The Battle of Malta Main Event saw an action-packed Day 2 at the InterContinental Conference Center and the Casino Malta by Olympic Casino with 389 players starting the day. The start of the day was delayed for 60 minutes, when starting day 1E had a really long bubble, and so correctly the organization decided to wait so long that all players could be seated at the same time. 

The tournament collected 2,592 entries, which means that we have a prize pool of €1,244,160. This is the third biggest prize pool when we talk about BOM tournaments held in a live format. Only 2018 and 2019 BOM tournaments collected bigger purses. 

Today Casino Malta also informed us that the next Battle of Malta is going to be here in October. It is easy to predict, that this week's numbers will be smashed then. 

The field was trimmed down to just 65 hopefuls, each having secured 2,120 earings of this tournament. 

After today's fierce action, Diego Grisiglione (pictured above) is in the best spot after Day 2 after bagging a monstrous stack of 3,095,000 in chips. Grisiglione was in great shape all day, collecting steadily more chips. 

Other player in top-4 are Marco Cosic(3,000,000) from Serbia, local boys Federico Petruzelli (2,545,000) and Cory Desmond (2,495,000).

The best-known player in the field is Steven van Zadelhoff (1,100,000). This dutch tournament pro has collected $2,479,525 in live earnings and his best finish in BOM is the second place in 2019, when he collected €217,167. 

The tournament continues tomorrow at 13:00, and we play down to the final table. The final is played on Tuesday.  

The last hands of the day are finished and chips are in bags.

Diego Grisiglione is our chip leader, he bagged 3,095,000.

65 players return tomorrow, the play starts at 13:00.

We play the last three hands, and we start to bag the chips.

That is a really good thing, especially, for those who started the day from Day 1E at 10:00 am.

Giovanni Catalfamo moved all in from cutoff, Marco Cosic called. The board Tdid not help Catalfamo and he was eliminated.

Massimo De Georgi and Steven van Zadelhoff went all-in preflop. The board provided some happiness to both, straight at the board guaranteed a split pot.

On turn board was Tom Laghzaoui moved all in 390,000. Peep Kivistik had a bit more chips, but surely the decision was tough. After consideration Peep decided to call with his Tom showed River was and Tom was eliminated.

Here are the biggest stacks at the break.

Players are having a short break. After the break, we still play one level, bb ante 25,000, blinds 10,000/25,000.

Kyriakos Papadopuolos and Vincenzo Maffei moved all in preflop. The board was favorable to Maffei and Papadopoulos was eliminated from the tournament.

A quick survey showed that these two players have a decent stack.

Diego Grisiglione 2,600,000

Giovanni Catalfamo 1,700,000

The board at the river was   Mancinelli went all-in 390,000 and Giuseppe Rosa started the thinking process. There were a couple of things to think about; how much there was in the pot (about 300,000) and how much Rosa had behind (about 420,000). So this was not an easy process, and finally, the clock was called. The clock ran out and Rosa's hand was dead.

Mancinelli won the hand and decided to show his cards all players in the table understood that Rosa had folded a winning hand.

Vincenzo Pellegrino and Levi Bat El saw flop Vincenzo bet 75,000 Levi called. Turn brought Vincenzo bet 100,000, Levi thought a while and moved all-in 400,000. Now it was up to Vincenzo, who decided to fold his hand.

We have reached 99 players watermark. Players has been busting out a bit quicker than we expected. Now we have 110 minutes still to play, so it looks that tomorrow morning we have about 60 players left.

At the river board was Emanuele Cassibba went all in, and Andrea Radicchi called.

Cassibba showed and Radicchi folded quickly.

Nathan Pellerin went all-in preflop, Keimo Suominen and Kyriakos Papadopuolos called.

Board ran at river Suominen bet 130,000, Papadopuolos folded. Suominen showed and Pellerin's good not match to this challenge.

We found 12 stacks over 1,000,000 watermark.

After level 20 we have a 15 minutes break in the tournament.

In table 16 we have already three millionaires:

Steven van Zadelhoff 1,300,000

Federico Petruzelli 1,400,000

Noah Bener Ganama 1,400,000

Christian Pedersen with and Eracleous Marios with went all in preflop. The board did not help Eracleous and Christian doubled up.

"First I lost a flip with to and fell to a short stack. I lost the rest of my stack, when I moved all-in with and my opponent woke up from the blind with ", reported Jarno Jokiniemi.

Players Party is going on right now at the Roof Garden of Inter-Continental. We missed Patrisha's gig, but still, the feeling was good. People were dancing and drinking, having fun, as should be in good party.

Players are back at tables after the dinner break.

Now the tempo of play is slowing a bit when plenty of short stacks have been busted.

The game plan is simple, we play to the end of level 23, and then bag the chips. We should be ready approx. 3:30 am.

The remaining Day 2 players are on a 75-minute dinner break.

The timing couldn't be better with the players part also in full force.

Jonathan Therme and Konstantin Farber moved all in after the flop Konstantin had but he was in bad shape against Jonathan's Turn and river did not change the situation, so Jonathan doubled up.

In a hand that easily took more than 10 minutes to play out began when Dimitrios Dimitros opened for 17,500 from early position. A couple of minutes later, Dylan Cechowski three-bet to 42,000. Dimitros called and checked the flop.

About two minutes later, Cechowski bet 28,000. Dimitros also took his time before he raised to 70,000. Cechowski asked for a count and a couple of minutes later called.

The action slowed even further on the turn. Dimitros checked and Cechowski went into the tank. A couple of minutes later he jammed and Dimitros asked for a chip count. A couple of minutes later, it was determined the jam was for 144,000. Cechowski thought things over for quite some time before he open-folded . The table complimented Dimitros' play after he showed to chip up his stack.

The start of tournament was delayed about 60 minutes. Therefore tournament director decided to move the dinner break a bit earlier. So we have dinner break in 40 minutes, after level 18.

Players have been dropping at a fast and furious pace. Here is a look at some of the other recent eliminations.

"I managed to double up once, but then a 3-way flip did not go my way. I had and opponents had and the board bricked"; reported Teemu.

Emmi Juutilainen moved all-in  and her opponent called with the board did not run to Emmi's favor.

Kerryjane Craigie shared that deuces are her favorite hand. Now we know why.

A player opened for 15,000 and another player called before Kerryjane Craigie three-bet shoved her 30,000 chip short stack. The opening player jammed and got a call for a three-way pot.

Kerryjane Craigie:

Opponent 1:

Opponent 2:

Dueces never loses applied on the turn with Craigie improving to a set of deuces to win the hand after the ran out on the board. The player with the cowboys won the side pot while the player with the nines was off to the rail.

We found Nico Jarnstrom from the rail. "I had 18 big blinds and I decided to gamble against the biggest stack in the table with my he called me with and the board bricked", reported Nico.

Nunzio Iandolo with and  Angelo Tarallo moved all in preflop. The board did not help Nunzio, who moved to the quite long cash-out queue.

2019 Battle of Malta Main Event runner-up Steven van Zadelhoff may have to put his usual Sunday online grind on hold as his stack is nearly triple what he started with and is up to 300,000 in chips.

He shared with the media before the start of the day that he would be more than satisfied with another runner-up performance in the Battle of Malta Main Event this year.

"That was quick. I had 58,000 and moved in with but my opponent woke up with which was way too much for me" reported Ann-Roos Callens.

Note: there was a typo in Ann-Roos starting stack, she had 58,000, not 585,000.

The turbo-charged Day 1e ended a bit late, hence the delayed start of Day 2. Here is a look at the final chip counts from that field.

The total field was 2,592 entries for a €1,244,160 prize pool including online entries. A total of 389 players advanced to Day 2 with Tuesday's winner slated to receive a €201,500 top prize.

We finally found the bubble boy of day 1e. Now we need maybe 15 minutes' time to arrange everything. So the starting time for Day 2 is 17:45.

Good Afternoon! 

Welcome to follow Battle Malta Main Event Day 2. The reason for the late starting time is simple; we have to wait until Day 1E is finished, which should be happening in any moment. 394 players took part to 1E, so that brings us 59 more players to follow. 

Day 2 starts with 384 players. This number is not 100% sure, we wait for confirmation from staff, but close we are. 

All players who play in Day 2, are guaranteed a min-cash.

The total prize pool of the Battle of Malta Main Event is this time €1,244,160. Right now we do not know how much the winner of Battle of Malta 2022 is going to collect. The exact prize pool will be ready later today. 

This prize pool is the third biggest in the history of the Battle of Malta, when we speak about live BOM events. 2018 prizepool was €1,850,760 and the biggest prize pool was 2019, when it was €2,258,645. Now it is easy to say that these numbers will be growing, the next Battle of Malta is going to be in October. 

Today the action starts at level 16 (ante 5000, blinds 2500/5000), and we are going to play to the end of level 23 (ante 25000, blinds 10000/25000). 

All levels are 60 minutes, and we are going to have a dinner break after level 19. Otherwise, we play 2 levels and have a 15 minutes break after. 

It takes a while to arrange players from Day 1E, so the start will be a bit delayed. We hope, that we can start in 20 minutes. 

Stay tuned!