Day 1b of the 2024 Battle of Malta Autumn Edition Main Event at Casino Malta and the Eden Arena at the InterContinental Malta was historic as it was the first time a €300 opening flight was held on the island of Malta for this prestigious event. 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 1b witnessed 133 entries getting into the mix, with just ten 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.

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 transparency purposes, all of the bonuses are part of the prize pool, creating a unique environment near the end of the day. Check out the full chip counts below from the 10 Day 1b survivors.