Tournament directors Rodolfo Zirio and Luca Vivaldi have assembled a top team of floor staff and dealers to run the forthcoming Battle of Malta, which kicks off October 25 at Casino Malta.
With 15 separate tournaments on the schedule – including the €1 million guarantee Battle of Malta Main Event – it’s going to be a busy week for all those working in the Eden Arena. The Battle of Malta team features more than 100 dealers along with five senior floor staff and five juniors. Between them, the floor staff speak six languages: English, Italian, French, Spanish, German and Hebrew.
Tournament Director Rodolofo Zirio said: “We are really looking forward to Battle of Malta and have put in place a great team for a great event! Luca and I have chosen everyone involved personally and they are all excellent at what they do.”
All the Senior Floor staff have years of experience at major live poker tournaments including long-term stints on the European Poker Tour. They include Stephane Dumulin, Gaming Events Coordinator at Grand Casino Brussels Viage, along with EPT stalwarts Richard Thoman, Sebastian Portier, Nicola Pacifico and Alessandro Serpi who works at Casino Sanremo.
Battle of Malta is taking place from October 25-30 at Casino Malta, in the InterContinental Conference Centre in the heart of buzzing St Julian’s. The €1,000,000 guarantee Main Event, which has a €550 buy-in, features unlimited re-entries for the first time and has four start flights in total, including a Day 1d turbo. The event won “Best Low Buy-in Tournament in Europe” in 2015.
Zirio and Vivaldi are both well-known figures on the European poker circuit and have worked closely together for many years. Zirio is the lead Tournament Director at the event while Vivaldi, one of Europe’s best-known tournament directors, was in charge of devising the schedule and tournament structures.
Zirio said: “I have worked at Casino Malta several times in the past and it’s always been a fantastic experience. The Battle of Malta is one of Europe’s most popular tournaments and we can’t wait for the event to get underway.”
The first Battle of Malta in 2012 attracted 349 entries, creating a total prize pool of €169,265. The event has grown year on year and in 2017 Battle of Malta once again broke its own record with a staggering 2,074 entries, making it the largest poker tournament ever held in Malta.
