One of the highlights of this year’s European live poker scene has to be the Battle of Malta Autumn Edition of 2024. The event, hosted by Casino Malta, literally crushed every single record with a total of 5,799 entries in the Main Event, gathering a total prize pool of €2,578,172. And that’s not all, they managed to get the largest opening flight in its history, and side events were outnumbering itself day in, and day out!
PokerListings was presented by the likes of Melvin Schroen, who made sure the social media crowd wouldn’t miss a thing about this record-breaking event. From the first day onwards, all eyes were set on the reigning champion, Vasileios Zisis, who had captured the title in the Spring edition of this event. He would eventually have another run of his life and had to be satisfied with a runner-up finish in this event.
Battle of Malta crowns Spanish Winner
Cosme Gomez Martinez, a Spanish online poker pro, who had qualified through one of the many live satellites throughout this Battle of Malta, managed to be ahead of Zisis, securing himself a massive payout of €255,800. However, this number might differentiate from the reality, as when three players were left in the game, they had discussed a deal. As per usual at Battle of Malta, these numbers are not being shared.
Martinez really had hit the right strings throughout his entire tournament, as he managed to double up every single time when he was at risk. Short stacking until the final table, he easily managed to manoeuvre himself to gain the much-needed pay jumps.
Both players, Martinez and Zisis, were accompanied by a large group of comrades who supported them until the very end. And you can imagine that the Spanish crowd takes care of many times screaming ‘Vamos’ throughout the entire final table.
2024 Battle of Malta Autumn Edition Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cosme Gomez Martinez | Spain | €255,800 |
| 2 | Vasileios Zisis | Greece | €160,800 |
| 3 | Alexandru Farcasanu | Romania | €115,800 |
| 4 | Alessandro Siena | Italy | €91,170 |
| 5 | Shervin Ghassemlou | England | €66,600 |
| 6 | Davide Iannaco | Italy | €50,650 |
| 7 | Kyriakos Papadopoulos | Greece | €35,500 |
| 8 | Ivaylo Eftimov | Bulgaria | €36,330 |
| 9 | Pasquale Gregorio | Italy | €22,240 |
The event had been an outstanding performance by the players, the staff, and the venue of Casino Malta and the Intercontinental Hotel. Players from all over the world, of which roughly half of it hails from Italy, came to the Battle of Malta with just one goal; trying to reach as far as possible in the Main Event. With 1,500,000 euros guaranteed, this event would be decisive for the organization. At first, they had their doubts as their competitor on the island, the Malta Poker Festival, took place in the same period.
PokerListings, who had set up this wonderful event from the very first stone, stepped aside in 2018. From there onwards, the event was being held in Casino Malta. And we do need to say; What an outstanding performance from everyone involved to be able to create such a magnificent live poker event, twice per year!
It came with a lot of special feelings to be able to walk around as PokerListings representative and to make sure that our crowd wouldn’t miss out on anything. We can assure you once again, that this event is not to be missed if you are a live poker regular from anywhere in Europe.
Final Table Action
The final table was housing quite some favorites for the title. Pasquale Gregorio had confirmed to us in the early stages of the tournament that he was a player to not mess around with. He was definitely one of the main guys to look out for, but perhaps luckily for his opponents, he busted out of the event in 9th place.
Another player who had confirmed his status of being a decent live regular was Alessandro Siena. While being an Italian, living in Malta, he managed to eventually park his truck in 4th place. A massive result for him, which he will add to his nearly $300K in live tournament winnings.
It came as nobody’s surprise that Greek player Zisis would run deep once again in this event, confirming his status to be a player who can handle such large player fields perfectly well. How much he had wanted to win, he had to be satisfied in the end with a second-place finish. Taking in mind that a potential deal had been made when three players were remaining. And at that exact moment, he had half of the chips in play.
Our sincere congratulations go out to Cosme Gomez Martinez, who managed to win the event in style. His friends in the rail went absolutely crazy every time he won a hand, and kept on going until the final hand of the day had been played.
Make sure to check out our social media channels as many reels have been made throughout the event, giving players something to remember this fabulous event forever.
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