Guarantee Smashed, CartariusWins Record-Breaking Battle of Malta

Attendance soared at the 2013 PokerListings Battle of Malta and that suited German Louis Cartarius just fine as he outlasted a massive 888-player field to take down an official first-place prize of €80,000.

This year’s event proved to be a runaway hit with nearly three times the players of the inaugural Battle of Malta in 2012. Officially, it’s the biggest live poker tournament ever held in Malta.

That meant the initial €200,000 guarantee ballooned to €430,630 with the buy-in still just €550. All told, 100 players cashed in the tournament and the final nine split up an amazing €250,000.

Here are the complete final-table results and payouts:

• 1. Louis Cartarius – €80,000
• 2. Konrad Abela – €52,000
• 3. Ambjorn Haga – €32,000
• 4. Arthur Popov – €23,630
• 5. Lauri Pesonen – €19,000
• 6. Alessandro de Ioco – €15,000
• 7. Sonny La – €12,000
• 8. Guiseppe Polichetti – €9,500
• 9. Daniel Lucasz – €7,300

Scott, Cates, Kihara, Pesonen, The DudesonsAll Set Down in Malta

Although there was some serious cash involved with this year’s tournament the Battle of Malta offers a casual environment with the emphasis on having fun.

For three days players had a chance to take in some amazing weather, party VIP-style and rub shoulders with world-famous poker players and celebrities.

 This year Naoya Kihara, Daniel “Jungleman12” Cates, Andreas Hoivold, Sam Holden, Pierre Neuville, Sofia Lovgren, Luca Moschitta and Lauri Pesonen were among the notable poker pros that took part.

The pros were joined by celebrity guests as well including three members of the Finnish stunt crew The Dudesons and adult film star Puma Swede.

Jukka of The Dudesons even managed a deep run in the tournament – he finished in 17th place and narrowly mi

Party Poker pro and ESPN personality Kara Scott returned to resume her hosting duties and was featured in PokerListings videos all week long.ssed out on the final table.

Low Buy-In, High-End Experience

The 888 players gathered for the 2013 Battle of Malta came from all corners of the world including Italy, France, Sweden, Canada, Japan, Australia, Costa Rica, the US and more.

Many of the players qualified through sponsors 888poker, Party Poker and Full Tilt Poker while others bought packages directly though PokerListings.com.

While the Battle of Malta offers a relatively small buy-in the experience is anything but low-end. The tournament was covered by the full PokerListings.com reporting team an included on-site video interviews, live hand coverage, news features and plenty of social media interaction.

The first-ever PokerListings Spirit of Poker Awards were also handed out to recipients Naoya Khara, Pierre Neuville and Luca Moschitta.i

Next year’s tournament promises to be even bigger.The massive turnout meant that registration lines were fierce and players that waited too long to register weren’t able to get in on one of the best low buy-in European tournaments.

Check PokerListings.com’sBattle of Malta page for a full recap of all the actionand information about the 2014 BOM.