We have had tons of firsts during the 2024 Battle of Malta Autumn Edition including a wedding proposal yesterday during the live-streamed Redtooth Poker Malta 52 invitational.

Today, we ran into Chris Da Silva, who has had tons of success on the island of Malta in the past. He already bagged 121,000 in the Main Event two days ago on Day 1c and now will venture into a new game he has never played in the €330 Pot Limit Omaha after learning that the €300 NLH MAS Event was canceled due to the impressive turnout on Day 1g.

Da Silva, who this author considers a friend, arrived to Malta on Wednesday and immediately headed to Casino Malta. He asked this author as soon as he arrived how deep the Main Event was.

“It’s on Level 4,” we shared on Wednesday. Blinds are 100/300 and you start this Main Event with 40,000 instead of 30,000 as it was in the past.”

“That’s too early,” said Da Silva. “I will wait a bit.”

This author thought that he meant he would wait until after the next break when ti was Level 7 with blinds at 300/600 with a 600 big blind ante. However, instead we witnessed Da Silva battling it out already on Level 5 with more chips than he started with.”

He ran that bullet up and shared that he would have 20 big blinds to start Day 2 to make a run. However, we just learned from the tournament director that as of now the action will roll back to 4,000/8,000 with an 8,000 big blind ante which would equate to around 15 big blinds. Either way, Da Silva has proved in the past that 15 big blinds can be plenty to work with.

Before the pandemic, Da Silva late-entered the 2019 Battle of Malta Autumn Edition €1,320 High Roller at the very last second with just 15 big blinds. He ran that up to defeat a talented field of 322 players to win the massive €73,070 top prize. This author was busy commentating the final table of the Main Event at that time (which was epic in itself) and has vivid memories of Da Silva taking in his success.

We quickly explained the rules to pot-limit Omaha and how tournament strategy can vary especially early on with a higher importance of post-flop intelligence.

“I know where to find you,” Da Silva shared. “I may come back for some basic tips during the first break.”

We wish Da Silva the best of luck playing four-card poker for the first time. He is quite good at game theory, so I wouldn’t discount him from finding his way to the winner’s circle despite this being his first attempt at the game.