Cappiello Tops Italian-Heavy FT at Battle of Malta

The record-setting Battle of Malta Main Event is now complete after nine opening-day flights and 3 follow-up days to finish the game out. Italian grinder Candido Cappiello, who was pegged as the eventual winner on Day 3 by former champion Gabriele Re, outlasted the record field of more than 6,000 entries to take down the top prize.

After a particularly crazy Day 3 hand witnessed by Re, he approached poker.pro reporter Christoffer Karlen with a bold prediction. “When you write the article, make sure to mention that guy will win,” referring to Cappiello. ”He’s by far the best player in the field.” Karlan concluded the hand report with the line “Time will tell if Re’s prediction is right or wrong” — Time proved Re was right on the money.

Cappiello was one of five Italians at the final table, with fellow Italian Luigi Shehadeh facing down Cappiello for the title at the end of the game. The final 8 players battled for around 8 hours on the final day of play before Cappiello was celebrating with his rail, holding the trophy aloft, draped in the Italian colours.

New Records in Malta

The Fall 2025 Battle of Malta Main Event was a huge success this year, ending up with the biggest field in the history of the event. That came on the back of a massive Day 1G flight that saw nearly 2,000 entries, a record for a single-day field on the island of Malta, as well as two other late flights that came close to 1,000 each.

That meant the final prizes were better than €2.7 million, with first place originally scheduled to pocket more than €250k. That changed a bit when the final two players made a heads-up deal, but Cappiello still pocketed more than €225k for the win, with Shehadeh earning €181,750 for second in the deal.

Place	Player	Prize
1	Candido Gabriele Cappiello	€225,770*
2	Luigi Andrea Shehadeh	€181,750*
3	Giuseppe Ciancio	€110,150
4	Leonardo Romeo	€83,800
5	Cristian-Marius Campan	€63,700
6	Davis Modans	€48,450
7	Marco D’amico	€36,850
8	Rafal Piotr Lubczynski	€28,000

The Final Day Action

Cappiello came into the final day of play with the second-biggest stack, trailing Latvian Davis Modans by less than 1 big blind. They were both more than 30 bigs ahead of the 3rd stack belonging to Italian Marco D’amico. Rafal Lubczynski, from Poland, was right behind D’amico, with both players on about 60 big blinds, or ~30 million chips.

It took about 4 hours from the start of play to get rid of the first player. Lubczynski was the first to fall when he couldn’t win a race against Giuseppe Ciancio. About an hour later, they were down to 5 after Marco D’amico and Davis Modans followed Lubczynski for payouts.

It took almost 2 more hours before the game got down to four left. Giuseppe Ciancio survived as the short stack five ways, before the exits of Marius Campan and Leonardo Romeo gave him the double-ladder to a 3rd place finish. That left Cappiello and Shehadeh heads up, and the two experienced players decided to smooth out the variance a bit with a deal, and the game ended quickly after that.

If you want to relive all the final table action, the full stream is available on the Battle of Malta YouTube channel, with commentary from poker.pro’s own Jason Glatzer.

That concludes the 2025 Fall Battle of Malta, but the Spring 2026 session looms large on the horizon. Will Spring 2026 set a new record once again? Start planning your trip to Malta for late May, with the series scheduled for May 27 – June 3, 2026.

Photos and hands courtesy of battleofmalta.com.