After two days of warm-up action, Saturday, April 5th is set to be the busiest and most exciting day yet at the Battle of Malta Spring Edition. With the venue buzzing and the poker faithful piling into the Eden Arena, today is all about the €600 Main Event – the crown jewel of the festival.
On Friday, while mystery bounties were being pulled in a show in front of the crowd, Greece’s Emmanouil Chalkiotis shined above them all after winning the title in the €300 Mystery Siege of Malta for the €23,600 including mystery bounties.
Read on to learn more about Friday’s action along with a preview of Saturday:
Main Event Spotlight
Two starting flights will run today in the Main Event. Both take place upstairs in the iconic Eden Arena in the heart of the Intercontinental Hotel Malta. Day 1c kicks off at 1:00 p.m. and mirrors the earlier flights with 40-minute blind levels. Then at 8:00 p.m., the turbo-charged Day 1d begins, slashing the blind levels to 20 minutes for a faster-paced experience.
In both flights, the top 15% of the field will advance to Day 2, joining the 67 players who have already bagged their chips and secured their spots. Registration for both flights is available on-site at the Eden Arena upstairs.
Today’s Side Events
For those seeking a break from No Limit Hold’em, today’s lineup includes:
- €220 PLO Bounty: 3:00 p.m. start
- €300 Betwin360 NLH: Begins at 4:00 p.m.
- €150 Hyper Turbo by Eplay: Fires up at 9:00 p.m.
Whether you’re chasing bounties, blinds, or glory, Saturday’s schedule has something for everyone.
Friday Highlights: Main Event Day 1b & Mystery Siege Victory
Day 1b saw a significant boost in attendance, with 297 players joining the fray. By night’s end, 45 survived to bag chips for Sunday’s Day 2. Leading the pack is Krzysztof Chmielowski, who stacked an impressive 741,000 – nearly 50,000 more than the Day 1a chip leader. In addition to being safely in the money, Chmielowski snagged a tidy €5,000 bonus for topping the flight.
It was a lively day filled with standout hands and dramatic moments. The live blog team has been all over the action, and if you missed any of it, be sure to catch the Day 1b recap from poker.pro reporter Christoffer Karlen (who also happens to be a stealth Jenga savant).
Mystery Siege of Malta – Chalkiotis Clinches Victory
The day kicked off with Day 1c — the largest of the three starting flights — drawing 286 entries. Of those, 43 players advanced to Day 2, joining the 50 who had already secured their seats on Thursday. Unfortunately, neither of the chip leaders from the earlier flights made a deep run on Day 2. Jonathan Wong bowed out in 29th place, followed shortly after by Michael Leng in 28th.
Emmanouil Chalkiotis, who posted the second-largest stack on his starting day, is no stranger to final tables at the Battle of Malta. He placed 6th in this same event back in October and also won the IPC 8-Max at that festival — for a sum just shy of his current cash. More recently, Emmanouil claimed a notable victory in January, taking down the Vamos Poker Tour Milan Main Event for €18,000. He’s certainly one to watch in the Main Event.
At the Battle of Malta, bounty envelopes are drawn during extended breaks to inject some excitement into the proceedings — and it works. The draws attract plenty of attention, not just from players still in the hunt, but also from spectators eager to witness the drama. Some players even pull multiple bounties in a single draw.
Interestingly, most of the largest bounties were claimed by players who didn’t reach the final table. Gil Preter (8th place) and Carmelo Fangano (18th) each landed one of the two biggest €10,000 bounty prizes.
However, the top bounty earner was 16th-place finisher Rasmus Lundstroem. He snagged the €7,500 bounty — the second-largest on offer — and also split a €5,000 prize, collected an additional €2,000, and scooped up several smaller envelopes. In total, his mystery bounty haul amounted to €12,700.
It was a strong showing from the Greek contingent, who claimed three of the final four seats. However, the largest bounty wins came from earlier exits, including Gil Peter and Carmelo Fangano, who each snagged €10,000 bounties. The biggest bounty haul went to Rasmus Lundstroem, who cashed €12,700 in bounty prizes despite finishing 16th. He scooped the €7,500 and €2,000 envelopes, as well as a share of the €5,000 prize.
€300 Mystery Siege of Malta Final Table Results
| Position | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emmanouil Chalkiotis | €23,600 |
| 2 | Ashley Scott | €12,380 |
| 3 | Georgios Zisimopoulos | €9,240 |
| 4 | Nikolaos Iakovidis | €8,150 |
| 5 | Angelo Vietti | €6,640 |
| 6 | Igor Bukowski | €4,010 |
| 7 | Kevin Houghton | €3,230 |
| 8 | Gil Preter | €15,100 |
| 9 | Ceri Rees | €2,420 |
*Prizes include bounties
Friday’s Side Events in Review
Three more side events lit up Friday’s schedule:
- €220 H.O.R.S.E: Only 22 runners, but plenty of quality. Dutch-born Bas de Laat, now a local favorite, claimed the win and €1,760. He defeated Belgian Soner Vanelderen heads-up. Gia Carenestrom, last festival’s Ladies champ, was the bubble girl this time around.
- €200 NLH Italia Play: Attracted 58 entries and ended with a deal between Giovanni Caggia and Piotr Kuziola. Both, along with third-place Giuseppe Segreto, earned prize packages for the next Italia Play stop in Nova Gorica
- €150 Hyper Turbo: A much larger field than Thursday’s, with 77 players jumping in. Oerjan Birkestoel took it down for €2,460
H.O.R.S.E Results
| Position | Player Name | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bas De Laat | €1,760 |
| 2 | Soner Vanelderen | €1,170 |
| 3 | Bart Kuiper | €750 |
| 4 | Simon Ruckert | €500 |
NLH Play Italia Results
| Position | Player Name | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Giovanni Caggia* | €2,020 |
| 2 | Piotr Kuziola* | €1,410 |
| 3 | Giuseppe Segreto* | €1,030 |
| 4 | Toni Vuolle | €730 |
| 5 | Sukru Arican | €580 |
| 6 | Dominik Bencan | €430 |
| 7 | Efstathios Komitas | €330 |
| 8 | Vincenzo Nicoletti | €280 |
| 9 | Jaime Diaz | €220 |
*The top three also received packages to Play Italia Nova Gorica, valued at €780 each.
Hyperturbo by Eplay (Friday)
| Position | Player Name | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oerjan Birkestoel | €2,460 |
| 2 | Gaspare Invitti | €1,760 |
| 3 | Johannes Engludh | €1,220 |
| 4 | Lukasz Fraczek | €940 |
| 5 | Rony Mourad | €740 |
| 6 | Stavros Petychakis | €580 |
| 7 | Thomas Mosler | €460 |
| 8 | Milos Nedeljkovic | €360 |
| 9 | Massimo Cali | €270 |
| 10 | Marek Selgeveer | €240 |
| 11 | Jabulane Sekano | €240 |
| 12 | Jason Aquilina | €240 |
Final results for all tournaments are listed here
Satellite Success & Stacking Tickets
Friday also featured major satellite action as players rushed for a seat in the Main Event. The early satellite pulled in 179 entries and awarded 17 seats, while the late-night satellite exploded with 341 entrants and 34 more tickets. Thanks to the accumulator format, some players walked away with multiple entries – two grinders even scooped up three seats each.
BOM Talk Show – Jenga & Jokes
Episode two of the Battle of Malta Talk Show dropped last night and brought chaos in the best way. Hosts Glen and poker.pros own Jason were joined by Fotios Ntamaris and BOM staffing director Marcello Caloro – plus a cameo by blogger Christoffer Karlen. Between poker talk, insights, and a precarious game of Jenga played live on set, it’s worth a watch. The show only wrapped after the inevitable crash of the block tower.
Catch the episode now on the Battle of Malta YouTube Channel.
