Wednesday was the first full day of the Battle of Malta Autumn Edition. The opening two starting days of the €1.5m guaranteed Main Event took place, alongside a busy schedule of side events at the Eden Arena and Casino Malta in St Julian’s.

Swords Drawn

At the Spring Edition, the BOM pivoted away from the walk on ceremonies that had traditionally kicked-off the proceedings at the start of each day. A rousing welcome video replaced it and this time we’re sticking with this approach. While the video was playing, four armoured up warriors symbolically defended the trophies.

Once the pomp was out of the way, the circumstance of Day 1a began, with over 70 players fully installed in their seats, fully charged and ready to embark upon a marathon first day. By the time late registration had closed at the end of level 10, 285 players had taken their seats.

Defending Champ Ziemichod into Day 2

One of the players who entered during the first level of the day was defending champion Adrian Ziemichod. The Polish player won the Spring Edition for €120,000, defeating American Rob Perlman heads-up. Ziemichod required only one bullet, starting well and by the second break of the day, had one of the ten largest stacks. He made it through the day, bagging the 17th biggest stack (249,000) of the 43 players who have progressed to Day 2.

Daniel Maunders, who finished runner-up to Vasileios Zizis in the Spring 2023 edition also played, requiring two bullets to book his place in Day 2. However he only just squeezed in and with a mere 9,000 chips to his name, he’s the shortest stacked of those who made it to the end of the day.  He will now be faced with the choice of relinquishing these last few chips and playing another flight to try and improve his Day 2 stack. It seems likely he will do this.

Late Finish to Day 1a

The full price starting days (1a, 1b, 1c and 1d) play down to 15% of the field rather than a set number of levels. Some flights take longer than others to complete and Day 1a was one of those marathon sessions, that did not end until 6.20am!  Much of the delay was caused by the three-hour long bubble situation, when an astonishing 18 double ups were achieved before Johan Sundgren became the unfortunate player to just miss out on a seat in Sunday’s Day 2.

Herli Bird Gets the Worm

Estonian Herli Orlop, who came here with a large group of compatriots, won a couple of huge pots early on in the day to become one of the big stacks. He was then reduced to just above his starting stack, but mounted a recovery and got a huge double up on the bubble, to end the day on 913,000, with the third biggest stack of the day.

That earned him a big stack bonus of a €1,500 package to the 2026 Spring Edition of the BOM, as these are being awarded to the top three finishers in each regular starting flight. German Nikola Karl, on 965,000 bagged up the second biggest stack of the flight, also scooping a 2026 package.

Anthony Hughes, Millionaire

The only player to post a seven figure chip stack was Anthony Hughes. The British player ended up with a towering 1,160,000 and is the only chip millionaire that has been created so far. He can’t cash that in, but he did bank a 2026 package for his efforts. Will his be the largest stack going into Day 2? We’ve still got seven more starting days before we know the answer to that one!

Top 5 Stacks from Day 1a

Position	Name	Chips
1	Athony Hughes	1,168,000
2	Nicola Karl	965,000
3	Herli Olop	913,000
4	Luis Marthino	742,000
5	Pablo De Heredia	665,000

 

Full chip counts of all 43 survivors from Day 1a can be found here

Alexander Regler Bags Day1b Chip Lead

Day 1b, the first of the half-price starting days began at 8pm, but was finished long before Day 1a had reached its conclusion. There were 113 entrants, however none of them managed to amass stacks anywhere close to that of Anthony Hughes. In fact, the chip leader from Day 1b has less than half the stack of the Day 1a front runner.

The biggest stack of the flight was accumulated by German Alexander Regler, who bagged up 452,000 and wins the chip leader bonus prize of a €1,500 2026 BOM package. Only the biggest stack from the half-price flight is awarded this prize, so there was nothing extra for second placed Pantelis Charalampous, who was not far behind Regler on 430,000. Only eight players survived Day 1b.

All Eight Survivors from Day 1b

Position	Name	Chips
1	Alexander Regler	452,000
2	Pantelis Charalampous	430,000
3	Fabrizio Petroni	364,000
4	Florian Ribouchon	319,000
5	Lulei Hu	271,000
6	Adam Neal	206,000
7	Grigoris Kyriazi	112,000
8	Andrea Maiolino	106,000

Matthias Kribben Chip Leads Mystery Siege Day 1b

The second starting day of four in the €450 Mystery Siege of Malta also took place on Wednesday, with a further 167 players taking their seats in pursuit of a place in Sunday’s Day 2. Just 25 of these made it into the second stage, joining the 23 who progressed from Day 1a.  German Matthias Kribben secured the chip lead on 602k, well in front of the 522k posted by Day 1a chip leader Werge Malmborg.

Matthias is one of the most consistent performers of 2025, having cashed an incredible 65 times so far this year, including ten final tables and three wins. He’s an allrounder, playing mixed games and Hold’em to a very high standard and is the man to catch, with two starting days left in the Siege. There’s a further flight today, at 3pm and a final one on Friday morning.

Wednesday’s Side Events Roundup

There were three side events on Wednesday and for the first time at this edition, all side-event winners will receive trophies, beautifully crafted glass statues depicting a medieval knight, dressed for battle (of course).

The first recipient of a trophy was Irishman Shane Keary, who won the first €300 PLO of the week, taking €3,775. He outlasted a field of 39 runners defeating Fabio Miraglia heads-up. Mystery Siege Day 1a chip leader Werge Malmborg also made the podium, taking third place.

Wednesday’s €200 Dark Knight had 85 entrants and was won by Dimitrios Ampliantis, for a first prize of €3,657.50, plus a very nice trophy. WSOPC Tallinn Ring winner Jenny Westerlund was the unfortunate bubble girl and won’t be adding a further trophy to her cabinet just yet, but it’s still early days and there’s still plenty of time for her to rise to the top in another event. Another player who sneaked into the money is GUKPT Luton winner Gang Wang, who couldn’t quite style another victory, just missing the final table, taking 10th place.

The final side event of the day was the €150 Hyperturbo. BOM host Glenn Brown played this one, but just missed out on making the money, busting in 17th place. Fifteen of the 100 who entered received prizes, with Mateusz Gut claiming the first win of the week for the Polish contingent, taking the trophy and €3,180 prize money.

Satellite Mayhem

A total of 66 seats were won in the two Main Event satellites that took place on Wednesday. The early satellite had 285 entrants, producing 26 seat winners, while 402 contested the evening version, generating a further 40 seat winners. There are two further satellites on Thursday, at 11am and 9pm. Both will be played in the downstairs poker room, where players can also register.

Thursday at the Battle of Malta

Thursday’s tournament schedule is very similar to Wednesday’s. There are a further two starting days for the Main Event and one for the Mystery Siege. There is another PLO at and a late night Hyperturbo. In fact the only difference between Wednesday and Thursday is that instead of the Dark Knight, we have a €200 buy-in (€180+€20) Beer Poker Tour tournament.

Time	Tournament Name	Buy-in	Stack	Levels
11:00	Satellite One Shot to BOM €1.5m GTD	€60+€10	10K	20 min
13:00	BOM Main Event €1.5m GTD Day 1C 15% Progress to Day 2	€530+€70	40K	40 min
15:00	Mystery Siege of Malta (Mystery Bounty) €100K GTD Day 1C	€210+€200+€40	30K	20 min
17:00	Pot Limit Omaha	€300+€30	30K	25 min
18:00	NLH Beer Poker Tour	€180+€20	20K	20 min
20:00	BOM Main Event €1.5m GTD Day 1D 7.5% Progress to Day 2	€265+€35	20K	20 min
21:00	Satellite Accumulator to BOM €1.5m GTD (every 100K)	€60+€10	10K	20 min
22:00	NLH Hyperturbo	€130+€20	20K	10 min

What is the Beer Poker Tour?

The Beer Poker Tour is a quirky live poker brand that combined the game we love so much with a much loved tipple, beer. In fact the hops based drink plays an integral part in the event, as the winner of the first hand of every new level, on every table, gets a free drink. The fun also continues during the breaks, when players can win more free drinks and Beer Poker Tour merchandise via a game of…yes, you guessed it correctly, beer pong!