The 2025 Battle of Malta Spring Edition has been won by Adrian Ziemchod from Poland, scooping the €120,000 first prize. The 30-year old Krakow resident has graced many final tables in the two years since he started playing live mtts. He has been a cash game player for many years, but in 2023 he began to take an interest in tournament strategy.

Ziemichod’s victory in the 1,542 player event is the biggest of his career to date. He’s now cashed for over $300,000 and doesn’t intend to stop winning any time soon. He played steadily in the early stages of the final table, with selective aggression, when required. At no point did he look uncomfortable and from a viewer’s perspective, he did indeed look like he would be the eventual winner from a long way out.

By the time Ziemichod had busted Giovanni Caggia in third place, he had a 9-1 chip lead over Rob Perelman when the heads up battle began. It was always going to be a tough task for Perelman to come back, especially against such a finely tuned opponent as Adrian, who barely put a foot wrong during the last two days of the championship.

The Final Hand

The heads up encounter was short, lasting less than twenty hands. After an exchange of cagily played hands, they got it all in for Rob’s last 3.4m chips. Adrian put his American opponent all-in holding Q♣9♥ and Perelman made the call, flipping over J♦9♦.

The flop of J♠4♣Q♠ hit both players, but left Perelman drawing pretty thin, with just two outs left in the deck.

The A♣ on the turn didn’t help give Rob any more outs and by the time the 3♠ fell on the river, Ziemichod had already made his way to the other side of the table to shake hands with vanquished opponent, who left with a very consoling €70,000 to take back to Texas.

After Ziemichod had been awarded the trophy, his serious demeanour cracked, to be replaced with joy, cracking a few smiles and affording himself a moment of indulgence by lifting the trophy aloft in celebration.

In the post event interview with Glenn Brown Ziemichod said that getting a lot of good cards helped, but having such a good chip lead he had to play aggressively against his smaller stacked opponents, When asked whether he will be back in the autumn to defend his title he gave a wry smile and simply said:

“yes of course, back to back!”

How The Final Table Panned Out

Ziemichod had gone into the final with almost a third of the chips in play and although it took almost two hours of play before the first exit of the day, the champion-to-be was already quietly increasing his stack.

The most active player in the early exchanges of the final table was Rasmus Lundström. The 25-year old Finn had a rollercoaster tournament throughout and his final table experience was much the same. He accounted for the first two exits, busting Luca Tonarelli with kings versus queens. Not long after he sent another Italian, Oscar Arezzo, to the rail. However Lundström’s rollercoaster wasn’t ready to slow down and he didn’t hold his new found chips for long, losing a chunk to a resurgent Giovanni Caggia.

Attila Szucs had been the short stack going into the day and did double up early, however he exited in 6th, at the hands of Flaviano Cammisuli. The €22,500 prize, which is by far the biggest cash of his life will be some consolation.

Cammisuli himself was the next player to see his tournament life cut short. The unofficial best dressed man in the tournament became Lundström’s third victim of the final when his K♠J♠ failed to improve against the Sicilian’s pocket queens.

It was then the Finn’s turn to be on the rough side of an all-in when his pocket sevens were bested by Caggia’s Aces. This left Lundström with under 2m in chips and Caggia completed the execution a few hands later, sending Rasmus back to Finland with €35,000 for his considerable efforts.

But the last standing Italian would be the next to hit the rail when his dominated 9♦8♦ remained dominated against Ziemichod’s J♣9♠. Caggia’s third place finish earned him a cool €50,000.

The Result

 

Festival Overview

It’s been another great week of poker at Casino Malta and the Intercontinental Hotel. Although the event did not set any attendance records, it was a busy week overall with 617 entries in the Mystery Siege of Malta and 261 in the Amazingbet High Roller.

The event’s everlasting theme is fun and if the event had a catchphrase, it might emulate the iconic words of the legendary Spinal Tap drummer, namely “Have a good time, all the time.” A good time was indeed had by all, not just on the poker tables, but at the players party as well.

Another new feature that was rolled out at this edition was a daily talk show, hosted by Glenn Brown and Jason Glatzer, with different guests each day. It was named the Battle Booth and is fully expected to make a return at the Autumn Edition, which takes place from 28th October – 5th November later this year.

To view all episodes of the Battle Booth, visit the Battle of Malta’s YouTube channel.

The results of all events at Battle of Malta Spring Edition can be found in the results section of the blog, where there are also galleries to view.

Social Media Coverage

Social media coverage of the Battle of Malta Spring Edition reached new levels in 2025, with a stream of informative and entertaining content flowing throughout the event. Glenn Brown fronts the coverage with his energetic brand of infectious enthusiasm, which can be found on the Battle of Malta’s Instagram and Facebook pages.

Online Battle of Malta Announced

It was also revealed during the week that the Battle of Malta will be going online in 2025, with an online series and online day 1s for the Autumn Edition taking place at online poker site ACR. More details about this are expected to follow in the coming weeks.