Friday's action at The Festival Malta featured poker action on all 3 floors of Casino Portomaso. The first one hosted cash games, including the CG Challenge, the third was dedicated to the last two flights of the Main Event, and in the middle there were a number of interesting side events - Day 2 of the Malta Deepstack, the Open-Face Chinese Poker Tournament and the Ladies Event.

Unlucky Franke
 

Franke (almost) made it! In our Live Blog earlier in the day yesterday, we wrote about how Franke made it to the paid positions in the Open-Face Chinese event with just 1.5bb. From that small stack, The Festival founder made it all the way to the final heads-up, where he faced Belarusian player Siarhei Narozhny. The long and tough battle didn't end until after 2am, when unfortunately Franke had to settle for second place. But he didn't walk away empty-handed, as the runner-up took home a €3,100 prize, with tournament champion Narozhny taking home €4,800. Congratulations!

Main Event has all opening days behind it
 

Yesterday brought the Main Event players the last two opening days to try their luck and fight their way into Day 2. The earlier Day 1D produced a total of 149 entries and 70 of them advanced. The last opening day, Turbo 1E, closed its registration last night, and well, we got to know the interim numbers - 475 entries (prizepool of almost a quarter of a million), and over two hundred advancers. Among them there are Slovak representatives, namely Fedor Stadtrucker, Dominik Znášik, Filip Bucher and Matúš Schnierer! But we remind you that these numbers are not yet final - tomorrow's Day 2 starting at 12:00 has late registration open for the first two levels. If you take advantage of this last-minute option, you will still get a luxurious 37.5bb stack at the start of the day!

Noelia Ivars Rico Queen of the Ladies Event
 

What pleases the poker viewer more than the sight of a Ladies event? The Festival Queens tournament is no exception, with prize money awaiting the top three players, with the winner taking home €1,150. In the end, it was Sweden's Noelia Ivars Rico who emerged victorious, taking home €924 each after heads-up play with Radica Kanani.

Fred "FriDiGiDi" Max THMC champion, today is a decisive day for ME The Festival

Another trophy for Germany
 

The two-day Malta Deepstack tournament with a buy-in of €250 produced a total of 133 entries. The only undefeated player in this tournament was Germany's Milan Ljubisic, who took home a prize of €7,850!

Follow our live blog for updates,
photos and emotions from the event!