Battle of Malta 2026: First Three Champions Crowned as the €1.5 Million GTD Main Event Gets Underway

The 2026 Battle of Malta Fall Edition is in full swing at Casino Malta. It is one of Europe’s biggest poker festivals, running from October 27 to November 4 with €2 million in total guarantees.

The first two days have already produced three champions: Jakub Skurzynski in the €130 Dark Knight NLH, Dan Larsson in the €330 Pot-Limit Omaha and Dominik Bencan in the €340 Novibet Tag Team Event. Meanwhile, the opening flights of the €600 Battle of Malta Main Event (€1.5 million GTD) and the €450 Mystery Siege of Malta have been played, and the field is already full of familiar names.

€530 + 70 Battle of Malta Main Event

The record €1.5 million guarantee is the biggest in Battle of Malta history, up from €1 million last year. The Main Event has nine starting flights between October 28 and November 1.

Day 1a (€600 buy-in): 300 entries, 45 survivors. Italy’s Angelo Patane bagged the overall chip lead with 769,000, ahead of Greece’s Dimitrios Stampoultzis (681,000) and Finland’s Sami Pulliainen (568,000).

Day 1b (€300 buy-in): 113 entries, 8 survivors. Israel’s Omri Mechetner led this flight with 541,000.

Former champion Dimitrios Anastasakis of Greece, who won the Battle of Malta in 2022, is through to Day 2 with 354,000. Two big names fell short: poker legend Scotty Nguyen and Ryan DePaulo both busted without bagging chips.

Why did so few players survive Day 1b? The festival runs alternating €600 and €300 flights. The €600 flights advance about 15% of the field to Day 2, while the cheaper €300 flights advance only about 7.5%. That matches what happened: 45 of 300 survived on Day 1a (15%), compared with 8 of 113 on Day 1b (7.1%). The cheaper flights are a great value entry point, but you have to fight harder to get through.

Chip Counts at the End of Day 1a

Place	Player	Country	Chips
1	Angelo Patane	Italy	769,000
2	Dimitrios Stampoultzis	Greece	681,000
3	Sami Pulliainen	Finland	568,000
4	Karl Sandoff	Sweden	545,000
5	Harald Redl	Austria	521,000
6	Cristiano Zambonelli	Italy	513,000
7	Sandro Carucci	Switzerland	500,000
8	Ziga Klopcic	Slovenia	469,000
9	Robin Enb	Germany	465,000
10	Dragan Gali	Croatia	385,000
11	Stanislas Prigent	France	380,000
12	Dimitrios Anastasakis	Greece	354,000
13	Andrei Mjagkov	Estonia	338,000
14	Sebastian Mortensen	Malta	336,000
15	Matteo Montanari	Italy	308,000
16	Lukman Islam	Bangladesh	293,000
17	Antonios Triantafyllakis	Greece	289,000
18	Anton Makejev	Estonia	278,000
19	Aliyyul Aldirmaz	Turkey	264,000
20	Dario Quattrucci	Italy	211,000
21	Viorel-Gabriel Gavrila	Romania	200,000
22	Sukru Arican	Turkey	198,000
23	Steven Penney	England	198,000
24	Vincenzo Popolo	Italy	191,000
25	Ashley Scott	England	190,000
26	Peter Vermaas	Netherlands	185,000
27	Jeffrey Cormier	Canada	182,000
28	Robert Schiller	Germany	178,000
29	Toni Ravnak	Czech Republic	166,000
30	Erik Lindqwist	Sweden	142,000
31	Anthony Hughes	England	138,000
32	Nicholas Schembri	Malta	134,000
33	Yuri Martins	Brazil	127,000
34	Imran Pirmohamed	England	125,000
35	Palina Mankevich	Poland	112,000
36	Oliver Mihajlovski	Macedonia	97,000
37	Tetiana Bondarchuk	Ukraine	92,000
38	Mathieu Hontas	France	86,000
39	Alexandre Bermon	France	82,000
40	Lorenzo Paolelli	Italy	82,000
41	Wayne Brook	England	64,000
42	Alessio Urpis	Italy	44,000
43	Dan Stanea	Romania	42,000
44	Stribor Gruicic	Croatia	40,000
45	Cameron Sinclair	England	40,000

Chip Counts at the End of Day 1b

Place	Player	Country	Chips
1	Omri Mechetner	Israel	541,000
2	Dario Berisa	Serbia	471,000
3	Emmanouil Livanos	Greece	269,000
4	Ioannis Lazaridis	Greece	252,000
5	Constantin Chincisan	Romania	212,000
6	Michael James-Cardi	United Kingdom	207,000
7	Milos Lalovic	Serbia	204,000
8	Matteo Zanardi	Italy	110,000

Italy leads the nations count with 9 of the 45 Day 1a survivors, plus Matteo Zanardi from Day 1b. England (7) and Greece (3) are next.

€450 Siege of Malta Mystery Bounty

The €150,000 guaranteed Mystery Siege of Malta drew 173 entries on Day 1b. Only 26 players made it through, led by Israel’s Uri Netanel with 600,000. They join the 15 qualifiers from Day 1a, and two more starting flights remain.

Keep an eye on 12th-placed Jakub Skurzynski. He had already won the Dark Knight NLH earlier in the festival and is now chasing a second big score in Malta.

Chip Counts at the End of Day 1b

Place	Player	Country	Chips
1	Uri Netanel	Israel	600,000
2	Nicholas Rose	United Kingdom	568,000
3	Nikolaos Mastrantonas	Greece	528,000
4	Jeremie Dubois	France	453,000
5	Christof Birnbacher	Austria	368,000
6	Anastasios Vardalis	Greece	341,000
7	Tomas Dailidonis	Lithuania	243,000
8	David Lisher	United Kingdom	212,000
9	Philip Pearson	United Kingdom	210,000
10	Adrian Vogt	Switzerland	194,000
11	Tvrtko Cupic	Croatia	154,000
12	Jakub Skurzynski	Poland	139,000
13	[add from source]	—	—
14	Michail Tastanis	Greece	116,000
15	Petros Taki	Cyprus	108,000
16	Arnaud Boudet	France	104,000
17	Giuseppe Segreto	Italy	104,000
18	Richard Arnott	United Kingdom	101,000
19	Roberto Agus	Italy	86,000
20	Tayfun Rodoplu	Turkey	82,000
21	Philipp Doehling	Germany	78,000
22	Andres Frey	Spain	67,000
23	Michele D’Amico	Italy	64,000
24	Scott Majorino	Switzerland	60,000
25	Maciej Kala	Poland	58,000
26	Lin Chen	China	49,000

€330 Pot-Limit Omaha

Winner: Dan Larsson (Sweden), €6,370

The €330 PLO event attracted 85 entries, building a prize pool of €23,970 that paid the top 13. Sweden’s Dan Larsson beat Poland’s Dawid Manczak heads-up to take the title.

Place	Player	Country	Prize Money
1	Dan Larsson	Sweden	€6,370
2	Dawid Manczak	Poland	€4,420
3	Dimitrios Siantikos	Greece	€2,920
4	Erik Polluveer	Estonia	€2,280
5	Martin Frank	Switzerland	€1,840
6	Adam Milewski	Poland	€1,440
7	Rafail Papadopoulos	Greece	€1,140
8	Daniele Del Gatto	Italy	€880
9	Paul McCann	United Kingdom	€680
10	Maria von Perger	Germany	€520
11	Oleksandr Pyliavskyi	Ukraine	€520
12	Davide Marchioro	Italy	€480
13	Manuel Persico	Italy	€480

€340 Novibet Tag Team Event

Winner: Dominik Bencan (Croatia), €4,870

The Tag Team format, where team members swap in and out during play, drew 59 entries for a €16,638 prize pool. Croatia’s Dominik Bencan won heads-up against Marck Moret of the Netherlands.

Place	Player	Country	Prize Money
1	Dominik Bencan	Croatia	€4,870
2	Marck Moret	Netherlands	€3,490
3	Andrew Fleming	United Kingdom	€2,270
4	Michael Geoertz	Germany	€1,710
5	Hideki Takafuji	Japan	€1,330
6	Marc Mehring	France	€1,030
7	Ian Holwill	United Kingdom	€820
8	Raymond MacHugh	United Kingdom	€640
9	Ben Haynes-Tate	United Kingdom	€480

€130 Dark Knight NLH

Winner: Jakub Skurzynski (Poland), €5,080

The festival’s cheapest opening event was also its busiest, with 246 entries and a €25,436 prize pool. Poland’s Jakub Skurzynski beat Kenneth Heindal of Norway heads-up. His €5,080 prize was 39 times his buy-in.

Place	Player	Country	Prize Money
1	Jakub Skurzynski	Poland	€5,080
2	Kenneth Heindal	Norway	€3,400
3	Einar Hersdal	Norway	€2,480
4	Michael Cauchi	Malta	€2,000
5	Gil Preter	Israel	€1,560
6	Reinis Jatnieks	Latvia	€1,180
7	Jan Verner	Czech Republic	€860
8	Matthew Thomas	United Kingdom	€640
9	Tony Harte	Ireland	€520
10	Athanasios Kostouros	Greece	€440
11	Gal Bonfil	Israel	€440
12	Wai Tang	United Kingdom	€400
13	Dermot Fennell	United Kingdom	€400
14	Mohamed Redouane	Morocco	€360
15	Jan Gompers	Germany	€360
16	Niklas Libergren	Denmark	€320
17	Michael Williams	United Kingdom	€320
18	Peter Kelly	United Kingdom	€280
19	Martin Roubal	Czech Republic	€280
20	Dennis Haarberg	Norway	€280
21	Marius-Marcel Popescu	Romania	€240
22	Benn Heys	United Kingdom	€240
23	Tomas Dusanek	Czech Republic	€240
24	Lee Cannizzaro	United Kingdom	€220
25	Lin Chen	China	€220
26	Vincenzo Meola	Italy	€220
27	Raimo Einberg	Estonia	€220
28	Michael Clayton	United Kingdom	€200
29	Hasan Mahmoud	Sweden	€200
30	Holger Friedrich	Germany	€200
31	Kevin Kelly	Ireland	€200
32	Joergen Moeller	Denmark	€180
33	Michel Chit	Lebanon	€180
34	Mario Moran	Spain	€180
35	Patrick Storan	Ireland	€180
36	Oliver Woodward	United Kingdom	€180
37	Ales Valenta	Czech Republic	€180
38	Josh Binaiev	Israel	€180
39	Alberto La Licata	Italy	€90
40	Luca Rotiroti	Italy	€90

What’s Next at the Battle of Malta

Date	Event	Buy-in
Oct 29	Main Event Day 1C / Day 1D	€600 / €300
Oct 30	Main Event Day 1E / Day 1F	€600 / €300
Oct 31	Main Event Day 1G / Day 1H	€600 / €300
Nov 1	Main Event Day 1I (last flight) + Day 2	€600
Nov 2	Main Event Day 3	—
Nov 2–3	Mega High Roller	€5,200
Nov 3	Main Event Day 4	—
Nov 4	Main Event Final Table	—

The Main Event switches to a short clock once 24 players remain on Day 4, and the final table plays with a shot clock. For context, the Summer Edition Main Event in June drew 2,667 entries and a €1,186,962 prize pool. The bigger guarantee this fall suggests organizers expect an even larger turnout.

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