Popolo | 98,000 |
Vikram Digpal | 72,000 |
Kenneth Greaney | 72,000 |
Nicola Bracchi | 39,000 |
The €600 buy-in Day 1c of the 2024 Battle of Malta Autumn Edition Main Event at Casino Malta and the Eden Arena at the InterContinental Hotel Malta was a massive success and the largest opening flight thus far. A total of 533 runners battled it out in a marathon of a day, and 80 players (15 percent) advanced to Sunday’s Day 2 already in the money.
Bulgaria’s Ivalylo Eftimov earned the €10,000 chip leader bonus for Day 1c after parlaying his 40,000 in chips into 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 behind this group but earned €3,000 for finishing with a third-place stck of 681,000.
This trio is behind the Day 1a chip leader Humberto Lopez Galindo (1,146,000) as well as Day 1a chip millionaire Michael Kim Falcon (1,106,000).
Check out the full chip counts from the Day 1c flight below:
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 |
11 | Jordi Ruiz Ribatallada | 470,000 |
12 | Marius Iftimia | 465,000 |
13 | Angelo Mirabella | 449,000 |
14 | Marius Negucioiu | 430,000 |
15 | Angelos Valilis | 416,000 |
16 | Luca Quilichini | 415,000 |
17 | Mario Sostar | 415,000 |
18 | Eugen Zogu | 404,000 |
19 | Peter Kamaras | 399,000 |
20 | Min Guk Kim | 391,000 |
21 | Valentin Oberhauser | 363,000 |
22 | Emmanouil Zacharakis | 358,000 |
23 | Cameron Sinclair | 340,000 |
24 | Argyrios Matzinos | 302,000 |
25 | Fabrizio Petroni | 300,000 |
26 | Robert Anscombe | 295,000 |
27 | Giuseppe Azzaro | 293,000 |
28 | Lucien Jouanneau | 293,000 |
29 | Milos Matic | 287,000 |
30 | Luca Delrio | 265,000 |
31 | Marko Cosic | 264,000 |
32 | Vladan Blagojevic | 261,000 |
33 | Marco Basta | 250,000 |
34 | John Hall | 242,000 |
35 | Mathias Jordi | 235,000 |
36 | Marko Luksa | 235,000 |
37 | Koen Meutstege | 230,000 |
38 | Karol Szczawinski | 228,000 |
39 | Lars Sommer | 221,000 |
40 | Vito Burgio | 214,000 |
41 | Benjamin Lysebo | 202,000 |
42 | Grigorios Thanos | 198,000 |
43 | Gorjan Jakimovski | 195,000 |
44 | Ippazio Manno | 191,000 |
45 | Linda Nguyen | 184,000 |
46 | Stein Naerland | 181,000 |
47 | Helder Correia | 180,000 |
48 | Ruggero Magri’ | 177,000 |
49 | Michal Wisniewski | 176,000 |
50 | Uladzimir Luchkou | 169,000 |
51 | Theo Schmitt | 155,000 |
52 | George Georgiou | 151,000 |
53 | Maruen Zormati | 150,000 |
54 | Dario Pieruzzini | 148,000 |
55 | Viorel-Gabriel Gavrila | 126,000 |
56 | Konstantinos Michail | 126,000 |
57 | Gino Tolone | 126,000 |
58 | Chuc Gia Khuu | 125,000 |
59 | Tiziano Colona | 121,000 |
60 | Chris Da-Silva | 121,000 |
61 | Anargyros Loizos | 116,000 |
62 | Daiva Byrne | 115,000 |
63 | Mateusz Stanielewicz | 97,000 |
64 | Mark Vella | 96,000 |
65 | Giordano Contu | 95,000 |
66 | Mitchell Hynam | 95,000 |
67 | Samuel Dray | 89,000 |
68 | Stefano Boi | 87,000 |
69 | Toni Ravnak | 87,000 |
70 | Fredric Lydersen | 83,000 |
71 | Sebastian Skurzynski | 82,000 |
72 | Soner Vanelderen | 80,000 |
73 | Richard De Freitas | 75,000 |
74 | Kristian Hagevik | 73,000 |
75 | Morten Norland | 73,000 |
76 | Ovidiu-Dorin Barna | 71,000 |
77 | Minh Diep | 59,000 |
78 | Angelo Virde | 41,000 |
79 | Jose Cardoze | 31,000 |
80 | Nikolaos Iakovidis | 22,000 |
It’s nowhere near the end of play, as both Day 1c and Day 1d of the Main Event are both likely to carry on until the small hours of the morning. However, we won’t be sticking around until the bitter end, as tomorrow will be another busy day at the Battle of Malta and the reporting team need to be on it again first thing in the morning.
Heres a quick glance at the state of play in the tournaments that still running.
Battle of Malta Main Event Day 1c (Full-Price)
- Current Level: 13
- Players Left/Entries: 196/533
The Main Event is currently on a short break and there are 196 players left from the 533 who began the day. They will play down until there are 80 players left tonight.
Battle of Malta Main Event Day 1d (Half-Price)
- Current Level: 9
- Players Left/Entries: 146/266
Registration is still open in today’s half-price flight of the Main Event but will be closing soon, as they are now in the tenth level of the day with 266 entries so far.
Mystery Siege of Malta Day 1c
- Current Level: 17
- Players Left/Entries: 61/330
Day 1c of the Mystery Siege of Malta is still playing and there are currently 61 players left in the flight. They will continue until there are 50 left. Daniel Maunders, who we spoke to earlier today didn’t make it through the day, but we might see him have another go in tomorrow’s final starting day.
Winamax 6-Max Day 1a
- Current Level: 13
- Players Left/Entries: 18/80
The Winamax sponsored 6-Max event is playing down to 12 players tonight and there are currently 18 of the 80 who started the day left in contention for a place in Saturday’s Day 2. Irish pro Daragh Davey won’t be one of them however, as he busted in 22nd place. He’s jumped straight into Day 1d of the Main Event now.
Pot Limit Omaha
- Current Level: 13
- Players Left/Entries: 22/78
The PLO is now down to three tables and will be paying 11 spots. The eventual winner will be picking up €6,100.
Dark Knight
- Current Level: 6
- Players Left/Entries: 13/85
The bubble has just burst in the Dark Knight, which has 13 players left, all of whom are now in the money. There’s €3,657 up top for the winner.
Main Event Satellite
- Current Level: 7
- Players Left: 190/440
Tonight’s Main Event satellite is indeed another busy one. It might not quite get to the 508 who played the earlier satellite but it’s still a busy one.
Late registration has now closed in Day 1c of the Main Event, with a total of 533 players taking part, 80 of whom will proceed to Day 2.
This brings the total up to 1,141 entries, with with six starting days left to go. One of those remaining six flights, Day 1d, is currently in progress and has 223 entries so far. Its currently in level 7 and gracing us with his presence today is Antoine Degiorgio, who is looking to book his seat into Day 2 on his first bullet.
Other players spotted in Day 1d include English pro drinker Kenny Burke and Antonis Poulengeris, a stalwart of the London poker scene for decades.
Due to the high popularity of the Main Event satellites, we have had our first (and hopefully only) casualty of the schedule, as tonight’s HyperTurbo has been cancelled (RIP), to ensure maximum space is available for the satellite, which has now up to 339 entries. The fourth level of the satellite has just started and there’s still over two hours before late registration closes.
Asif Warris snagged this reporter’s poker costume and if you see Dracula walking around it is no longer me. Warris, who is also affectionately known as the Poker Tourist, came over to see what was happening and might enter the €70 satellite starting soon. Whether he enters or not as himself or Dracula or at all is yet to be determined.
Meanwhile, he came by with the formidable June Jenkins. It was a pleasure meeting her for the first time after seeing some of her recent success on social media. Jenkins was studying the structure for the €330 8-Game on Sunday at 4 p.m. and plans to enter after seeing the deep play with a 30,000 starting stack and 25-minute blind levels.
Both Jenkins and Warris were joking around and we had some fun snapping some photos with Jenkins and Dracula.
Were you at the Battle of Malta at the start of Day 1c to witness the fun Halloween-themed opening ceremony before the start of the day?
Don’t worry if you missed it as you can check out what you missed in the video below:
Level 10: 500/1,000 (1,000)
Entries: 282/513
Players have just returned from their dinner break and it will be a repeat of the 500/1,000 (1,000) blind level. The field has grown to 513 entries and will grow a little more as Level 10 will be the final level of late registration.
After this blind level, we will learn how many players are scheduled to advance to Day 2 via the Day 1c field. Good luck to all the players on this festive Halloween day at the Battle of Malta.
The second Main Event satellite of the day has just begun. If its anything like the one that was held this morning (which had over 500 entries and produced 50 tickets) its going to be another huge qualifier. It started with 159 players and is filling up rapidly and is now at 200 entries. Will it beat the 508 who played earlier today?
Name | Chips | Big Blinds |
Matija Grgic | 228,000 | 228 |
Mitchell Hynam | 225,000 | 225 |
Valentin Oberhauser | 198,000 | 198 |
Gregory Campbell | 180,000 | 180 |
Morten Norland | 178,000 | 178 |
Robert Anscombe | 175,000 | 175 |
Eirik Presterud | 175,000 | 175 |
Edwin Caruana | 169,000 | 169 |
Vladan Blagojevic | 160,000 | 160 |
Kristian Hagevik | 151,000 | 151 |
Uladzimir Luchkou | 145,000 | 145 |
Antonio Bari | 141,000 | 141 |
Marko Cosic | 140,000 | 140 |
Linda Nguyen | 136,000 | 136 |
James Paris | 128,500 | 129 |
Min Guk Kim | 122,700 | 123 |
Dan Sfarlea | 117,500 | 118 |
Magnar Storhaug | 107,500 | 108 |
Lukas Benkovic | 104,000 | 104 |
The second half-price starting day has become the seventh event of the day to get going. They are still in the first level of the day and so far 101 players have joined the flight, with just one exit so far. The first player to exit was Michael Tabone.
Yesterday’s had-price flight had 133 entries, but it was a much smaller field at the start of the day, which suggests that this one will be much busier. We’ll keep you updated on how that’s going as the evening progresses.
- Buy-In: €300 (€265+€35)
- Tournament Began: 8pm
- Starting Stack: 20,000
- Blind levels: 20 mins
- Play Ends: When 7.5% of the field remain
- Play Resumes: Day 2 begins at 8pm on Sunday 3rd November
With the Main event now on dinner break, let’s take a quick look at the state of play in all the events taking place right now.
Battle of Malta Main Event Day 1c
The Main Event has climbed to 509 entries today, just over half of whom are still in. Late registration is still open for one more level when play resumes after the 75-minute dinner break.
- Current Level: Dinner Break
- Players Left/Entries: 280/509
- Who’s Out: Alfredo Cuti (twice), Robert Smith
- Who’s Still In: Alfredo Cuti (3rd bullet of the day), Shaun Decesare (2nd bullet of the day), Daiva Byrne,, Bas de Laat, Laurens Akerboom, Vasileios Zisis
Mystery Siege of Malta Day 1c
The Mystery Siege is having a bumper day with the field having grown to 330 entries in today’s third flight of four. Late registration has now closed, bringing the total field up to 680. They will play until there are 50 players left, all of whom will be in the money and in with a shot at taking down some bounties when play resumes for the second day on Friday evening.
The prize pool has already grown to over €250,000 and with one starting day left, it’s going to climb a lot higher.
- Current Level: 12
- Players Left/Entries: 185/330
- Who’s Out: Paul Romain, Martin Tsvetanov
- Who’s Still In: Daniel Maunders, Salvatore Caruso, Martin Tsvetanov (2nd bullet)
Winamax 6-Max Day 1a
The Winamax sponsored 6-Max event has two levels left for late entry. There have now been 80 entries in the event, with one of the recent players to join being online maestro Andrew Wilson.
- Current Level: 9
- Players Left/Entries: 36/80
- Who’s Out: Tomi Arponen (3rd bullet), Timothee Marlin,
- Who’s Still In: Daragh Davey, Andrew Wilson
Pot Limit Omaha
The PLO is another event that has now gone on dinner break. Its much busier than yesterday’s Sviten, with the field having grown to 67 at this stage, with still several hours to go before registration closes.
- Current Level: Dinner Break
- Players Left/Entries: 50/67
- Who’s Out: Luca Bartoli, Oren Koren
- Who’s Still In: Joe Grech, Allan Arjut
Dark Knight
- Current Level: 6
- Players Left/Entries: 52/82
- Who’s Out: Danny Verheij, Spencer Owen
- Who’s Still In: Alan Vinnicombe, James MacPherson
Level 9: 500/1,000 (1,000)
Entries: 301/500
The Main Event is shaping up to be the largest in Battle of Malta history. Day 1c alone nearly doubled the field with thus far 500 entries in the mix with around 60% of the field still remaining with the 75-minute dinner break soon approaching.
The energy is high and you can check out the feel of the room from a recently published Facebook walkaround hosted by yours truly.
Best of luck to all of the players in not only finding a bag but claiming one of the top three spots with a €10,000 bonus to today’s Day 1c chip leader, a €5,000 to the runner-up, and €3,000 to third on the leaderboard.
Level 9: 500/1,000 (1,000)
Entries: 310/494
Paul Fisher had his stack of more than a dozen big blinds committed against Thibaut Yoccoz, while Nunzio Iandolo also committed his short stack as well.
Nunzio Iandolo: A♥J♦
Paul Fisher: K♥Q♦
Thibaut Yoccoz: Q♠T♠
“That’s a decent flop,” said Fisher with a big smile after he nailed a full house on the Q♣K♠K♦ flop. The T♣ turn improved Iandolo to a straight but he was drawing dead anyway before the T♦ river double-paired the board.
“Good game,” said Iandolo after losing his stack.
Meanwhile, Fisher appeared to be thrilled about tripling back up to near a starting stack.
Thibaut Yoccoz – 80,000
Paul Fisher – 40,000
Nunzio Iandolo – 0
In April, Englishman Daniel Maunder went into the Battle of Malta Spring edition final table as the chip leader. He almost managed to hang on for the win, but in the end he departed as the runner up.
This time he’s back and says he only needs to improve by one place to secure the title he now desperately craves, after going so close last time. However he’s not tackling the Main event just yet, but secured a seat for €70 in one of yesterday’s busy satellites. Today he’s taking a shot at the Mystery Siege of Malta and will turn his attention to the Main Event once he has booked his place into tomorrow evening’s Day 2.
Level 7: 300/600 (600)
Entries: 325/466
Gustav Andren opened the button before Ruggero Magri three-bet to 3,800 from the small blind. Ernestas Degtiariovas cold-called from the big blind before Andren jammed for 7,500. Magri asked for a count before isolating with a five-bet to 15,500. Degtiariovas folded and Andren needed some help to spin up his Day 1c bullet.
Gustav Andren: K♥T♦
Ruggero Magri: K♣Q♠
Both players nailed top pair on the 9♠5♦K♦4♥3♦ board. Magri had the better kicker and won Andren’s short stack.
The Halloween edition of the €200 No Limit Hold’em Dark Knight has begun with 50 players currently negotiating the second level of the day.
I’ve just spotted a blast from my own poker past in today’s field in the shape of UK player Alan “All-in Vin” Vinnicombe. I haven’t seen him for years, but he was quite a character on the UK poker scene in the early days of the GUKPT.
His party piece back in the day was to stand on chair shouting “All-in Vin” when his tournament life was on the line. I’m not sure if that is still part of his repertoire, but if so, we’ll try to get some photographic evidence.
- Buy-In: €200 (€170+€30)
- Tournament Began: 6pm
- Starting Stack: 20,000
- Blind levels: 20 mins
- Play Ends: When we have a winner!
The Main Event is now on the second break of the day and the field has grown to 430 players, with 316 still involved in today’s flight. There’s still four levels left for late entry and its possible we could exceed 500 players today.
Level 7: 200/500 (500)
Entries: 316/430
The Battle of Malta Main Event has reached over 1,000 entries including 608 entries leading into today. Will it set a new record? Time will tell how big this event will get.
Today’s non Hold’em tournament is the first of three Pot Limit Omaha tournaments taking place during the series. It has recently begun and there are 38 players taking part so far, as they approach the end of the first level of the day.
Just one player has busted so far and that dubious honor goes to Romanian Vladimir Cocis. But he’s back in again already on his second bullet, good luck sir!
Also playing today is Joe Grech, the Maltese Londoner who now spends much of his time back on the island he grew up on. Earlier this year he changed his nationality on his Hendonmob profile from English to Maltese and as a result, he rocketed to the top of the Malta all time money list, having cashed for over $1.5m in his poker career, so far.
There are also a few Estonians in the field today, including Allan Arjut, a player who also sits on the board of the Estonian Poker Federation.
- Buy-In: €330 (€300+€30)
- Tournament Began: 5pm
- Starting Stack: 30,000
- Blind levels: 25 mins
- Play Ends: When we have a winner!
Level 6: 200/500 (500)
Entries: 318/410
There appears to be no end in sight in terms of how big Day 1c will grow as the field has surpassed 400 entries before the second break.
Not only will more players come into the Main Event today through Day 1c, but many more will choose to play the half-priced €300 Day 1d starting at 8 p.m.
Meanwhile, the action in the €330 PLO, Day 1a of the €400 6-Max by Winamax, and Day 1c of the €450 Mystery Siege of Malta continue to attract numbers in what promises to be a memorable Halloween with some players and staff dressed up for today’s theme.
Level 6: 200/500 (500)
Entries: 314/391
James Parker min-raised from early position. Ashley Scott called from one seat over before Joachim Andersen raised to 5,000 (might have been less, but was a 5K chip) from middle position. Vito Burgio four-bet to 12,500. Parker and Scott got out of the way before Andersen called to see the 7♠7♦3♦ flop.
Burgio continued for 3,000 and Andersen didn’t waste too much time in finding a call. Both players checked after the 7♣ turn put trips on the board.
The T♣ river completed the board. Burgio jammed for less than 20,000. Andersen, who had around 25,000 at the time, went into the tank for several minutes before he found a call.
“Nice call,” Burgio said before seeing Andersen’s hand as he turned over the A♠Q♠.
Andersen soon after tabled the J♦T♦ to win the hand with a full house to earn all of Burgio’s stack.
Joachim Andersen – 100,000
Vito Burgio – 0
Well nobody has achieved glory yet, but they’re definitely trying to set themselves up to do s later in the week. Here’s a roundup of what’s going on right now at the Battle of Malta
Battle of Malta Main Event Day 1c
- Current Level: 6
- Players Left/Entries: 312/395
- Who’s Out: Leslie Tipping, Shaun Decesare, Matthew Micallef, Julian Micallef
- Who’s Still In: Daiva Byrne, Alfredo Cuti, Bas de Laat, Laurens Akerboom
Mystery Siege of Malta Day 1c
- Current Level: 3
- Players Left/Entries: 180/187
- Who’s Out: James Demanuel, Pasquale Porcini, Gilbert Black
- Who’s Still In: Salvatore Caruso, Paul Romain, Martin Tsvetanov
Winamax 6-Max Day 1a
- Current Level: 4
- Players Left/Entries: 49/58
- Who’s Out: Emin Karatas, Tomi Arponen, Tomi Arponen (again)
- Who’s Still In: Daragh Davey, Timothee Marlin, Tomi Arponen (3rd bullet)
The Pot Limit Omaha is also about to start soon, with players limbering up in the hallway at present, some heard muttering to themselves “two cards bad, four cards good.”
The opening ceremony was full of Halloween surprises before the start of today’s Day 1c. There are plenty of players and staff dressed up for today’s special day.
Check out the Halloween photos from the opening ceremony before the start of Day 1c by Battle of Malta photographer Igor Bezborodov.
Level 5: 200/400 (400)
Entries: 311/366
Day 1c is officially the biggest thus far with 366 entries in the mix. This eclipses the 362 entries on yesterday’s Day 1a and there is still more than five levels remaining of late registration.
Best of luck to all of the Halloween players and may you win some treats while showing off some tricks on the felts.
Another event has now begun here in the Eden Arena. It’s the third starting day of the €450 Mystery Siege of Malta and is sure to be another busy one, as more players attempt to join the 53 players who already made it into Day 2 from the first two flights.
There were already 100 players seated within a few minutes of the start, including Salvatore Caruso, who scooped the biggest bounty in the Spring edition of this event.
UK legend Paul Romain has also been spotted sneaking into this one. I wonder if now is a good time to tell him that the favourite place he likes to go to in St Julians for coffee is said to be haunted and bad things have happened to everyone who ever opened a business there…then again, maybe today of all days isn’t the best day to be telling him that…
- Buy-In: €450 (€210+€200+€40)
- Tournament Began: 4pm
- Starting Stack: 30,000
- Blind levels: 20 mins
- Late Registration: 10 Levels
- Play Ends: When 15% of the field remain
- Play Resumes: Day 2 begins at 7pm on Friday 1st November
- Total Entries from Day 1a & 1b combined: 350
- Players through to Day 2 from Day 1a & 1b combined: 53
The €400 Winamax 6-Max opening starting day (of two) is now underway. There is another starting day at the same time on Friday and Day 2 will take place on Saturday.
It’s taking place in the conference room on the ground floor of the Intercontinental Hotel. So far there are 37 players spread across seven tables, but with a 30-minute clock and 10 levels for latecomers to join the action, that number is sure to increase further.
One player in the field who we know very well who is probably trying to get it quietly and might not even appreciate this shout out is Irishman Daragh Davey. He is a former resident of Malta and frequently returns to the rock for many of the festivals that take place here every year.
- Buy-In: €400 (€340+€60)
- Tournament Began: 3pm
- Starting Stack: 30,000
- Blind levels: 30 mins
- Late Registration: 10 Levels
- Play Resumes: Day 2 begins at 3pm on Saturday 2nd November
Redtooth Poker is getting ready for its annual tradition of the invite-only Malta52 freeroll. Redtooth’s Glenn Brown is in the house and was competing in a side event yesterday while he gets ready to commentate the final table of this epic event.
Learn more from the interview Brown had with Battle of Malta host Patrisha Rimfire:
Level 4: 100/300 (300)
Entries: 277/300
The Day 1c field has officially grown to 300 entries during the break. Most of the players are still in their seats with 23 players losing their stacks during the first three blind levels. Of course, all of those players can (and some have) re-enter for a fresh stack of 40,000 in chips.
It is just a matter of time before this becomes the largest opening field thus far at the 2024 Battle of Malta Autumn Edition, but likely won’t be the largest of them all by the time Sunday rolls around.
The opening day ceremonies are one of our favourite traditions at the Battle of Malta. The Spring edition earlier this year took place during the height of Malta’s strawberry season, which resulted in some rather fruity treats for the players.
But as today is Halloween, the treats have been replaced with tricks and the entire Eden Arena was thrown into horror movie mode for a few minutes, before the day’s action got underway.
The lights were dimmed, the music began and a costumed Telly Bartolo, accompanied by suitably seasonal hosts Patrisha and Valeria made their way to the stage, escorted as always by the longsword wielding Knights of the Casino Malta realm. They were joined on stage by a host of skeletons, scary nuns, a Sheikh and a Dracula-like tournament director.
Quite what Telly’s costume was meant to be I’m not quite sure? A pirate? A Genie? An Italian Mine Artist? Answers please!
The field had nearly reached 300 entries when the first 20-minute break took place. The blinds will increase to 100/300 with a 300 big blind ante when the action resumes. In other words, new players will start off with at least 100 big blinds if they join the action during Level 4 or Level 5.
Level 3: 100/200 (200)
Entries: 257/274
Stefan Fabian opened from early position and was called by Vladan Blagojevic before Cameron Sinclair three-bet to 1,500 from the small blind. Nikodem Dubiel cold-called from the big blind before Fabian jacked it up with a four-bet to 7,300. Blagojevic called before Sinclair went into the tank. Eventually, both Sinclair and Dubiel folded leaving Fabian and Blagojevic heads-up heading into the K♣6♥T♦ flop.
Fabian continued for 4,500 and Blagojevic began a deep stare down at his opponent. Blagojevic called about 20 seconds later but the stare-down continued after the 8♠ followed on the turn. Both players checked after pausing for a few seconds and the A♣ river completed the board.
The stare-down was off after Fabian checked again. Blagojevic bet 7,500 and Fabian quickly folded. Blagojevic showed that the river likely helped his hand as he flashed the A♠ before tossing his hand into the muck.
Stefan Fabian – 90,000
Vladan Blagojevic – 75,000
The first day witnessed the Battle of Malta Main Event field grow to 608 entries. Humberto Lopes Galindo leads the way after bagging up 1,146,000 in chips on Day 1a.
There is already €239,163 in the prize pool with still seven more opening flights to go. Today’s action is already a barnburner with already 260 entries in the mix and counting before the first break.
Best of luck to all BoM players to advancing to Wednesday’s final table. There is a long journey ahead, so make sure to get rest when you can and stay hydrated.
Flight | Entries | Survivors | Prize Pool + | Chip Leader | Chips |
Catania | 111 | 8 | €27,944 | Andrea Savasto | 621,000 |
Day 1a | 364 | 54 | €183,274 | Humberto Lopes Galindo | 1,146,000 |
Day 1b | 133 | 10 | €27,944 | Krystian Nalepka | 599,000 |
Total Before Day 1c | 608 | 72 | €239,163 | Humberto Lopes Galindo | 1,146,000 |
Daiva Byrne has become a mainstay here at the Battle of Malta, having hosted many of the €150 NLH Ladies Events in the past. The Lithuanian poker influencer, who founded the women’s poker group FLIP, will once again be the host for the €150 Ladies Event on Monday, Nov. 4 at 4 p.m.
This event will guarantee €5,000, but expect much more with many women on the island eager to win a title including two-time Ladies Event champion Emzy Oliver, who we interviewed briefly yesterday during our nightly walk-around.
This is not all as the event guarantees the top three players a BoM buy-in for 2025 and also there will be a special pizza lunch compliments of the Battle of Malta for the women playing before the event kicks off.
In the meantime, Byrne has opted to see if she can run it up in the Main Event after arriving to Malta yesterday evening. Byrne shared that she lost 4,000 on her first hand and hasn’t played many since we ran into each other.
We wish Byrne the best of luck in finding a bag and we will do our best to catch her in a walk-around live on Facebook later today.
Level 2: 100/100 (100)
Entries: 226/233
Manish Rawal fired out for 3,300 with the Q♠2♥A♦T♦9♣ board and a bit more in the pot. Sergidis Philippos paused for a few moments before he called.
Rawal turned over the K♥J♣ for Broadway. Philippos couldn’t match the nuts and mucked his hand for Rawal to collect the pot.
Manish Rawal – 55,000
Sergidis Philippos – 35,000
The Battle of Malta Autumn edition is by far the biggest poker event of the year on Malta’s busy poker calendar. The demand to play in it is huge and this has been evidenced in the massive turnouts there have been for the satellites that have taken place so far.
Today’s opening satellite will likely top 500 entries and last night’s version ended up with over 400.
- Satellite 1 (Tue): 251 entries, 25 seats won
- Satellite 2 (Tue):182 entries, 18 seats won
- Satellite 3 (Wed): 256 entries, 25 seats won
- Satellite 4 (Wed): 424 entries, 42 seats won
- Satellite 5 (Thu): ??? entries, ?? seats won
There is another one scheduled at 9pm this evening and its sure to be another monster field.
Level 1: 100/100
Entries: 204/209
The Day 1c field has already gone past 200 entries. Two more players recently hit the rail in Sweden’s Simon Persson and Greece’s Emmanouil Fountoulakis. Persson has already re-entered for a fresh stack of 40,000 in chips while Fountoulakis has plenty of time to do some himself if he so chooses.
Meanwhile, several players have managed to chip up including Cameron Sinclair. He just won a small pot against Nikodem Dubiel after he bet 3,300 on the river with more in the pot and the 6♣A♦J♣8♦2♥ on the board. Dubai called only to muck his hand after Sinclair turned over the A♥7♥ for the top pair.
– 70,000
Simon Persson – 40,000
Nikodem Dubiel – 30,000
Emmanouil Fountoulakis – 0
Level 1: 100/100
Entries: 171/174
Mayhem erupted on Halloween with several players hitting the rail in the opening moments despite being 400 big blinds deep with a 40,000 starting stack.
Sweden’s Tony Kennheden lasted just one hand. The formidable Norwegian Linda Nguyen opened from under the gun and was called by two players including Kennheden and the player in the big blind.
Nguyen fired out for 600 on the 6♠Q♠3♣ flop. Kennheden jacked it up to 2,100 before Nguyen three-bet to 8,600. Kennheden four-bet shoved for the rest of his starting stack and was called by Nguyen.
Tony Kennheden: A♣Q♥
Linda Nguyen: 6♥6♦
Nguyen’s set of sixes was far ahead and she ousted Kennheden out on the very first hand after blanks came the rest of the way.
Meanwhile, Andreas Katsanis and Bartosz Brzezinski also hit the rail in the early moments. The trio have plenty of chances to get back into the mix today or any opening flight until Sunday for a chance at Battle of Malta glory.
Linda Nguyen – 85,000
Tony Kennheden – 0
The early satellites at the Battle of Malta typically attract a crowd of under 200 entries this early in the festival. What a nice Halloween surprise it was to walk into the Eden Arena today to see already 457 entries in the €70 satellite to the €600 buy-in opening flights of the Main Event.
The satellite could reach more than 500 entries with another four levels of late registration to go. There are already 45 tickets on tap to be awarded, a figure that will surely increase.
There is still time for you to hop in or to consider to be an early bird to get in on what promises to be massive qualifiers all week long at the 2024 Battle of Malta Autumn Edition.
Day 1c of the Battle of Malta Main Event is now in play in the Eden Arena at the Intercontinental Hotel in St Julians.
When play commenced there were already 114 players in their seats ready to make their opening charges of the day. They are now up to 137 entries, but have some way to go yet to equal the 362 who participated in Day 1a. late registration is open for ten levels.
We’ll be covering this flight extensively in our coverage today, delivering news, hands and more, direct from the tournament floor.
Already spotted in the field today is Malta resident Soner Vanelderen, fresh from his Sviten victory last night. There are quite a few other Maltese locals in the field today, including Julian and Matthew Micallef. They’re unlikely to be related as Micallef is one of the more common names in Malta. In fact, Malta has relatively few surnames compared to most countries and the majority of islands’ 500,000 residents share just 100 different surnames.
The morning satellite is a busy one and late registration is still open, but they are already up to 454 entries. When it finishes, there will be a huge influx of new players joining today’s field.
- Buy-In: €600 (€530+€70)
- Tournament Begins: 1pm
- Starting Stack: 40,000
- Blind levels: 40 mins
- Late Registration: 10 Levels
- Play Ends: When 15% of the field remain
- Play Resumes: Day 2 begins at 8pm on Sunday 3rd November
The Battle of Malta Autumn edition is now well and truly underway, with the first day now a thing of the past. And what a day it was, with an extremely busy start to the Main Event, taking place at Casino Malta and the Eden Arena at the Intercontinental Hotel.
By the time late registration ended in the main event Day 1a, there had been 362 entries, 15% of whom would progress further in the tournament. But it was a long day for these early starting poker warriors, as it was not until after 5am that the flight concluded, with 54 players safely securing their passage into Day 2.
It was also the first half-price starting day yesterday and as this is a new feature of the Battle of Malta’s format, we weren’t so sure what to expect. It did quite well, not as well as the opening flight, but with 133 entries, it was a reasonable start.
Just ten players (7.5% of the field) bagged stacks from Day 2. The rest hit the rail, but many will likely be back for another crack at the Hold’em whip, in one of the remaining seven starting days.
High Stack Bonuses
Another new feature for this edition of the Battle of Malta Main Event is the introduction of High Stack bonus prizes for the top finishers in the starting flights.
- The full-price starting days award €10,000 to the player who bags the largest stack of the day, plus €5,000 and €3,000 to the players with the second and third biggest stacks respectively.
- The half-price starting days award €5,000 to the end of day chip leader and €2,000 to the owner of the second biggest stack.
Humberto Hauls €10,000 Bonus in Day 1a
Humberto Lopes Galindo bagged the chip lead after parlaying his 40,000 opening stack into a whopping 1,146,000 in chips to earn the €10,000 bonus. Michael Kim Falcon was near the chip lead throughout Day 1a and ended just one starting stack behind Galindo, to end the day with 1,106,000 and earn the €5,000 second-place bonus.
These two were quite far ahead of the rest of the pack and it was Nikolaos Oikonomou who squeezed into the third-place by the end of the day, bagging 797,000 to earn the €3,000 third-place bonus.
There’s a large contingent of Estonian players at this event and two of them posted top 15 chip counts from the opening starting day. Kaidar Viikman, bagged up 435,000, while Herli Olop, who final tabled the 2023 Battle of Malta ended the flight with 385,000. Here are the top 10 chip counts from the day.
Player | Chips |
Humberto Lopes Galindo | 1,146,000 |
Michael Kim Falcon | 1,106,000 |
Nikolaos Oikonomou | 797,000 |
Gabriel Ionut Dinu | 783,000 |
Kostadin Mihaylov | 685,000 |
Kyriakos Papadopoulos | 655,000 |
Giulio Di Salvo | 599,000 |
Massimiliano Mauceri | 570,000 |
Andreas Froehli | 513,000 |
Kaidar Viikman | 435,000 |
The full list of chip counts for all 54 Day 1a survivors can be found here.
Polish Duo Pocket Day 1b Bonuses
Two players from Poland collected the bonuses. Krystian Nalepka led the way after transforming his 20,000 starting stack into 599,000 to earn the €5,000 chip leader bonus, while countrymate Krzystof Mielnik ended the day with 520,000, which was good enough to earn the €2,000 bonus for second place.
For clarity, all of the bonuses are part of the prize pool, creating a unique and exciting end to each starting day. Check out the full chip counts below from the 10 Day 1b survivors.
Player | Chips |
Krystian Nalepka | 599,000 |
Krzysztof Mielnik | 520,000 |
Leslie Lamnea | 388,000 |
Salvatore Pardo | 257,000 |
Andreas Putz | 184,000 |
Claudio Schifano | 175,000 |
Adam Pawel Wojcieszak | 161,000 |
Ricardo Abreu | 138,000 |
Grzegorz Kozieja | 132,000 |
Elia Salerno | 76,000 |
Mystery Siege of Malta Smashes Guarantee
The Mystery Siege of Malta began on Tuesday, when 210 players contested the first of four starting days. The numbers in the first flight alone ensured that the €100,000 guarantee in the event will be smashed well out of the ball park and this was confirmed yesterday, when a further 140 players took their seats. With 350 entries so far at the half way stage of the starting days, the prize pool is already close to €130,000! The prize pool now looks very likely to surpass €250,000!
Chip counts from the survivors of yesterday’s flight can be found in this post in yesterday’s blog coverage.
Satellite Surge
Yesterday’s two main event satellites were both huge, with 67 players winning (full-price) Main Event seats. The early starting satellite had a very respectable 256 entries, producing 25 seat winners. The evening satellite did even better, with 424 players joining the game to generate a further 42 seats into the Battle of Malta Main Event.
Congratulations to Our First Day Winners
We also had four winners on the first day of the festival, as both the White and Dark Knight tournaments reached their conclusions, as did the Sviten and the late night HyperTurbo.
Danny Verheij from Netherlands won the €150 White Knight, scooping the €2,100 first prize, defeating Italian Vicenzo Scarpitti after an intense heads up battle.
Vladyslav Sidihkin from Ukraine who defeated the UK’s James MacPherson in the €200 Dark Knight to claim the €2.390
Soner Vanelderen, a Belgian who lives in Malta won the Sviten, officially taking the €1,710 first prize, however there was some business done with Karol Olszewski when they were heads up.
Nathan Priestnall won the first HyperTurbo event of the week, defeating Kosovan Selamiri Bllloshmi to scoop the €2,380 first prize.
Thursday’s Action At The Battle of Malta
Start Time | Event | Buy-In | Fee | Starting Stack | Levels |
11:00 | Satellite One Shot to BOM €1,500,000 GTD | €60 | €10 | 10K | 20 mins |
13:00 | BOM €1,500,000 GTD Day1C | €530 | €70 | 40K | 40 mins |
15:00 | 6max by Winamax (Day 1A) | €340 | €60 | 30K | 30 mins |
16:00 | MYSTERY SIEGE OF MALTA (BOUNTY MYSTERY EVENT) €100,000 GTD Day1C | €210+200 | €40 | 30K | 20 mins |
17:00 | Pot Limit Omaha | €300 | €30 | 30K | 25 mins |
18:00 | NLH Dark Knight | €170 | €30 | 20K | 20 mins |
20:00 | BOM €1,500,000 GTD Day1D half price | €265 | €35 | 20K | 20 mins |
21:00 | Satellite Accumulator to BOM €1,500.000 GTD – every 100K | €60 | €10 | 10K | 20 mins |
22:00 | NLH HyperTurbo | €130 | €20 | 20K | 10 mins |
Thursday’s schedule is very similar to Wednesday’s. In fact the only difference today is that there is no White Knight tournament this afternoon. In its place is the first of two starting days in the Winamax 6-Max event, which has a €400 buy-in (€340+€60).
As per Wednesday’s action, the day begins with a satellite at 11am, with Day 1c (full-price) of the Battle of Malta Main Event beginning at 1pm and a further half-price flight at 8pm. There is also another Main Event satellite at 9pm.
The third starting day of the Siege of Malta begins at 4pm and today’s non-hold’em offering is a €330 (€300+€30) Pot Limit Omaha.
For those looking for single day Hold’em side events, the €200 (€170+€30) White Knight at 6pm and the €150 (€130+€20) Hyper Turbo at 10pm are the available options.
As today is October the 31st, which as everyone knows is Halloween, we are also expecting something spooky to happen today. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself in a hand and the devil himself is the one who does the write up for the blog. There will be much blood spilled today at the Battle of Malta and none of it will be mine, muhahhhaaa (evil laugh).