€1,500,000 Guaranteed Battle of Malta Main Event On the Horizon

The 2026 Autumn Edition of the iconic Battle of Malta festival kicked off with gusto at Casino Malta on October 27, with Day 1a of the €450 Siege of Malta Mystery Bounty starting proceedings, while the first starting flights of the €600 Main Event, sporting a huge €1,500,000 guarantee, get underway at 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. on October 28, with players aiming to follow in the footsteps of defending champion Candido Cappiello of Italy.

€450 Siege of Malta Mystery Bounty

Lukman Islam of Bangladesh led 15 qualifiers from 108 entrants in Day 1a of the €150,000 guaranteed Siege of Malta Mystery Bounty, closely followed by Omri Mechetner of Israel (419,000) and Gang Wang of China (403,000), with the full counts set out below.

Siege of Malta Mystery Bounty End of Day 1a Counts

Position	Player	Country	Chip Count
1	Lukman Islam	Bangladesh	472,000
2	Omri Mechetner	Israel	419,000
3	Gang Wang	China	403,000
4	Daniele Degennaro	Italy	362,000
5	Bogdan Martynczuk	Poland	292,000
6	Aleksandr Olickij	Lithuania	206,000
7	Mike Sprenger	Germany	179,000
8	Roger Noel	Canada	158,000
9	James Malatynski	United Kingdom	149,000
10	Doron Lahav	Israel	137,000
11	Dean Hemmings	United Kingdom	120,000
12	Davor Bozilovic	Bosnia & Herzegovina	119,000
13	Artur Gjoka	Albania	76,000
14	Dennis Haarberg	Norway	74,000
15	Mitchell Jones	United Kingdom	74,000

Days 1b and 1c are scheduled for 3 p.m. on October 28 and October 29 respectively, while the final opportunity for qualification is Day 1d at 11.30 a.m. on October 30, with Day 2 scheduled for 7 p.m. on the same date.

Bounties are in play from the start of Day 2, and all starting flights feature a 20-minute clock, while 30-minute levels are in play on Day 2.

€600 Battle of Malta Main Event

The first flights of the €1,500,000 guaranteed Main Event kick off with Day 1a and Day 1b at 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. respectively on October 28.

Players sit down to a 40,000 starting stack, and Day 1a features 40-minute levels and a €600 buy-in, while Day 1b sports 20-minute levels and a €300 buy-in.

A total of 15% of the field will qualify for Day 2 from Day 1a, while 7.5% of the field is scheduled to progress from Day 1b. The top three counts from Day 1a, and the chip leader in Day 1b, will receive a package for the Battle of Malta in May 2027, valued at €1,500.

Candido Cappiello is the defending champion, after he overcame a massive 6,039-entry field to bank a €225,770 payday in 2025, claiming the lion’s share of the €2,728,970 prize pool, with the final table results detailed below.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Candido Cappiello	Italy	€225,770
2	Luigi Shehadeh	Italy	€181,750
3	Giuseppe Cianci	Switzerland	€110,150
4	Leonardo Romeo	Italy	€83,800
5	Cristian-Marius Campan	Romania	€63,700
6	Davis Modans	Latvia	€48,450
7	Marco D’Amico	Italy	€36,850
8	Rafal Lubczynski	Poland	€28,000

Battle of Malta Schedule – Wednesday, October 28

A packed schedule of events awaits, with a €330 Tag Team Event and a €330 PLO event on offer at 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. respectively, as well as two starting flights of the Main Event, and Day 1b of the Siege of Malta Mystery Bounty.

The Battle of Malta live blog coverage will kick off at 1 p.m on October 28 with coverage of Day 1a of the Main Event, while poker.pro will have daily recaps of the highlights and results from the festival.