The Festival Malta has come to a successful close, with the eight-day poker extravaganza at the Portomaso Casino wrapping up in usual The Festival fashion. Victor den Houting from Spain claimed the title and the €55,000 grand prize after outlasting a competitive field of 566 entries in the €550 Main Event.
Den Houting secured his best live poker result to date, defeating Haven Taylor in a hard-fought heads-up battle. “The heads-up was really hard, my opponent was a really good player,” shared den Houting in the winner’s interview. He was close to losing the match only a few minutes before he scooped up the winning pot. “I was lucky to flop a two pair on a monotone board. I won, but it could have gone either way.“
Den Houting, living in Andorra with his wife and two kids, is primarily an online cash game player and has spent nearly a decade away from live tournaments. But a great opportunity arose when he won a free entry to The Festival Main Event by topping the rake race leaderboard on iPoker’s ChampionPoker, and the rest, as they say, is history.
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Second-place finisher Haven Taylor, a professional poker player from Calgary, Canada, took home €32,800. This result brings her career tournament earnings close to half a million dollars.
“I feel great about my second-place finish,” Taylor said. “My husband and I came all the way to Malta to have fun, and we ended up taking home some money. I played two events and made the final table on both. Malta was kind to me, the town is amazing, and I think we’ll be back”. Taylor’s performance in Malta marks her second-best live result, following her victory in an $800 UltimateStack event at last year’s Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza IV for $103,488.
2024 The Festival Malta Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 |  Victor den Houting | Spain | €55,000 |
| 2 |  Haven Taylor | Canada | €32,800 |
| 3 |  Oliver Mihajlovski | North Macedonia | €23,300 |
| 4 |  Mathias Jordi | Switzerland | €17,800 |
| 5 |  Bart Dil | Netherlands | €13,800 |
| 6 |  Mario Eder | Austria | €10,600 |
| 7 |  Krystian Nalepka | Poland | €8,300 |
| 8 | Dragan Ignjatovski | North Macedonia | €6,300 |
| 9 | Jordi Ruiz | Spain | €4,800 |
2024 The Festival Malta Final Table Recap
Haven Taylor entered the final table of the €550 The Festival Malta Main Event as the dominant chip leader, holding nearly as many chips as her closest two competitors, Bart Dil and Mario Eder, combined.
It took almost two hours for the first elimination, when Jordi Ruiz’s ace-ten couldn’t overcome Dragan Ignjatovski’s pocket kings, sending the second Spaniard to the rail.
Then, in quick succession, Haven made a rare double-double as she managed to eliminate four players. First, Ignjatovski and Krystian Nalepka, holding K♣10♣ and Q♣10♠, both went all-in, only to run into Haven’s K♦K♠, which held strong on a 3♣7♣5♥5♣3♦ board. Soon after, Haven’s pocket sevens cracked Dil’s pocket kings and defeated Mario Eder’s nine-five, who had been pretty much forced to shove with just four big blinds. A seven on the flop of 10♣7♦A♣ ended the runs of Eder in sixth and Dil in fifth place.
At this point, Victor den Houting began to rise. He eliminated Swiss Mathias Jordi in fourth and continued building momentum by stealing several pots, pushing into a big chip lead over Haven and Oliver Mihajlovski. Mihajlovski was the next to go after being dominated with K♣4♦ against Haven’s A♠4♣.
Haven’s newly acquired chips closed the gap to den Houting, but she still entered heads-up play as a 1.5:1 underdog. She briefly took the lead, but the decisive hand arrived after an hour of battle.
Haven pushed all-in with K♠6♥ on a flop of Q♦K♦7♦, only for den Houting to call with K♣7♥ for two pair. The 4h on the turn sealed the deal, and Victor den Houting claimed his first major live tournament win, taking home the €55,000 grand prize.
* Images and hands courtesy of TheFestival.com
