The Festival Malta: Record-Breaking Main Event’s Final Sixteen

The Numbers Tell the Story

The Main Event of the current stop of The Festival Series in Malta, with a €550 buy-in, racked up a total of 666 entries, the highest in the history of the Malta stop. Without any guarantee, players created a prize pool of approximately €300,000, which began distribution to the advancing players during yesterday’s Day 2.

Yesterday brought intense battles, narrowing the field of 84 participants down to the final sixteen. These players return today to compete for the largest shares of the prize pool, with each already assured at least €1,920. However, this figure pales in comparison to the fantastic first prize of €60,001!

The Final Day Contenders

The final sixteen present a diverse international mix — from the British Isles through Northern Europe to Asia. The TOP10 features three Finns and two Norwegians, including seasoned names like Olli Viljami Kovalainen and Jon Per Persent. Also in the mix are Portugal’s Nuno Morais, Sweden’s Gustav Ekhagen, France’s Emmanuel Houssais, and China’s Fan Sun.

Leading the final battles as chipleader is Englishman Philip Laurence Pearson, with a stack of 4.94M. He is closely followed by Norwegian contender Thomas Andre Kvam Jakobsen (4.19M), with Finnish player Julius Joe Julenius (3.08M) rounding out the trio.

Chip counts for the final day:

Source - The Festival