The 2024 Battle of Malta Spring Edition’s Main Event final starting took place on Sunday at the Intercontinental Hotel’s Eden Arena. Soon after it ended, the remaining 272 players contested Day 2 and all in the prize money, securing at least a min-cash, worth €900.

Highlights from Sunday April 7th at the 2024 Battle of Malta Spring Edition 

• 347 entries in Day 1e (Turbo) of the Battle of Malta Main event, with a further 52 players joining the 220 who progressed to Day 2 from the first four starting flights.
• Day 2 of the main event saw the field whittled down from 272 to 101, with play suspended at the end of level 21.
• ‘Champagne’ Cheng Peng Tan won the fully live streamed €150 Ladies event, while BOM host Patrisha Rimfire was the runner-up.
• The €250 Full Tilt Catania PKO concluded its first day of play with 102 players still alive from 250 entrants. 
• The third outing for the €220 Dark Knight and a €330 PLO 4/5 Card Round of Each
• Dreams dashed for sone, hopes still alive for others and news of all the significant and crazy hands on the Battle of Malta Blog
• Live streaming, player interviews, photos and more on the Battle of Malta’s social channels Facebook, Instagram, Twitch and YouTube.

Main Event Day 2

Vasileios Zisis had the best Day 2 of all the remaining players, tripling the 534,000 chips he brought from Day 1 to end the day as the chip leader on 1,605,000. He will start Day 3 with the biggest stack of the remaining 101 players. He has just 10,000 chips more than Jakub Bosko, which will be equivalent to a small blind when play resumes. Lithuanian Modestas Kryzanauskas, who sits in third with 1,400,000 has already tasted success at the festival, winning the €250 NLH MonteCarlo House Event on Saturday for €4,600.

 

Previous Battle of Malta winnere Daniel Barone will not be repeating his previous success however, as he was one of the first players to be eliminated at the start of the day, having been one of the shortest stacks to squeeze into day 2.

Chip leaders from Day 1b (Christopher Grech) and Day 1c (Nicola Ciraolo) both  managed to build their stacks on Day 2,  while Day 1a’s overnight chip leader Vidar Oie busted in 112th. The average stack is 539,000 going into Day 3, which will be 36 big blinds. 

Day 3 resumes at 1pm on Monday 8th April and will continue until 24 players remain.

End of Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts

Player	Chip Count
Vasileios Zisis	1,605,000
Jakub Bosko	1,595,000
Modestas Kryzanauskas	1,400,000
Sokratis Papavramidis	1,330,000
Nicola Ciraolo	1,315,000
Fotios Ntamaris	1,305,000
Alessandro D’Amore	1,140,000
Alessio Mastrosimone	1,125,000
Antonino Calabro	1,100,000
Antonino Arigo	1,080,000

Day  1e (Turbo) Top 10 Chip Counts

The final flight of the main event began early on Sunday morning and saw a further 347 entrants take their last chance gasps to get into Day 2. It concluded shortly before 6pm, giving the 52 surviving players from the flights just over an hour to rest themselves for the restart at 7pm.  Salvatore Saracino (483,000) took the largest stack of the flight into the second day of the tournament, with Domas Janonis (449,000) and Jordi Ruiz (445,000) also finishing well.

 

Player	Chip Count
Salvatore Saracino	483,000
Domas Janonis	449,000
Jordi Ruiz	445,000
Pavlos Benakis	433,000
Kjetil Hanstvedt	390,000
Nicholas Petteno	376,000
Michal Anzulewicz	345,000
Mark Harmening	341,000
Nikolaos Mastrantonas	340,000
Alkan Aydingoez	325,000

Cheng Peng Tan defeats Patrisha Rimfire to Secure Victory in the €150 FLIP Ladies Event

The FLIP (Fantastic Ladies in Poker) Ladies Event was scheduled to have its final table live streamed, however a late decision was made to begin coverage at the start of the event. The event started at 4pm, with live coverage on the Battle of Malta’s social channels, on a 30-minute delay. Jason Glatzer called the action from the commentary booth. The replay is available to watch here.

The pre-tournament favourite to win the event was Emma “Emzy” Oliver, justifiably so, as she has previously won two BOM ladies events, both at this time of year. The popular British player did indeed go close to completing her hat-trick, making the final table, but exited in 5th place. Emma had shoved all-in with Q♥8♥, trying to isolate short-stacked Florence, who had moved in with 9♦9♥, but ran into Patrisha, who held A♦A♣. Both players were eliminated during that hand.

 

Patrisha went into the heads up stage with the chip lead, but was pegged back by Cheng Peng and defeated when her K♥9♣ lost out to A♣4♦. Cheng, from Singapore is no stranger to final tables, having made dozens of them during the 14 years she has been poker. In the end her experience was too great for Patrisha, who also made last year’s final in this event, finishig in 4th place.

 

Position	Player	Prize
1	Cheng Peng Tan	€ 1,960
2	Patrisha Rimfire	€ 1,420
3	Ragnhild Eriksson	€ 920
4	Maria Koutsouki	€ 690
5	Emma Denise Oliver	€ 540
6	Florence Mazet	€ 420
7	Martina Ondrusova	€ 330
8	Maili Tannbaum	€ 260

 

€250 PKO Full Tilt Catania Regressive End of Day 1

The €250 PKO Full Tilt Catania Regressive is a two day progressive knock out event in which the blinds get rolled back by three levels when they restart play. It attracted a sizeable field of 250 players, 103 of whom have made it through to Day 2. . Play resumes at 2pm on Monday afternoon. 

The top ten chip counts are as follows:

Player	Chips
Clement Lafon	220,000
Rosolino Ruvolo	210,000
Ondrej Jakubcik	207,800
Davide Iannaco	195,000
Giuseppe Verderico	195,000
William Gritz	193,600
Matthew Andrews	189,800
Rocco Criscio	175,000
Catalin Luca	171,400
Jan Plsek	145,300

 

Stavros Petychakis Wins the €220 Dark Knight III (€5,780)

The Dark Night made its third appearance at the festival on Sunday, this time accommodating 94 players, in pursuit of the the €15,390 prize pool. It was another late finish, with Greek player Stavros Petychsakis claiming the title at 5.15am! Stavros made the money in last month’s Novibet Euro Poker Championship in Bratislava, but this is both his first title and his biggest cash ever.

Position	Player	Prize
1	Stavros Petychakis	€ 5,780
2	Ravi Sheth	€ 3,870
3	Jan Verner	€ 2,530
4	Risto Paernat	€ 2,100
5	Rami Awad	€ 1,700
6	Jaroslaw Falkowski	€ 1,330
7	David Fialho	€ 1,030
8	Georgios-Angelos Tavoularis	€ 780
9	Vito Costanza	€ 570
10	Lorenzo Merone	€ 480
11	Antonio Lupo	€ 480
12	Petros Taki	€ 410
13	Pavlos Benakis	€ 410
14	Athanasios Kefalas	€ 390
15	Giovanni Papadia	€ 390
16	Georgeos Koutroulis	€ 370
17	Ugo Gasparini	€ 370

 

Dmitrij Bogdanov Wins €330 PLO 4/5 Card Round of Each (€4,060)

Today’s non-Hold’em tournament was a €330 4/5 Card Round of Each event. It was won by Dane Dmitri Bogdanov, who topped a field of 42 players. Despite having made many final tables in the past, this was his maiden victory in a live festival event.

Position	Player	Prize
1	Dmitrij Bogdanov	€ 4,060
2	Kaloyan Kirov	€ 2,810
3	Thomas Aalbers	€ 1,800
4	Niek Geerdink	€ 1,380
5	Fabio Miraglia	€ 1,080
6	Dwayne Sluis	€ 840

 

Monday’s Tournament Schedule at the Battle of Malta

The main event progresses to Day 3 on Monday 8th April, with the 101 remaining contestants resuming play at 1pm. They will battle it out until just 24 poker warriors remain, all eying up the €100,000 first prize. The €250 Full Tilt Catania PKO also returns for its second day at 1pm and there are four other tournaments that will start today.

The first of today’s side events is the €250 NLH Old School Bloom tournament, with a name in keeping with the springtime theme of the festival. Pot Limit Omaha fans have a rare Omaha Knockout (regular non-progressive bounty) to get involved with and there is also a €200 buy NLH tournament sponsored by the IPF (Italian Poker Federation). The most anticipated of today’s side events is the Amazingbet sponsored High Roller, with a €1,100 buy-in. The high roller is another two-day tournament and late registration will be open until the start of Day 2 on Tuesday.

Time	Event
11 a.m.	€130 Satellite to the High Roller
1 p.m.	Battle of Malta Day 3
2 p.m.	€250 NLH PKO Full Tilt Catania Regressive Day 2
5 p.m.	€250 NLH Old School Bloom
6 p.m.	€330 PLO (4 Cards) Knockout
7 p.m.	€200 NLH IPF
9 p.m.	€1,100 NLH Amazingbet High Roller Regressive Day 1
10 p.m.	€130 Satellite to the High Roller