Category Malta Poker Festival 2022

During the Malta Poker Festival and historically on Saturday at 4:00 pm kicks off the Ladies Event adequately called: Ladies First!  The Spring Edition of Ladies First! will take place Saturday 30^th of April, 2022 at 16:00 hrs.

MPF’s 2018’s edition, Ladies First! saw over 100 female entrants.  The year after, even more.  During 2018 and 2019 Daiva Byre was the event’s host and a lot of her followers from her Facebook group Fantastic Ladies of Poker (FLIP) made it to the island.

After a 2-year hiatus, due to the world pandemic COVID-19 situation, 2022 expects to have a memorable Ladies First! event. 

The buy-in sees a discount of 900 euro for women, leaving it at 100 EUR for women and 1,000 EUR for men.

This edition sees Maureen Bloechlinger as the event’s host.  Maureen has great acumen in the poker world being the Founder Globetrotting Poker Ladies & Globetrotting Poker, Buy-In.Info Marketing, Herzdamen Core Team.  She represents one of the most reliable and unbiased poker sources in Europe and Worldwide.

Mrs. Bloechlinger’ s goal is “to encourage more women to play poker using the Ladies First! event as a springboard into open fields. Playing at a poker festival like Malta Poker Festival can be intimidating given the number of players and I believe the Ladies First! event provides an atmosphere to have fun, play poker and learn.  It also provides the opportunity to meet fellow female players and to make friends. I actually met some of my dearest female poker friends at a Ladies Event in Malta and it really did change my poker experience and brought it to the next level.”

She enthusiastically keeps adding: “my goal is to surpass 2018’s event and have more than 100 entries! I also hope that 30% are motivated to return in fall to play the MPF Main Event!”

The WPA (Women’s Poker Association) is powering the event and their core values of getting more women to play at are the heart of the Event’s Director Mrs. Ivonne Montealegre, which is also the WPA’s International Affairs Director.

Mrs.  Montealegre tells us “expect a few interesting announcements in terms of Ladies First! Event.  We will have exclusive online qualifiers and a special promo at WPA for the winner to travel to Malta and play Ladies First! VIP style”. For more updates follow the Facebook Pages: Malta Poker Festival, WPA and Globetrotting Poker.

After the announcement organizers have been working hard and are deciding to move full speed with MPF next year in Spring. The confirmed date for next year is the last week of April.
Spring: 25th of April – 2nd of May, 2022.

There is a lot of interest from players and partners alike as this will be their first international event hosted in Malta. During the 2 year pandemic, the only poker room on the whole island remained at Portomaso Casino. Zamsino.com

Portomaso has been hosting their regular tournaments adding some multi-day exciting events, but so far, no international poker events could be planned for 2021 as the uncertainty of the pandemic has hit the live poker events industry the hardest. Portomaso casino will navigate with all the Covid-19 regulations such as vaccination certificates and social distancing. As of the day this article was written, poker has to be played 5 handed and with masks. There are high hopes for the measures to relax like everywhere else in Europe.

The very awaited Malta Poker Festival event will determine, in collaboration with its partner Portomaso Casino, and the local authorities how to implement the considerations established by the Maltese authorities in regards to Covid-19 measures. There will be needed considerations, adjustments, and needs to meet. This implementation should be guided by what is feasible, practical, acceptable, and tailored to the needs of the island. Organizers mention that a risk assessment plan is already in motion and the island is very eager to return to its normality and continue the work to become a real mecca of poker in Europe.

A roster of online operators that will host satellite MTTs will be announced soon.