Welcome to Day 1d
Welcome back to the coverage of the 2024 Malta Poker Festival Spring Edition at the luxurious Portomaso Casino from April 22-29. The festival boasts many amazing events with deep structures across a variety of games and buy-ins along with cash games running around the clock and the fun off-the-felt activities to showcase a bit of what the beautiful island of Malta has to offer.
Our coverage will resume on Saturday, April 27 at 1 p.m. when cards are in the air for Day 1d of the €300,000 guaranteed Malta Poker Festival €550 Grand Event powered by the Unibet Deepstack Open. The guarantee has already been smashed with 747 entries adding nearly €360,000 into the prize pool by the end of the third of six opening flights.
United Kingdom’s Ashley Harrison overtook the chip lead from Finland’s Matte Karjalainen (1,269,000) after parlaying his 50,000 opening stack into 1,648,000 in chips. Norway’s Ronny Albrigtsen and Canada’s Kelly Kellner also earned the status of a “chip millionaire” over the past two days.
The MPF Grand Event is a deep-stacked affair with players starting each of the six opening flights from April 24-28 with 50,000 in chips. The first four opening flights boast 40-minute blind levels including today’s Day 1c with tonight’s Day 1e at 9 p.m. and tomorrow’s final opening flight in Day 1f at 10 a.m. speeding along with a turbo-structure of 20-minute blind levels.
Players can re-enter up to two times per flight during the first 10 levels of any opening flight providing players plenty of opportunities to bag a big stack. Each opening flight will conclude when the field is trimmed down to 15 percent with all surviving players already in the money for at least a €900 min-cash heading into Sunday’s Day 2.
Day 1d Structure
| Level | Small Blind | Big Blind | Ante |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 | 300 | 300 |
| 2 | 200 | 400 | 400 |
| 3 | 300 | 600 | 600 |
| 15-Minute Break | |||
| 4 | 400 | 800 | 800 |
| 5 | 500 | 1,000 | 1,000 |
| 6 | 600 | 1,200 | 1,200 |
| 15-Minute Break | |||
| 7 | 1,000 | 1,500 | 1,500 |
| 8 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 |
| 9 | 1,500 | 3,000 | 3,000 |
| 10 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 4,000 |
| 60-Minute Break (Late Registration Closes) | |||
| 11 | 3,000 | 5,000 | 5,000 |
| 12 | 3,000 | 6,000 | 6,000 |
| 13 | 4,000 | 8,000 | 8,000 |
| 15-Minute Break | |||
| 14 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 10,000 |
| 15 | 6,000 | 12,000 | 12,000 |
| 16 | 8,000 | 16,000 | 16,000 |
Saturday Schedule at the 2024 Malta Poker Festival Spring Edition
The weather has turned sunnier for the weekend both inside and outside the plush surroundings of Portomaso Casino with a full slate of events on Saturday.
The final day of the €230 Mystery Bounty kicks off at 2 p.m., where one player will compete for a top €10,000 mystery bounty prize alongside a tasty €7,512 top prize for today’s trophy winner.
Meanwhile, players can still late-register into the €2,500 Super High Roller for one full blind level after it kicks off at 3 p.m. The field attracted 38 entries, with just 12 players remaining with Martin Olali amassing the overnight chip lead with Unibet Ambassador and The Chip Race podcast co-host David Lappin not too far behind after a tasty run with cowboys.
Today is also a special day for the ladies as there is a full slate of activities planned highlighted by the €200 Ladies First! hosted by Kerryjane Craigie at 4 p.m.
Another amazing two-day event commences at 5 p.m. in the €120 APAT Maltese Championship. This is all on top of the two Grand Event flights, two satellites, and cash games running around the clock. In other words, it will be a super busy day at Portomaso Casino on Saturday.
Check out our blog throughout the week for all of your updates and stories about the Grand Event, side event winners, and more.