Day 1D and Day 1E of the €1 Million Gtd Battle of Malta have reached their conclusion and it's Johannes Ruuska (678,000) and Sanchioni Eugenio (513,000) who were the two players to have taken respective chip count pole positions once the bagging and tagging was completed.

Day 1F was a turbo format that started late but was keenly-contested, with 375 players entering to do battle. Final chip leader Sanchoni amassed a mountain of chips that has him currently sitting 2nd in the overall rankings for Day 2 and it suggests tomorrow's turbo Day 1F should be a riveting contest.

Day 1D was only marginally more sedate, despite its 40 minute levels. The day began with a surge of players storming into the Intercontinental's conference room ready to fire their shot as aspirant Battle of Malta champions. Once the medieval knights had finished their fourth solemn march toward the trophy with flashing lights and thunderous drums setting the scene, Laura Cornelius and company announced the start of the tournament and the game was on.

It became apparent early that Day 1D would be the most populous of the starting days and by the time level 10 had finished - the unlimited rebuys ending abruptly - we'd reached the fulsome total of 1,540 players. This meant once we had just 231 remaining, all players still holding chips would return for Day 2.

The field was notably short of star names, though talented players of note included Chris Da Silva, who has almost $1 million in cashes on his resumé, Mateusz Moolhuizen, who picked up his breakout score of $597k at the WSOP this year and Chip Race podcasters Dara O'Kearney and David Lappin, who have close to $2 million in live tournament cashes between them.

Da Silva was the only one of these to secure passage to Day 2 however - his path through assisted by a daring bluff on the bubble - Da Silva revealing it with a cheeky grin to cheers from the rail once he'd seen his opponent fold.

The bubble was breached at level 17 - though this tense period was fraught - at various moments - with danger, tragedy, and even comedy.

Danger as there were a number of potential all-in hands survived, comedy as a player who had consumed one too many fermented beverages, "accidentally" called all-in whilst mumbling in front of the tournament director Thomas Kremser, and finally tragedy as Salvatore Spadola succumbed holding aces v queens to miss out on a cash by a whisker. His depressing moment was experienced alone, as the rest of the field whooped jubilantly - any empathic thoughts engulfed by the knowledge that the Battle of Malta dream lived on - for them at least.

Chip leader Johannes Ruuska saw a run of cards give him a late berth at the head of the chip counts. He proved a brash, abrasive but interesting character, regularly challenging tablemates who commented on his good fortune.

At one point on the bubble he made a full house against Francesco Losi - Losi ultimately making a tough fold before being shown his opponent's stellar holding. 

"It's too easy for you" joked Losi. 

"Don't hate me, hate the game!" countered Ruuska sharply as he collected another pot.

"Right now I do hate the game," Losi said with a smile back. Another of the many comic moments we've witnessed this week.

Ruuska will return for Day 2 as the likely chip leader, though the participants of the turbo-structured Day 1F (starting at 11am) will have a last chance to topple him before all six flights meet up at 8pm.

The Battle of Malta took another step toward determining its champion today and the prize pool has already swelled to a formidable €1,749, 600. This will grow yet further tomorrow and we'll resume coverage for the 8pm Day 2 so join us then for what we hope and expect will be another compelling day of poker.  Sleep well, friends.

A tense, protracted bubble period saw numerous players all-in survive their brush with elimination, including one hand where a player was so drunk he accidentally called an all-in!

Finally, the drama ended though and Salvatore Spadola was the man to fall.

His dismissal was very unfortunate. He got all his chips in preflop with pocket aces but was called by Stefanos Giannakopoulous, who held queens.

Theflop must have been a knife in the heart, though there was no mercy from several of the watching players who cheered and whooped enthusiastically as Spadola's tournament light was snuffed out. The turn and river confirmed Spadola's fate and while he trudged off quietly, the rest of the players loudly celebrated - Day 2 passage and a cash confirmed.

That ended the day for the Day 1D players. We'll have news of the chip leader, as well as a wrap of the day's events to follow shortly but for now, thanks for following.

4 all in and calls so far have all given the short stacks more chips.. We carry on!! 

Leon Campbell from the UK is having a day....

He is flying high on 420k... We are also Hand for hand. Which means the next player out, won't make day 2!! or the money!!

There are just 82/375 remaining in the Day 1E turbo as we close in on the final few levels of the day.

It's level 17 at the moment and things are getting quite spicy with the end of day 2 point of 56 players remaining rapidly approaching.

Here are the chip rulers as we speak:

Dimitar Bashov survives an all in scare... His 50k is in the middle pre and gets called by Salvatore Spadola...

for Salvatore

Dimitar has

The board runs a clean for a full double up...

The last exits from level 15..... 

#262  Maiullari Angelo 
#263  Murabito Roberto 
#264  Pipitone Alessio 15 
#265  Church Matthew 
#266  MARTINEZ JOSE ANTONIO 
#267  FULLERTON MARK
#268  Elia Roberto 
#269  Agus Roberto 
#270  STABILE DAMIANO 
#271  Larioli Simona 
#272  RUITEN YAIR 
#273  Fenaroli Marco 
#274  Pino Stefano 
#275  Zaccagnini Danilo 
#276  Zuczkowski Xavier 
#277  Pediglieri Domenico 
#278  Fusco Marco 
#279  IDRIS AMBRAISSE 
#280   Ben Mahmoud Imed

It's not fun to have battled through the day only for those efforts to fall on stony ground. That's the fate of the following though. Bad luck  guys.

There's always the last day turbo Day 1F tomorrow to salvage your hopes if you want to have another shot at reaching the BoM Day 2.

Remember to set your alarm clocks though - it's an 11 o'clock start...

WIth that, it's the end of level 15 so a 20 minute break this time as the chips are being coloured up. We'll be back for level 16 shortly. See you soon!

We have a 500k stack over on table 18

Francesco Caruso is the man with the lead on the table... His day isn't over yet but just over 40 players to drop for all to make day 2, he is sitting pretty at the top.

Other chip stacks on his table....

Jason Shellum..... 60k

Igor Naraajczyk....140k

Leslie Tipping.... 145k

Salvatore Altamore....150k

Fabrizio Clausi... 250k

As we move through level 15, there are 309 players remaining and the average stack is just under 125,000.

Here's some of the players sporting a well-above average stack - one they will hope to see them through to the Day 2 cut-off point - 231 players remaining.  The shorter stacks meanwhile will be looking to ketchup. (Apologies, it's late!)

Blinds Up and level 14 begins...

319 players remain... 231 is the magic number to aim for the players... Play will stop for the day, when we hit that number of players left in..... They will then, all make day 2 and also the money..

So wandering round I thought... Hmm seat5, lets see how they are doing... So...

Thomas Olisina... 265k

Rolando Camaradese....250k

Ray Church.....110k

Luca Atzeni....78k

Alfio Strano....12k

Daniel Dobos.....92k

Domenico Tataranno....50k

Jakub Zelders....300k

Eliminations from the last round, included...

 
Galvagno Gaetano 
Ligasacchi Giorgio Santo 
Maiullari Domenico 
Dijkastra Robbin 
 HUBER MICHAEL 
Domingo Kamber Borja Javier 
Giannini Matteo 
Metsla Mark 
Pietrosanto Andrea 
HUYST DAVY 
Kavouras Michail 
Regonaschi Marco 
SOFFER ERAN 
Pirri Concetto 
Stoev Aleksandar 
Kis K Krisztian 
Buremi Salvatore 

A selection of decent stacks from the room...

Arian HassanKashani..(below)... 200k

Johan Bosch.....230k

Stefano Felice....260k

Dmitar Bashov..... 255k

Samantha Algeri.....245k

Francesco Clausi.....270k

Demetrio Riolo....205k

With 210 remaining from the 365 entries, we had a quick scan through the Day 1E entrants to pick out some big and notable stacks and here they are! All are beating the current average of 42,000 - congrats!

We even caught a KO adminstered by one of the big stacks...Francesco Beneventono firing 3k out on a board, only for Grigoris Kyriazi to check raise all-in. Beneventono paused a moment, then called the additional 23,300 with . Kyriazi let out a moan as he showed down pocket nines and when the turn and river came without a 9, Beneventono was left sweeping up chips to end the hand with:

The last bust outs from the end of level 12, were...

Del Buono Vittorio 
Manzaro Giuseppe 
Burneikis Vladas 
Yuecel can 
Loizou Constantinos 
De Jong Dehlia Diana 
CARONE ENRICA 
Mccann Paul 
Tononi Luca Antonio 
LUKOVIC NEMANJA 
Ehud Ben Zvi 
Muscolino Venerando 
MIKAEL SVENSK 
Stylianou Constantinos 
KELLER ANTHONY 
Garama Noam Bener 
Lafranconi Cesare 
Arian Rouhin 
MAWJI AXAT 

Level 13 has just started ... 447/1540... Playing down to 15% which will be 231 players... 

Lets see how the session unfolds....

Daiva Byrne has been working a short-ish stack all day, though she has 48,000 to spin up in the latter stages and it's likely she'll see a good spot or two to turn that into a more respectable amount if she stay chilled. She didn't pick up the nickname Baltic Blonde without having that frosty ability to keep cool in her character so we reckon this is well within her powers. Good luck!

The players have just finished level 12, meaning they have earned themselves another 15 minute break. We'll be back for level 13 shortly. Join us then!

More eliminations from the room, and this time, they'll need to play one of the two turbo flights, to still be part of the huge €1.6million Prize Pool...

HEYMAN PHILIP 
Spiteri Stephen 
BENEDETTO ANGELO 
De Riddere Bryan 
Caruso Francesco 
LALINGA ARMANDO 
Cito Martino 
Nanni Luca 
ASZTEMBORSKI MATEUSZ 
Vazquez Gomez Alejandro Juan 
Trebbi Gianluca 
Bosch Johan 
GUIDO ANTONIO 
Cacciapaglia Antonio 
Mihaylov Kostadin 
Petruzzelli Federico 
Papadia Giovanni Giorgio 
Foti Belligammi Sebastiano 
Rachunek Artur 
Formica Salvatore 
Liesa Nicolas 
Caiazzo Umberto 
Sanzari Marco Amadeo 
De Boer Frits

A few stacks around the room are well above the 75k average stack..

Mantas Petrauskas (below)... 200k

Antonio Villadeigo.... 210k

Giovanni Accetta.... 150k

Johan Bosch.....185k

Joseph Walsh....165k

Constantinos Loizou......160k

It may not have had the glitzy introduction of the other days, but let's not forget Day 1E, which has been running for 4 levels already. There have been 257 entries so far, which is pretty impressive stuff given how many entries have already been fired in day 1D. (1540 at the moment)

We'll be focusing primarily on Day 1D as the larger of the two days but we'll keep half an eye on 1E, half an ear out and if any of our other sensory organs become half available, we'll direct them Day 1E-wards also!

At present there are 233 of 268 players remaining but the fast structure means slews of eliminations are just round the corner...

Timo Ruuska (left, Hat) Has just doubled in spectacular fashion... On a board of and around 50k in the middle.. He shoves his last 68k in the middle... 

Crescenzo Vitiello thinks for a little while, but calls to see the bad news... Even though Crescenzo holds the for the nut flush.... It ain't the Nuts as Timo has for the Straight Flush!!!! 

A big pot for Timo, who now has 180k ish..

More eliminations from the room...

 
Risteski Ivica 
Cavallaro Christopher Domenico 
Treszczotko Adrian 
Campo Roberto 
Scapellato Daniele 
Pozo Ruiz Jose Luis 
Siligato Giuseppe 
Fisicaro Maurizio 
Sorbera Gianpiero 
Castelluccio Emanuele 
ANTONIO Lionetti
Ascari Fabrizio 
Gazis Savvas 
Schiavulli Piero 
MICHELE Grippa
Lourenco Carlos Daniel Fernandes 
Fossati Andrea 
Hunter Marc Andrew 
Yichuam Ye 
Campbell Leon  

Styliano Maistrellis is all in with But is up against the of Sotiriou Nikos... The board runs

We lose Styliano during level 10..

Pirri Concettto was another player looking to turn his fortunes round - down to 17,700 and in desperate straits, he found and jammed preflop, picking up action from Giuseppe Auterio, who had some trouble understanding the bet-size before finally calling with .

The board threatened Concetto's advantage on the turn but once the spade flush draw had bricked, he was up to just under 40k while Auterio took a hit, knocked down to the still respectable 54k.

Both are way behind one of the chip monsters though - Andrea Solimeno has a menacing stack of 157k that puts him among the chip leaders at this stage.

Exits from level 9 as we headed to the break..

Vedda Davide 
Kuprewicz Cezary 
Zielinski Jacek Slawomir 
Melli Pierluigi 
Adinolfo Alessandro 
Basile Angelo  
Giangreco Andrea 
MINASI ALESSANDRO 
D'aloja Dario 
D'amico Marco 
Lombardo Juri Angelo 
Minichino Luigi 
Sanchioni Eugenio 
Gentile Feliciano Giovanni 
Dito Carlo 
Meulendijk Wilhelmus 
Guerrasio Davide 
Ding Jianbo 
SILLEM ALBERT 
Stagi Nicola 
Alexandru-Lucian Morar 
Pediglieri Angelo 
Antimisiaris Michail 
Di Pietro Franco

Just before the break Kalle Ly got his derailed Battle of Malta campaign back on track with a triple up, holding pocket Kings. His tablemate had a joke with him, "You lied to me, you said you were going to double up."

"You heard wrong," Ly said, confidently adding, "I said I'd have ten double ups!"

"I needed that, now I can play."

Ly is up to 55,000 and if you could cash out confidence, he'd be in great shape right now...

Level 10 has just begun... This is the last level for buy-ins today....

WIth 750 ish players out of the 1256 total entries remaining, we've reached the end of level 9 and that means it's time to head for a 75 minute dinner break!

The action's been non-stop all day so we can't imagine the carnage we'll be in for in the latter half once the blinds and antes really start to amp up, Join us in just over an hour to find out if the roof blows off. We'll see you then!

The face of a man heading out of the Battle of Malta..

Joseph O'Mahoney holding

Thomas Veith

They were all in Pre, as Jo only had 15k.

Flop.. No miracle Queen for Jo, as he wanders away!!

More exits from the room...

Poulengeris Antonis 
Conti Davide 
Cordeschi Massimiliano
Simone Alfonso 
Colomba Danilo 
TERLIZZI LEONARDO 
Siligato Giuseppe 
Koutoumanos Georgios 
MARTA Antonio
Onorato Francesco Di Paola 
Manic Petar 
Servaes Bart 
BENAS CICENAS 
DE DEKEN KRISTOF 
Maglianella Simone Raffaele 
Balan Cosmin-Liviu 
Jeunen Bjoern Sigmund R 
Coughlan Paul 
Morra Gaetano 
Dahan Omri

Franco De Pietro stood up and turned over ... He wasn't in too bad of a shape, as he was up against and .. So how does a King hit the flop Which it did???

Franco headed to the door, as we lose one..

If you've a hankering to be involved in the Battle of Malta action but can't make your way to the Intercontinental hotel for some reason - you can get a taste of the event via the Live Stream.

Click here to visit the Twitch stream and catch the feature table.

More Bust Outs from the room..

Lamanuzzi Patrizia 
Patto Fabio
SCALZI ANTONIO 
Mariani Matteo
Di Gennaro Franco 
Vasilev Veselin 
Rosenwasser Jonathan 
Tamm Taago
Cooper Chris
Gabrielides Costantinos 
Fedullo Fabio 
Somma Sergio 
Karmiris Georgios 
Minichino Luigi 
Crupi Paolo 
Merone Antonio 
Vecchi Alessandro 
Albania Ndoj Elmir 
De Riddere Bryan 
Roma Vito 
Dietrich Florian Philippe 
VITIELLO CRESCENZO 
Friedland Dov 
O'mahoney Michael John 
Parts Rasmus 
Colucci Carlo

Does everyone love a chopped pot? We're doubtful. There's often an anticlimactic tone when you hear "chop it up" - with all possibility of drama  hoovered out of the situation.

One person who definitely loved the pot she just chopped was Mirela-Adriana Becheru however. She'd bet the turn of a 6-5-5-K board (with J-5)- only to be jammed on by relative shortstack Alfredo Pagliaro.

Becheru seened very unhappy despite her strong holding, perhaps sensing Pagliaro had a strong hand himself. She was right! She called and Pagliaro turned over Q-5 - her trips out-kicked.

As the title might suggest though - she got out of jail as a 6 arrived on the river to give both players a full house.

An exuberant torrent of what we think was Italian spilled from Becheru's mouth as she celebrated winning half the pot. Our linguistic skills may have failed us but clenched fists are a universal symbol for celebration (when coupled with a broad grin!)

Here's how her stack finished up as well as a few bonus counts...

The rom is still seems as full as when we fisrt started earlier this afternoon...

Even though we've had over 400 eiminations, players just seem to re-enter!.. 

A few chip counts to start level 7..

Andreas Hadjispyrides.....75k

Diego Grisliglioni....72k

Dov Friedland...(Below)...110k

Frank Bastow.....65k

Oleksandra Shenderei....85k

Emanuele Mari.....74k

Eliminations from the last level..

Lombardo Antonino 
Padovani Sonia Tara 
Dunevein Simon Andrew 
Mari Emanuele 
Kink Revo 
Ferrigno Giovanni 
SALVEMINI LUCA
Tatenhove Jean 
Cimelli Giuseppe 
Vilardi Dario 
Demichelis Andrea 
Luppino Carmelo 
Catterson Eliot Thomas
Borg Marcus
DABROWSKI SEBASTIAN 
Bruno Massimo 
Dray Samuel
Fisicaro Maurizio

The break has finished. Play resumes 947/1420... 

3 level of play and then the 75 minute dinner break..

That's 6 levels completed today - the field has grown to 1,411 and the 950 remaining players have made it through to the 2nd break.

There's a stampede at this point, the thunder of almost a thousand players' feet heading for the exit to smoke or grab fresh air, heading for a coffee and baguette or possibly just running for fun to increase their general cardio. (*)

We'll be back in 15 minutes for level 7. Join us then!

(*Expressed as a percentage of the total, this number includes 17 decimal points.)

Massimiliano De Napoli just scored a helpful double - being one of the shorter stacks around the tournament arena. He saw Giuseppe Imbroglio open to 1,300 from early position and looked down at a pocket pair - .

"I'm going for it," he thought, jamming from middle position - with Hasan Halil the sole called with .

Once Imbroglio had thrown his hand, it was a straight up flip and as you may have guessed from the title, De Napoli survived it - the board running out .

De Napoli was highly enthused his tournament would continue, yelling "JACK!" on the river just in case anyone within a 5 mile driving radius hadn't noticed. Who needs ear drums anyway?

He moves to the princely sum of 19,000 whilst a quieter Halil drops to 24,000.

More eliminated players from the room.

Sintuzzi Andrea 
Goasdouf Alan 
La Cava Alessandro 
BLASIO Francesco
GORBACS MAKSIMS
La Ferla Luigi
Graci Salvatore 
Houghton Kevin 
BERTUCCIO GIOVANNI 
Phinicarides Phedonas 
Pardo Valerio 
DI GREGORIO Piero
Azzopardi Charlo 
Putz Andreas 
Zuczkowski Xavier 
Di Gennaro Franco 
Colohanin Nicolai
Splacan Marius-Bogdan

We have a stack of 100k at the start of level 6....

Antonio Villadiego.(Below)...105k 

Enrica Carone....62k

Marios Stefani......48k

Marcello De Vita...52k

Fabrizio Ascari.....58k

Iliat Nemanja...51k

Some players are flying ; others succumbing as variance tremors through the field, the larger waves taking victims and making champions. Here are some random counts we picked up as we slipped through the mass of BoM tables.

More bust outs on this crazy day 1D

Zhang Honglei 
Loghin Andrei Alexandru 
Totris Tadas 
Ruuto Mario
Farkas Peter 
Jokic Dorde 
NOTARMASI NICOLA 
 Roux Stephane Roland Francois 
AZZARA GIANLUCA 
 GEORGIOU ANTONIOS 
Guarnuto Dario 
Saddemi Rosario 
La Rosa Giovanni
Bossa Giuseppe 
Casa Davide 
Di Pumpo Antonio 
Tsaknis Vasileios 
Paternoster Pietro
Petit Rosalie Marine 
Fantel Nikolaos 
Sinnos Eleftherios
Kotorri Jorgji

Level 5 of the day has just started... The room is full to bursting and the Prize Pool is now over €1.5million!!!!

A few chip counts from around the room.... The place is buzzing..

Giovani Salvatori.....50k
Antonio Macrillo.....53k
Peter Hermann......48k
Shaun De Cesare..(Below)....70k
Maurizio Fisicaro.....47k
Tom Noble......28k
Mattia Baldi.....68k
Kelly Saxby...13k

There are 1,210 entries in total now. When tallied with the entries from Days 1A, B and C - this combines to make a very impressive €1,411,200 prizepool.

The €1 Million guarantee has been well and truly smashed - and with the rest of the day's poker, as well as two more Day 1's to come (albeit Turbo's), we might even see the prizepool sneak toward €2 million...

Either way, a monster first prize is assured - likely life-changing money for the shooting star who manages to play and run best in this mammoth field.

So far today, 1,062 players remain from the 1210 starters...

David Lappin and Dara O'Kearney - joint hosts of popular podcast The Chip Race -  have been drawn at the same table.

We spoke to Lappin - sporting a fashionable (*) pair of chequed  trousers - to ask whether civil war is likely to break out as they gun for each other's chips but he was relatively happy with the situation.

"I like having someone I know at the table" he told us. "Puts you a little under the microscope so you're less likely to do something silly." Both players have had a measured start - still hovering around their initial stacks. There's plenty of time to chip up...

Tablemate Kostadin Mihaylov however has been significantly busier - his transactions working out well so far as he holds an impressive 58,000.

(* in 1979)

As we hit level 4, The room is an amazing sight.... Prodominantly an Italian field today... It will be good to know the breakdown of all the countries that are represented. SO hopefully in due proccess, we will find out.... Near 1200 runners so far, with 6 levels and change to re-enter..

The first 15 minute break is here.....

Back soon.....

Heading towards the first break and the eliminations are just not stopping... Here are a few more of the players who have options to re-enter..

Mckiernan Enda Francis 
Macrillo' Antonio
AMENDIOLAGINE NICOLA
Vincenzo Dainotti 
Ali' Giuseppe 
TIPPING LESLIE 
Pietrosanto Andrea 
Jonsson Anders Lars Ove
Tsaknis Vasileios 
Lombardi Rolando 
Tarallo Angelo
Arena Riccardo 
Mihaylov Kostadin
Christou Polys
Albanese Angelo 
Farrell John 
Azarjancs Maksims 
Scarcelli Sebastiano 
FABISEVICH KIRIL 
AMATO GIOVANNI NUNZIO RICCARDO 
Vilardi Dario
Marino Dario

As level 3 starts and the last level before the first break of the day, we have lost over 50 players so far! 250BB for some is Way too many.... Anyway, they will have a chance to re enter into this Huge field..

MATO NUNZIO RICCARDO 
Vilardi Dario 
Marino Dario 
Marta Antonio
VINCI PASQUALE 
CARNEVALE CLAUDIO 
CASTRICIANO GIOVANNI 
Onorato Francesco 
Trebbi Gianluca 
Formica Salvatore 
Sayed Magdi 
CHRISTIAN Butnaru 
Sapiega Raimundas 
Duran Juan 
Manzo Pietro 
NAPOLETANO ANIELLO 
Portannese Michele

Unless they are hidden amongst the 1000 runners so far today, having a quick walk around the room, I didn't notice too many of them to be fair!! 

But one I did see, as you couldn't miss him was Axat Mawji.. A local on the Brittish scene, even though it would be hard to recognise him off the table!!! No action for him just yet, as he has starting stack of 25k!

The bombastic introduction to today's Battle of Malta Day 1D has set the scene admirably for what is going to be an insane day of poker.

Just one and a half levels in,  we're already at 980 entrants - and 10 players have already found a way to lose their 25k, 250BB starting stacks. We saw one such dismissal - a player with on a board getting his marching orders versus Giuseppe Gridella's . Gridella looked happy, as well he might, with his 2x starting stack of 50k ish.

We'll break through that four figure entry point any second now - and this will surely be the largest of the Day 1 fields.

Mateusz Moolhuizen is back following his bust-out late yesterday - good stamina given he put in a 14 hour poker stint. He was a bit disappointed to grind all day with no end result but remains upbeat, telling us "just got to keep spinning the wheel" - a cheeky grin suggesting he has plenty of plans for the day ahead...

More depart and head to to re enter..

Bucci Paolo 
CRISTIANO Salvatore
Papadia Fabio 
Cyprus Grigoris Kyriazi 
Ascari Fabrizio 
Cordeschi Massimiliano 
Petrecca Dylan 
Pediglieri Domenico 
Panzarella Paolo 
D Antuono Alfonso 
Scicluna Justin
Gray Clare

Daiva Byrne a big advocate of Ladies in Poker, Hence the FLIP badge, Is sat during level 2 with her first bullet.. Just arrived and ready to do battle.. Fantastic Ladies In Poker are rooting for their founder member.. 

There are always players willing to gamble with their 250BB stack. And sure enough 3 players have already headed to the re-entry desk... Players can re-enter until the end of level 10 as many times as they want to...

NOORANVARY Simon
Rakymzhanov Darkhan 
SIMONAS KONTVAINAS

Day 1 D has just started with a staggering 737 sat for the first hand.. If the numbers finish like the earlier day 1's. By the time late reg and re-entries has finished at the end of level 10, this field will have doubled in size and we could be looking at around 1500 runners, just today.. Which will obviously Smash the €1Million GTD Prize pool....

Updates all day, untill we are left with 15% of the playing field...

Welcome back to The Battle of Malta where Day 1D - the fourth of six starting days - is set to begin.

Yesterday's field was the largest so far with 1,014 entries - Joubert Pierre-Yves leading at the close with a massive 820,000 -  and today's fresh batch of entrants could well beat that figure with 500+ registrants already on the books. As we know from the first few days, this will rocket up during the day. Rebuys will be available and unlimited until the end of level 10 so a four-figure field is all but nailed on.

As per usual, the start will be highlighted with  an array of dazzling lights, two Medieval knights marching toward the trophy and an epic fanfare to boot. It's quite a show - don't get here late and miss out!

Day 1D will be fascinating but for anyone who prefers their poker fast and furious, the turbo-formatted Day 1E will start at 20:00 and with snappy 20 minute levels, expect the chips to fly.

Apart from that, the players also have the option to play the popular Day 1C of the "Mystery SIege of Malta" Bounty €210+200+40 at 17:00, the NLH €170+30 (with unlimited entries) will kick off at 18:00. There's also the 888 €180+20 NLHE comp which will start at 21:00 and be another chance for players to pick up a Battle of Malta trophy.

Hold tight- we're ready for the start...Shuffle up and deal!