Tereza Vernerova Takes Commanding Lead into Battle of Malta Main Event Final Day as Seven Side Event Trophies Awarded

The penultimate day of the 2026 Battle of Malta Edition saw no fewer than seven side event trophies being awarded at Casino Malta, but the real story was Tereza Vernerova streaking ahead of the Main Event field to take a substantial lead into the final day.

The Czech player holds a more than 2:1 lead over her closest challenger, Ofer Tadmor of Israel, and returns in pole position to secure the huge €227,835 first-place prize, representing the lions’s share of the massive €2,413,281 prize pool.

In a frantic day of poker action, Matteo Ricco, Carmelo Osman, Michael Breen, Dillan Patel, Daniel Palsson and Jorge Agudo all tasted victory in side events, with the full details below.

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Tereza Vernerova In Pole Position for Main Event Final Day

A total of 24 players returned for Day 4, with Anton Makejev of Estonia at the top of the counts, while Vernerova was sitting in fourth. Vernerova started her charge early, when she found a set of nines against the rockets of fellow big stack Ryan Sweeney, vaulting her into a significant lead.

Makejev crashed out in 19th, before Vernerova eliminated Vasileios Tsaknis in twelfth in a kings versus queens cooler, and Alessandro De Michele in tenth, again holding pocket kings. Vernerova has already secured her biggest ever live tournament result by making the final table, according to TheHendonMob, and is well positioned to make history by becoming the first female player to win the Battle of Malta Main Event.

Trailing her in second place, Tadmor bagged 31,250,000 after an impressive performance that saw him steadily grow his stack throughout the day, including with a triple barrel bluff that he proudly showed. Tadmor has also already locked up his biggest live tournament score.

There is not much between the players in the middle of the pack. Rosario Saddemi of Italy rounds out the top three with 21,470,000 after winning the last pot of the night, his pocket aces holding versus pocket kings and pocket queens in a brutal three-way all-in cooler.

Lulei Hu sits at the bottom of the counts, returning with 19 big blinds, but is by far the most experienced player. He is fresh from a string of results in 2026, and will be a dangerman with over $1.7 million in tournament winnings to his name.

The full chip counts at the start of play and the final table seating draw are below:

Table	Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	Blinds
FT	1	Tereza Vernerova	Czech Republic	68,750,000	171
FT	2	Ivane Khazaradze	Georgia	20,250,000	50
FT	3	James Malatynski	United Kingdom	16,500,000	41
FT	4	Rosario Saddemi	Italy	21,475,000	53
FT	5	Lulei Hu	China	7,725,000	19
FT	6	Ofer Tadmor	Israel	31,250,000	78
FT	7	Marco Lopez Coronado	Spain	15,025,000	37
FT	8	Marios Kapiris	Greece	12,750,000	31

The remaining eight players have each locked up a guaranteed €21,150, with all eyes on the top spots, with the remaining payouts below:

Place	Prize
1	€227,835
2	€141,250
3	€92,550
4	€62,150
5	€43,400
6	€32,000
7	€25,150
8	€21,150

Play gets back underway at 2 p.m., and the action will be live streamed on Casino Malta’s YouTube channel on a 30-minute delay. Our covergae will be similarly delayed to sync with the stream.

Matteo Ricco Wins StarYes €1,100 High Roller (€105,120)

The €1,100 StarYes High Roller attracted a huge field of 583 entries to create a €548,020 prize pool, well in excess of the €300,000 guarantee.

Matteo Ricco of Italy came into a stacked final table with the chip lead, and converted it into the trophy and a €105,120 payday after he overcame fellow countryman Giovanni Nava heads-up, with 31 places paid as follows:

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Matteo Ricco	Italy	€105,120
2	Giovanni Nava	Italy	€65,300
3	Alexandru Popa	Romania	€46,750
4	Riccardo Saraniero	Italy	€36,150
5	Filippos Kasidokostas	Greece	€28,500
6	Matteo Montanari	Italy	€22,300
7	Maksim Petrov	Estonia	€16,500
8	Taago Tamm	Estonia	€11,350
9	Antonio Giunta	Italy	€8,950
10	Damien Gallagher	Ireland	€7,350
11	Mathias Bayer	Germany	€7,350
12	Luca Piso	Italy	€6,150
13	Martin Bartos	Slovakia	€6,150
14	Stavros Passias	Greece	€5,350
15	Diego De Martino	Italy	€5,350
16	Marius Popescu	Romania	€4,800
17	Rami Bazak	Israel	€4,800
18	Edgar Trdatian	Israel	€4,250
19	Roberto Di Giuseppe	Italy	€4,250
20	Gianmarco Grande	Italy	€4,250
21	Silvio Costa	Portugal	€3,750
22	Kent Roeed	Norway	€3,750
23	Imran Bhojani	India	€3,750
24	Gunnar Lie	Norway	€3,250
25	Rami Suleiman	Canada	€3,250
26	Charalampos Zogas	Greece	€3,250
27	Tamer Halabi	Israel	€3,250
28	Niki Pavlov	Bulgaria	€2,800
29	Luis Barajas	United States	€2,800
30	Vincent Smith	Ireland	€2,800
31	Iounut Decher	Romania	€2,800

Michael Breen Wins €2,200 No Filter High Roller (*€40,000)

The €2,200 No Filter High Roller attracted some big names, with Mounir Tajiou, Joris Rujis, Candido Cappiello and Scotty Nugyen all in the field.

A total of 87 entries were recorded to create a €163,560 prize pool, which was split between the top 13 players, which included poker.pro’s Christer Larsson and Terje Bremseth.

Northern Irishman Michael Breen emerged victorious, after the PartyPoker Tour Manchester champion secured a career-best score of €40,000 after he defeated Claudio Muller of Switzerland heads-up, with the full results below:

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Michael Breen	United Kingdom	€40,000
2	Claudio Mueller	Switzerland	€33,700
3	Goeran Fors	Sweden	€19,950
4	Daniel Lakerveld	Netherlands	€15,600
5	Ziga Klopcic	Slovenia	€12,600
6	Domenico Di Vito	Italy	€9,800
7	Sondre Stormyr	Norway	€7,750
8	Kfir Ivgi	Israel	€6,060
9	Maxime Chilaud	France	€4,600
10	Giuseppe Dedoni	Italy	€3,500
11	Bengt Larsson	Sweden	€3,500
12	Terje Bremseth	Norway	€3,250
13	Jonas Lapinskas	Lithuania	€3,250

Carmelo Osman Wins €400 IPC Turbo Deepstack (*€25,800)

A total of 476 entries created a €161,078 prize pool in the €400 IPC Turbo Deepstack, and the spoils went to Carmelo Osman of Italy, who took €25,800 in a three-way deal, with the full results below.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Carmelo Osman	Italy	€25,800
2	Georgios Katsakos	Greece	€17,600
3	Konstantinos Basinas	Greece	€17,500
4	Stylianos Karadaglis	Greece	€14,900
5	Oren Fux	Israel	€8,680
6	Jakub Szczotka	Poland	€6,780
7	Sebastian Szychulski	Poland	€5,110
8	Eduard Burd	Israel	€3,560
9	Maor Glam	Israel	€2,820
10	Dolev Hirsch	Israel	€2,340
11	Johan De Clercq	Belgium	€2,340
12	Igor Hernaez	Spain	€2,000
13	Yaniv Vaknin	Israel	€2,000

(*Denotes three-way deal)

Daniel Palsson Wins €330 PokerNews Open (*€15,740)

A total of 351 entries in the €330 PokerNews Open open created a €98,982 prize pool, and Daniel Palsson of Iceland and Yonni Fleishman of Israel agreed an equal chop heads-up, with Palsson being awarded the trophy.

A total of 55 places were paid as follows:

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Daniel Palsson	Iceland	*€15,740
2	Yonni Fleishman	Israel	*€15,740
3	Aschraf Khader	Germany	€8,800
4	Zsuffa Miklos	Hungary	€7,120
5	Georgios Sourlas	Greece	€5,640
6	Siegfried Bauer-Pfeiffer	Germany	€4,340
7	Yonatan Silash	Hungary	€3,220
8	Philip Pearson	United Kingdom	€2,345
9	Bauer Klaus	Germany	€1,900
10	Shaun Percival	United Kingdom	€1,560
11	Chiril Liuticov	Moldova	€1,560
12	Alessandro Pinelli	Italy	€1,360
13	Claudio Piovera	Italy	€1,360
14	Volker Bauer	Germany	€1,200
15	Ioannis Klapanaris	Luxembourg	€1,200
16	Israel Cohen	Israel	€1,080
17	Roland Maliszewski	Poland	€1,080
18	Valentina Galeandro	Italy	€980
19	Victor Rutter	Malta	€980
20	Liam Hind	United Kingdom	€980
21	Imran Bhojani	India	€880
22	Soner Vanelderen	Belgium	€880
23	Andrea Melluzzo	Italy	€880
24	Vincenzo De Donato	Italy	€780
25	Oleg Drews	Germany	€780
26	Ioannis Nanos	Greece	€780
27	Ricardo Henriquez	Chile	€780
28	Richard Koppel	Estonia	€680
29	Yigal Shafian	Israel	€680
30	Gonzalo Sanz	Spain	€680
31	Yaniv Amsalem	Israel	€680
32	Jiahao Zhang	China	€580
33	Marco Lopez Coronado	Spain	€580
34	Andreas Panayides	Cyprus	€580
35	Patrick Wulf	Germany	€580
36	Theodoros Ampelikiotis	Greece	€580
37	Andrew Quinn	United Kingdom	€580
38	Daniele Intilisano	Italy	€580
39	Dominik Bencan	Croatia	€580
40	Philip Butt	United Kingdom	€480
41	Francesco Policastro	Italy	€480
42	Alexan Schambil	Germany	€480
43	Yuri Gama	Brazil	€480
44	Cristian Stef	Romania	€480
45	Dimitrios Anastasakis	Greece	€480
46	James Gibbons	United Kingdom	€480
47	Erik Risberg	Sweden	€480
48	Tetiana Bondarchuk	Ukraine	€480
49	Karl-Heinz Metz	Germany	€480
50	Vincent Smith	Ireland	€480
51	Umberto Sorrentino	Italy	€480
52	Stavros Petychakis	Greece	€480
53	Martin Klaar	Estonia	€480
54	Behrang Mohammadigeravand	Australia	€480
55	Sebastian Trela	Poland	€480

(*Denotes heads-up deal)

Jorge Agudo Wins €450 Novibet Bounty Cuatro (€4,700)

The €450 Novibet Bounty Cuatro attracted 202 entries, creating a €71,104 prize pool, and Jorge Agudo took the trophy and a €4,700 payday, while Genzo Vlaemynck took the most money (€6,010).

The full results, inclusive of bounties, are detailed below.

Position	Player	Country	Prize
1	Jorge Agudo	Spain	€4,700
2	Genzo Vlaemynck	Belgium	€6,010
3	Lin Chen	China	€3,650
4	Harprit Gurnam	United Kingdom	€4,700
5	Andreas Tzoumas	Greece	€2,290
6	Juozas Kirjanovas	Lithuania	€1,940
7	Erik Van Hulst	Netherlands	€1,520
8	Vidmantas Beliauskas	Lithuania	€1,080
9	Athanasios Skapetis	Greece	€805
10	Dimitrios Apostolidis	Greece	€680
11	Jan Gompers	Germany	€680
12	Konstantinos Mentisi	Greece	€610
13	Erik Polluveer	Estonia	€610
14	Ben Bonfil	Israel	€550
15	Dimitrios Siantikos	Greece	€550
16	Ronit Halfon	Israel	€510
17	Ronit Hefetz	Israel	€510
18	Simon Goldthorpe	Israel	€440
19	Tomasz Tanski	Poland	€440
20	Johan Purbe	Sweden	€440
21	Paul Romain	United Kingdom	€400
22	Ioannis Ioannou	Cyprus	€400
23	Christer Fredriksen	Norway	€400
24	Lior Leibovici	Romania	€380
25	Anthon Burvall	Sweden	€380
26	Alfio Puglia	Italy	€380
27	Miroslav Kolev	Bulgaria	€380
28	Konstantinos Souliotis	Greece	€330
29	Yvonne Spencer	United Kingdom	€330
30	Bartosz Jablonski	Poland	€330
31	Georgios-Angelos Tavoularis	Greece	€330

Dillan Patel Wins €330 HORSE (€4,530)

A total of 51 entries created a €14,382 prize pool, and Dillan Patel of the United Kingdom took the trophy and a €4,530 payday after he defeated Richard Burke heads-up, with the full results below.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Dillan Patel	United Kingdom	€4,530
2	Richard Burke	United Kingdom	€3,270
3	Krystian Nalepka	Poland	€2,090
4	Vincent Schueler	Germany	€1,580
5	Davide Caramia	Italy	€1,220
6	Ilkka Heikkila	Finland	€935
7	Krzysztof Otlik	Poland	€760

Hasan Mahmoud Wins €130 Dark Knight NLH (*€5,545)

The final Dark Knight daily of the festival obtained 399 entries to create a €41,257 prize pool, and Hasan Mahmoud of Sweden, Georgios Rozakos of Greece and Giorgio Morreale agreed a three-way chop heads-up, with Mahmound being awarded the win, and the full results detailed below.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Hasan Mahmoud	Sweden	*€5,545
2	Georgios Rozakos	Greece	*€5,545
3	Giorgo Morreale	Italy	*€5,540
4	Mauruzio Cuomo	Italy	€2,870
5	Claus Spieckermann	Germany	€2,250
6	Ondrej Musil	Czech Republic	€1,760
7	Peter Collings	United Kingdom	€1,320
8	Moritz Felsing	Germany	€940
9	Dirk Schneider	Germany	€750
10	16092029	Germany	€620
11	Guy Cox	United Kingdom	€620
12	Giuseppe Vitiello	Italy	€540
13	Vasileios Tsaknis	Greece	€540
14	Noam Ezra	Israel	€470
15	Daniel Dyankov	Bulgaria	€470
16	Niklas Libergren	Netherlands	€420
17	Anastasios Mouratidis	Greece	€420
18	Georgios Garnelis	Greece	€380
19	Georgiou Rafail	Cyprus	€380
20	Paschalis Papadopoulos	Greece	€380
21	Mohammad Safaei	Germany	€340
22	Johannes Van Der Biezen	Netherlands	€340
23	Redouane Nid-Bella	France	€340
24	Michele Lomuscio	Italy	€300
25	Tomasz Tanski	Poland	€300
26	Tsvi Cohen	Israel	€300
27	Nikolaos Valtatzis	Greece	€300
28	Samuel Newsome	United Kingdom	€260
29	Itay Barak	Israel	€260
30	Yannick Smit	Netherlands	€260
31	Przemyslaw Wzorek	Poland	€260
32	Pavol Guris	Slovakia	€220
33	Luca Rotiroti	Italy	€220
34	Edgar Trdatian	Israel	€220
35	Micha Worms	Netherlands	€220
36	Raimundo Mendes	Netherlands	€220
37	Liad Shamir	Israel	€220
38	Eduard Bagrov	Armenia	€220
39	Kieran Devine	United Kingdom	€220
40	Mohamed Redouane	Norway	€190
41	Andrew Fleming	United Kingdom	€190
42	Yaron Even	Israel	€190
43	Luis Martinho	Portugal	€190
44	Abderraouf Soualhia	France	€190
45	Neena Patel	United Kingdom	€190
46	Konstantinos Mimikopoulos	Greece	€190
47	Giuseppe Trani	Italy	€190
48	Noam Confino	Israel	€190
49	Angela Collings	United Kingdom	€190
50	Martin Sevcik	Slovakia	€190
51	Johnnie-Jan Eksteen	Netherlands	€190
52	Gulati Saurabh	Australia	€190
53	Yosuke Ida	Japan	€190
54	Teodor Kyosev	Bulgaria	€190
55	Craig Charlton	United Kingdom	€190
56	Allison Bradbrook	United Kingdom	€180
57	Pawel Laskowski	Poland	€180
58	Jelco Burger	Netherlands	€180
59	Nizar Abu Daoud	Israel	€180
60	Jeremy Pasini	France	€180
61	Johan Johansson	Sweden	€180
62	Gleb Cherevati	Hungary	€180
63	Romain Bily	France	€180

(*Denotes three-way deal)

Full live coverage of the event will recommence at 2 p.m. for Day 4 of the Main Event on the Battle of Malta blog, and look out for the daily recap of results and highlights on poker.pro in due course.

• Article originally produced at poker.pro.