Sergii Baranov Leads 98 Qualifiers from Day 1a of the Battle of Malta Slovakia Edition Main Event

The Battle of Malta’s first-ever international partnership kicked off in style on September 8, as the Battle of Malta Slovakia Edition got underway at Card Casino Samorin with Day 1a of the €400,000 Main Event.

The turnout was enormous, with a total of 784 entries taking advantage of the opportunity to attempt to qualify for Day 2 for the half-price cost of €200, resulting in €141,120 of the prize pool being collected already, with eight more starting flights still to come.

When the dust settled, Sergii Baranov of Ukraine (1,036,000) rose to the top of the standings, being the only player to bag up a seven-figure stack, while Peter Kadlec of Slovakia (900,000) and Edmond Ala of Austria (818,000) were his closest challengers.

Stavros Passias of Greece (575,000) took the top cash prize of €114,150 after a four-way deal in the 2026 Battle of Malta Summer Edition, although the trophy eluded him, and he is in a good position for another deep run after finding a top-ten stack.

• Read more: The Wait is Over, the Battle of Malta Slovakia Edition is Here
• Read more: Battle of Malta Makes Its Slovakia Debut at Card Casino Šamorín
• Read more: Alejandro Asenjo Captures the 2026 Battle of Malta Main Event Summer Edition Title

Other notable names to qualify include Martin Lechner of Austria (639,000), Vitalii Shcherba of Ukraine (433,000), and Amir Juwan of Austria (134,000).

End of Day 1a Chip Counts – Battle of Malta Slovakia Edition Main Event

The full list of qualifiers is set out below:

Position	Player	Country	Chip Count
1	Sergii Baranov	Ukraine	1,036,000
2	Peter Kadlec	Slovakia	900,000
3	Edmond Ala	Austria	818,000
4	Gabriel Otescu	Romania	794,000
5	Silviu Nemes	Romania	667,000
6	Rostyslav Sabishchenko	Ukraine	650,000
7	Martin Lechner	Austria	639,000
8	Lubos Svoboda	Czech Republic	605,000
9	Stavros Passias	Greece	575,000
10	Jonny Tapia	Austria	573,000
11	Stevan Gvozdenovic	Montenegro	569,000
12	Jozef Mozsi	Slovakia	560,000
13	Sandor Rabi	Hungary	548,000
14	Martin Sedilek	Slovakia	545,000
15	Norbert Tontya	Romania	533,000
16	Csaba Kiss	Hungary	526,000
17	Dragos Iosub	Romania	500,000
18	Igor Remenar	Slovakia	499,000
19	Jakub Bubeliny	Czech Republic	488,000
20	Florian Fousek	Austria	471,000
21	Pedram Mafi	Austria	468,000
22	Jaroslaw Chmiel	Poland	462,000
23	Lubomir Cicko	Slovakia	458,000
24	Mark Kristoffy	Hungary	435,000
25	Vitalii Shcherba	Ukraine	433,000
26	Gergo Fekete	Hungary	430,000
27	Martin Koppl	Slovakia	409,000
28	Radoslav Herman	Slovakia	402,000
29	Jozef Stern	Austria	402,000
30	Nikola Janic	Serbia	400,000
31	Maros Kral	Slovakia	386,000
32	Ferenc Limpar	Hungary	383,000
33	David Mikulenka	Czech Republic	381,000
34	Maksym Ronshyn	Ukraine	381,000
35	Alex Rosa	Slovakia	372,000
36	Istvan Buderer	Hungary	366,000
37	Martin Rus	Slovakia	358,000
38	Roman Okolicany	Slovakia	357,000
39	Antonin Homola	Czech Republic	348,000
40	Jasmine Schuster	Austria	326,000
41	Lubor Priesol	Slovakia	317,000
42	Thomas Dorner	Austria	315,000
43	Sandor Korodi	Hungary	314,000
44	Zsolt Zanati	Hungary	311,000
45	Shay Haver	Israel	310,000
46	Alexander Geischlaeger	Austria	309,000
47	Balazs Zsidi	Hungary	308,000
48	Zsolt Csipkes	Hungary	291,000
49	Peter Gubala	Slovakia	289,000
50	Mladen Crvenko	Croatia	282,000
51	Richard Kapun	Austria	277,000
52	Otto Hiebel	Austria	274,000
53	Jozef Bartalos	Slovakia	265,000
54	Dang Nguyen	Vietnam	261,000
55	Tamas Losonczi	Hungary	246,000
56	Tomas Rous	Czech Republic	239,000
57	Vladimir Cocis	Romania	238,000
58	Lucas Knar	Austria	234,000
59	Manfred Gonda	Austria	227,000
60	Josef Antos	Czech Republic	223,000
61	Marian Flesar	Slovakia	220,000
62	Marcus Skalicky	Austria	208,000
63	Lukas Kouril	Czech Republic	205,000
64	Filip Marchand	France	204,000
65	Norbert Bugar	Slovakia	197,000
66	Philipp Nikolic	Austria	197,000
67	Guoqing Zhang	Austria	196,000
68	Michal Zimani	Slovakia	196,000
69	Andras Ezsoel	Hungary	191,000
70	Zsolt Szabo	Slovakia	187,000
71	Jan Svagerko	Slovakia	183,000
72	Martin Zlatny	Slovakia	180,000
73	Raphael Greiml	Austria	175,000
74	Thomas Bonness	Austria	174,000
75	Franz Ziegerhofer	Austria	171,000
76	Maximus	Austria	157,000
77	Adam Nedbal	Slovakia	150,000
78	Ovidiu Popa	Romania	145,000
79	Andor Weidlich	Hungary	140,000
80	Marian Nemec	Slovakia	138,000
81	Amir Juwan	Austria	134,000
82	Szilvia Popper	Hungary	128,000
83	Mark Pinter	Hungary	127,000
84	Michelle Gross	Austria	121,000
85	Yiping Chen	China	120,000
86	Daniel Nagy	Hungary	119,000
87	Andrii Skryp	Ukraine	118,000
88	Luka Skare	Croatia	111,000
89	Wolfgang Foglar	Austria	110,000
90	Hakan Saglam	Turkey	110,000
91	David Kristek	Czech Republic	93,000
92	Robert Otruba	Slovakia	90,000
93	Weiqiang Hu	Austria	83,000
94	Andras Resch	Hungary	82,000
95	Levente Kis	Hungary	80,000
96	Marius Rusu	Romania	80,000
97	Milan Ruzicka	Czech Republic	72,000
98	Vincent Botlo	Slovakia	18,000

All of the above players are in the money, and will receive an early payout of €500.

Battle of Malta Slovakia Edition – Schedule, Wednesday, September 9

There are two primary events on the schedule on September 9, set out below, with Day 1a of the €220 buy-in, €40,000 Mystery Bounty kicking off at 5 p.m. local time, while Day 1b of the €400 Main Event gets underway at 6 p.m.

Read more: Why You Should Not Miss the First Battle of Malta in Slovakia

Day 1b of the Main Event features a chip-leader cash bonus for the top-three finishers. The player who tops the standings will receive €3,000, while second and third will receive €1,500 and €1,000 respectively. In addition, the podium places will receive a €600 ticket to the Battle of Malta in October.

Players sit down to a 40,000 starting stack at blind level 100/200/200, with the clock set to 30-minute levels. Late registration remains open until the start of Level 11, with 12.5% of the field set to qualify from each flight.

In the Mystery Bounty, players sit down to a 30,000 starting stack at blind level 100/100/100, with the clock set to 30-minute levels. Late registration remains open until the start of Level 13, with 12.5% of the field set to qualify. Play will continue until the field is reduced to 12,5%, and all Day 2 qualifiers will be in the money, with bounties in play from the start of Day 2.

The second Mystery Bounty starting flight takes place on September 10 at 5 p.m. local time, while Day 2 is scheduled for 3 p.m. on September 11.

Full coverage of Day 1b of the Main Event will be available from 6 p.m. on the Battle of Malta live blog, with general updates provided in respect of Day 1a of the Mystery Bounty, while poker.pro will have a full recap of today’s action in due course, so stay tuned for your coverage of all of the big moments from the Battle of Malta Slovakia Edition!