The 2024 Battle of Malta Spring Edition continued on Friday the 5th April at the Eden Arena located within the Intercontinental Hotel, adjoined to Casino Malta. 

Although this is billed as the Battle of Malta Spring Edition, it could easily pass as a summer edition, which has arrived early at the jewel in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea that Malta is. Its great walking weather to take in some of the sights and there’s a nature reserve at Pembroke, which is within a 10 minute stroll of the casino, for those looking for some fresh air in between sessions at the poker tables.

Friday April 5th at the 2024 Battle of Malta Spring Edition included these highlights:

• 358 players went to battle in the main event’s Day 1b, with 54 players progressing to Day 2, while over 300 poker souls were slain on the battlefield, some of which will rise again for another starting day, as there are five flights from which to navigate stack into Day 2.
• Three side events concluded, with three champions crowned in the €450 Mystery Siege of Malta, the €250 NLH BETiC Battle and the first of two €330 H.O.R.S.E events on the festival’s tournament schedule.

Event Coverage

• Following the unfolding story of the event on the  Battle of Malta blog, including event news, results and live reporting on the Main Event and key side events. 
• You can also follow and like the Battle of Malta on social channels Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube channels for video, interviews, photos, and more.

Christopher Grech is the Chipleader from Main Event Day 1b

It was local player Christopher Grech who bagged the biggest stack of the day, capturing the lead in dramatic style in the final hand of the day, when he eliminated an unfortunate Jianyi Lu, who four-bet all-in for 162,000 with A♠K♠ only to be called by Grech, holding Q♥Q♠. With no help from the board, Li became the 55th finisher and will have to re-enter if he wants to continue his quest for BOM glory.

54 of the 358 players who started Day 1b survived the battlefield and will join the 30 who made it through Day 1a. Combined with the 201 who entered on Day 1a, the total number of entries is now up to 519 after the first two flights and the guarantee is well on the way to being smashed in the €600 Main Event. With just 421 further players required, it is expected that the €500,000 guarantee will be surpassed during Saturday’s day 1c and the final total is likely to be way in excess of this.

Grech had been handily placed before the final hand took place but now takes a soaring lead into Day 2, which begins on Sunday evening. Jeremy Bametz finished with the second biggest stack of the day (463,000), closely followed by Dimitrios Anastasakis (459,000) and Leonidas Georgopoulos (453,000) with Patrick Pedersen (420,00) and Yuri Ishida (413,000) being the only other poker warriors to breach the 400,000 chip barrier.

In case you missed the action, the full story of the day unfolded on event’s dedicated blog of with reporting brought to you by Sir Glatzalot (Jason) and the Knights of the Poker Realm (Alex, Frank and Jonathan).

Day 1b Top 10 Chip Counts

Rank	Player	Chip Count
1st	Christopher Grech	564,000
2nd	Jeremy  Bametz	463,000
3rd	Dimitrios Anastasakis	459,000
4th	Leonidas Georgopoulos	453,000
5th	Patrick Pedersen	420,000
6th	Yuri Ishida	413,000
7th	Joao Caetano	381,000
8th	Daniel Henriques	352,000
9th	Andrea Agnoletto	339,000
10th	Simonas Parednis	312,000

Lampros Vlachos Wins the Mystery Siege of Malta (€15,920)

The Mystery Siege of Malta attracted a total of 448 entries across two starting days and generated prize pool of nearly €85,000 and the same again in bounties. There was nearly €16,000 for the winner, while the largest mystery bounty was worth €10,500. The biggest bounty was pulled quite early on in the day by Salvatore Caruso and as is traditional at the event, the drawing of the prize was done on the stage in theatrical style hosted by Battle of Malta event director Telly Bartolo and host Patrisha Rimfire.

 

Despite taking the biggest bounty of the day and another worth €1,500, Caruso was unable to progress to the later stages of the tournament, exiting in 27th place. After the excitement of the big bounty being drawn the focus for the remaining players became winning the event. Congratulations to Lampros Vlachos from Greece who wrestled the trophy from Italian Alessandro D’Amore after a short heads-up battle.

Place	Player	Prize
1st	Lampros Vlachos	€ 15,920
2nd	Alessandro D’Amore	€ 10,950
3rd	Marcin Kruk	€ 7,670
4th	James Paris	€ 6,010
5th	Diogo Luis	€ 4,860
6th	Lukasz Fraczek	€ 3,660
7th	Giuseppe Bruno	€ 2,780
8th	Raimondo Marcello	€ 1,970
9th	Tomasz Olszewski	€ 1,580
10th	Vladas Burneikis	€ 1,230
11th	Dario Berisa	€ 1,230
12th	Udo Hemmert	€ 1,050
13th	Stylianos Kollatos	€ 1,050
14th	Nima Saken Shaft	€ 910
15th	Mauro Schiraldi	€ 910
16th	Ivars Bareika	€ 810
17th	Mateusz Stanielewicz	€ 810
18th	Vladislav Chepinoha	€ 730
19th	Candido Cappiello	€ 730
20th	Michael Cowper-Johnson	€ 730
21st	Antonio Sciacca	€ 640
22nd	Antonio Da Silva	€ 640
23rd	Loreto Enea	€ 640
24th	Konstantin Faerber	€ 560
25th	Sergiy Alariki	€ 560
26th	David KL Lappin	€ 560
27th	Salvatore Caruso	€ 560
28th	Bartlomiej Klebieko	€ 490
29th	Hugo De La Fouchardiere	€ 490
30th	Andrew Cutajar	€ 490
31st	Daniel Maunders	€ 490
32nd	Florian  Ribouchon	€ 420
33rd	Joao Goncalves De Brito	€ 420
34th	Antonio Merone	€ 420
35th	Roberto Leonzio	€ 420
36th	Massimiliano Mauceri	€ 420
37th	Joseph Grech	€ 420
38th	Junyu Liu	€ 420
39th	Clement Michaud	€ 420
40th	Audrius Laimelis	€ 360
41st	Marco Leonzio	€ 360
42nd	Goulven Gauchet	€ 360
43rd	Jakub Bosko	€ 360
44th	Angelo Censabella	€ 360
45th	Tor  Nesse	€ 360
46th	Angelo Vietti	€ 360
47th	Vittorio Morello	€ 360
48th	Vasileios Zisis	€ 360
49th	Viktor Katzenberger	€ 360
50th	Marko Luksa	€ 360
51st	Branislav Ondrus	€ 360
52nd	Eirik Bjoerbaek	€ 360
53rd	Margareth Kuno	€ 360
54th	Jordi Ribatallada	€ 360
55th	Abdellah Baali	€ 360
56th	Vangelis Kaimakamis	€ 320
57th	Oliver Said	€ 320
58th	Christopher Luck	€ 320
59th	Janis Bikovskis	€ 320
60th	Thibaut Yoccoz	€ 320
61st	Marcin Puczylowski	€ 320
62nd	Gianmarco Castaldo	€ 320
63rd	Fabio Rubino	€ 320
64th	Hugues Mazerolle	€ 320
65th	Benedickt Wenzel	€ 320
66th	Dirk Gerth	€ 320
67th	Nico Frenn	€ 320

Mattia Ridi Wins the €250 BETiC Battle (€4,800)

The €250 BETiC Battle side event was won by Italian Mattia Ridi, who topped a field of 105 players to bank the €4,800 first prize. The final prizepool for the tournament was €21,945 and most of the players on the final were Italians, with a few local players also sneaking into the money.

Place	Player	Prize
1st	Mattia Ridi	€ 4,800
2nd	Audrius Skucas	€ 3,200
3rd	Beniamino Ciotta	€ 2,250
4th	Riccardo Monti	€ 1,840
5th	David Civai	€ 1,510
6th	Simone Poma	€ 1,210
7th	Modestas Kryzanauskas	€ 960
8th	Daniele Maldonato	€ 740
9th	Salvatore Patti	€ 540
10th	Daniele Raimondi	€ 440
11th	Jaroslaw Falkowski	€ 440
12th	Jun Li	€ 390
13th	Tomas Dusanek	€ 390
14th	Carlo Solazzo	€ 340
15th	Nikola Minovic	€ 340

Constantin Munteanu Wins €330 H.O.R.S.E (€2,870)

Medieval warfare usually involved horsemen and its fitting that this mixed game favourite is regular fixture at the Battle of Malta, with two such events scheduled. The first of these took place on Friday evening, when 24 cavaliers saddled up to joust for the €2,870 first prize. Only four were paid with Constantin Munteanu taking the title. Congratulations to Battle of Malta reporter Frank Visser who took 4th place for €820, jumping straight in after he finished his shift writing about the main event.

Saturday’s Battle of Malta Schedule

Cash games have been bustling so far this festival and Saturday’s action at the Battle of Malta is likely to be the busiest yet. 

Saturday’s tournament schedule is also a busy one, with two starting flights of the main event, three side events and of course two main satellites bookending the day

Time	Event
11 a.m.	€70 Turbo Satellite to BOM Main Event
12 p.m.	€600 NLH BOM Day 1c
4 p.m.	€250 NLH Montecarlo Poker House Event
7 p.m.	€330 Sviten Special
8 p.m.	€600 NLH BOM Day 1d (Turbo)
9 p.m.	€220 Dark Knight II
9:30 p.m.	€70 Satellite to BOM Main Event