The Festival Malta Main Event Draws

Record-Breaking Main Event in Malta

The Festival Malta returned to Portomaso Casino and produced the largest Main Event in the history of the series' Malta stops. The €550 buy-in tournament closed with 804 entries across four starting flights, surpassing the previous record of 666 entries.

The final prize pool reached €381,900. Four players finished the starting flights above the million-chip mark, and the top ten chip counts before Day 2 reflected a field drawn from across Europe.

Top 10 Chip Counts Before Day 2

• Mehdi Yazdanpanah (Sweden) — 1,340,000, Flight 1D
• Andreas Mai (Denmark) — 1,250,000, Flight 1B
• Pel Nieuwenhuis (Netherlands) — 1,130,000, Flight 1D
• Serhii Ivanenko (Ukraine) — 1,090,000, Flight 1A
• Alessandro Siena (Italy) — 870,000, Flight 1B
• Argo Garamaga (Estonia) — 865,000, Flight 1B
• Andri Gunnarsson (Iceland) — 808,000, Flight 1D
• Dion Mauritz (Netherlands) — 799,000, Flight 1C
• Lars Svanbom (Sweden) — 761,000, Flight 1B
• Tamas Toth (Hungary) — 730,000, Flight 1C

Chip counts at this stage are a snapshot rather than a prediction. A stack of roughly 1.3 million chips is a strong position, but with the average stack still to be determined by the surviving field, the leaders remain within reach of the rest of the pack. In multi-flight events, players who bagged on later flights often carry an edge in table draw and rest, though the difference is usually marginal.

The record Main Event followed The Hendon Mob Championship, where Dmitri Dudakov defended his title from the previous year and became the first player in the series' history to win that event twice.

Belgian Triumph in the High Roller

The €1,100 High Roller was won by Belgian player Kristof De Deken. The tournament attracted 60 entries and generated a prize pool of €57,000, nearly double the original €30,000 guarantee.

De Deken collected €15,900 for first place, finishing ahead of Finland's Osku Karttunen and Switzerland's Claudio Muller. A prize pool that nearly doubles its guarantee is a common outcome in high-roller fields, where a modest number of entrants can still push the total well past the advertised figure.

Historic Win in Open Face Chinese

Swedish player Ulrika Tengstrom became the first woman to win an Open Face Chinese title in the series' history. She defeated Belgium's Wouter Schuurbiers in heads-up play to secure €3,720.

Open Face Chinese Payouts

• Ulrika Tengstrom (Sweden) — €3,720
• Wouter Schuurbiers (Belgium) — €2,650
• Mati Pirn (Estonia) — €1,920
• Jonas Jurksaitis (Lithuania) — €1,280
• Loewie Servranckx (Belgium) — €890
• Christophe Stammet (Luxembourg) — €742
• Eva Jiretorn (Sweden) — €742
• Michael Schweitzer (Austria) — €595

Open Face Chinese is a variant in which players arrange their cards into a three-card front, a five-card middle, and a five-card back hand, with scoring based on hand strength and bonuses. It rewards different skills from no-limit hold'em, particularly hand construction and risk assessment before all cards are known. A first title for a female player in this discipline is a notable milestone for a format that has grown steadily at European festival stops.

What the Numbers Say

The Malta stop's results point to a healthy festival ecosystem. A €550 Main Event clearing 800 entries suggests strong regional demand for mid-stakes tournament poker, while a €1,100 High Roller drawing 60 entries and beating its guarantee shows that higher buy-in events can still attract a dedicated field.

For players planning future festival schedules, the pattern is familiar: mid-stakes Main Events tend to offer the largest fields and the most accessible paths to a deep run, while high rollers concentrate tougher opposition into a smaller player pool. Choosing between them usually comes down to bankroll, schedule, and the format a player knows best.

The Festival Malta's return to Portomaso Casino was confirmed as the right move by the turnout, and the series now holds a new benchmark for its Malta Main Event.