Malta’s Autumn of Poker Gets Closer

Sadly the biggest two events, the Battle of Malta and the Malta Poker Festival are being held at the same time this year, making it difficult for players to take part in both main events. Let's hope this clash of dates is a one-off and the island's poker players can enjoy both events in future years.

The Vamos Poker Tour is one of the newest poker series in Europe. It began life in 2023, with two events in Bratislava and one in Bucharest. 

So far in 2024, the tour, which headlines with a €350 buy-in Main Event has had one event in Bucharest and has a third stop of the season planned in the Bulgarian capital Sofia, after the Malta event has concluded.

The main events of the Vamos Poker Tour typically have 450-600 players and the Malta edition has a €100,000 guarantee assigned to it. 

It also has some pretty decent side events, such as a €700 High Roller, a €400 Pot Limit Omaha Championship, a €200 Mystery Bounty Tournament sponsored by Luxon Pay and a €250 Open Face Chinese event.

The Festival Series is a mixed games players paradise, with a wide variety of non-Hold’em and mixed game formats included in the recreational player focused tournament schedule.

The Festival Series’ Main Event has a €550 Buy-In, but at this point in time, no guarantee, although it would not be a surprise if a last minute guarantee were slapped on it.

Other highlights of The Festival in Malta include The Hendon Mob Championship, a €250 buy-in event, a €250 Mystery Bounty Championship and the €550 Mixed Games Main Event, which is played using a unique H.O.R.S.E.S format, which sees Sviten Special added to the usual H.O.R.S.E rotation.

The Festival Series is about more than just poker and it also includes several casino games based tournaments such as blackjack, roulette and slots. 

There is even a sports betting competition and although there is no truth in the rumour that there is also a beer drinking tournament, the Festival Series founder Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk’s bar tab suggests otherwise.

The Malta Poker Festival came into existence in 2018, when the Battle of Malta, which had been held at Portomaso, was sold to Casino Malta. 

Annoyed at having had their biggest event of the year whisked away from them by their direct competitor, the casino in conjunction with former Battle of Malta boss Ivonne Montealegre created the Malta Poker Festival.

This edition of the Malta Poker Festival has a €550 Main Event, called the Grand Event, with a €500,000 guarantee on its extensive tournament schedule. Although the buy-in is €500, the very first starting day, on Sunday 27th (the day before the festival starts) has a cheaper €400 buy-in.

Other tournaments on the schedule include a €1,100 High Roller, a €2,500 Super High Roller, hosted by Lukas Robinson and a €300 Seniors Event hosted by Andreas Hoivold. 

KerryJane Craigie is hosting the €200 Ladies event and Luxon Pay is once again sponsoring the Mystery Bounty, as they seem to be doing at a lot of live poker festivals these days. 

There are also some mixed games, including a €230 H.O.R.S.E and a €280 Sviten Special hosted by Swedish chess player Eva Jiretorn. APAT, the Amateur Poker Association & Tour will also be in attendance at the event, with its €120 Maltese Championship.

The Battle of Malta is the island’s biggest and best known event. Initially held at Portomaso Casino, it moved to Casino Malta in 2018 when it was sold to Olympic Casinos by then owner PokerListings. It has continued to grow each year and the 2024 autumn edition has a €1.5m prize pool guarantee.

The full schedule has not yet been announced, but the key events have been and they include several other tournaments with significant guarantees, such as the €100,000 Mystery Bounty and €300,000 High Roller. 

One significant thing that is different about this version of the main event is that it includes several starting flights that are half price, costing €300 instead of €600 to enter. However, players in these flights begin with half the usual stack.

The format of the event is best stack forward, which means that players who make day 2 may play another starting day and if they get through to the end of the day again, they will start day 2 with the largest of the stacks they bagged up in day 1s.

The Vamos Poker Tour and The Festival in Malta start very soon, therefore online satellites to then are mostly already completed. However Unibet Poker is still running €250 Festival Series satellites every Sunday at 21.00 CEST, which award €1,500 packages. Package winners can choose to use their seats at either the Festival in Malta or the final event of the season in Bratislava in November.

Players wishing to take part in the Vamos Poker Tour will have to show up at the venue, where there are plenty of live satellites scheduled during the festival week.

Satellites for the Malta Poker Festival and Battle of Malta are ongoing, but neither event has a single sponsor running exclusive satellites to it. Instead, each live event operator has engaged a variety of different sites, where satellites can be found.

For the Battle of Malta, satellites are taking place at KKPoker on Saturdays, costing €50 to enter, with €3 feeder satellites.

Satellites for the Malta Poker Festival are yet to start on sites such as Unibet, who have previously hosted qualifiers for the MPF. KK Poker has held one qualifiers so far. For further details check out the Malta Poker Festival facebook page.