Day 1b of The Festival Series Malta €550 Main Event attracted 101 entries with 33 players finding a bag. This brings the total field up to 185 entries with 57 survivors when taking into the 84 runners and 24 survivors on Day 1a. There is still plenty more to come with three more opening flights and two levels of late registration even still available on Saturday's Day 2.
Adam Briggs was the star of Day 1b after turning his 30,000 opening stack into 329,000 in chips. This was enough to push Briggs into the chip lead with Day 1a chip leader Beka Kopaleishvili bagging 253,500 in chips. Meanwhile, Optibet streamer Gatis Reigass (241,500) and Rickard Olsson (236,000) were the only other players above 200,000 in chips.
Here is a look at the final Day 1b chip counts:
| Player | Chips |
|---|---|
| Adam Briggs | 329,500 |
| Gatis Reigass | 241,500 |
| Rickard Olsson | 236,000 |
| Michael Ibba | 173,000 |
| Alfredo Cuti | 143,000 |
| Teemu Hietala | 137,500 |
| Maria Evans | 130,500 |
| Terje Jahn | 119,000 |
| Cory Desmond | 112,500 |
| Arnoud Capellen | 108,500 |
| Luca Delfino | 104,500 |
| Beka Ksovreli | 94,000 |
| Daniel Smith | 90,500 |
| Arttile Szathmari | 83,000 |
| Samuele Lo Presti | 78,000 |
| Mischa Wieten | 77,500 |
| Iulian Bleau | 73,000 |
| Domenico Gala | 69,000 |
| Luka Bulatovic | 62,000 |
| Glen Gaines | 61,000 |
| Dario Marinelli | 59,500 |
| Erik Risberg | 57,000 |
| Koen Muetstege | 55,000 |
| Franciscus Bosmans | 49,500 |
| Jaffar Alsaffar | 45,000 |
| Cristiano Blanco | 43,500 |
| Jarmo Luokkala | 39,500 |
| Marc Tannous | 38,000 |
| Raoul van Wersch | 35,000 |
| Sander Mets | 33,000 |
| Giorgi Gogoladze | 29,000 |
| Marthijn Lakerveld | 28,000 |
| James Hopkins | 14,500 |
