The recently concluded Battle of Malta Autumn Edition was by far the biggest festival in the history of the event. It was the 10th time that the event has been held at Casino Malta and the Eden Arena, situated within the Intercontinental Hotel in St Julian’s.

The Main Event reached new heights, with 6,039 entries in the split buy-in tournament, in which players could choose to enter for either €300 or €600. There were 240 more entries than the 2024 autumn edition, showing a modest increase of just 4.1%, but there was a far bigger surge in attendance for many of the other 31 tournaments on the schedule.

• The first marquee event of the festival to be completed was the €450 Mystery Siege of Malta, which had a €100,000 prize pool guarantee. It had 1,313 entries, with a prize pool of over €260,000 in payouts, plus a similar amount in mystery bounty prizes, representing a year-on-year increase of 27%.
• The €1,100 High Roller grew by 32% y-o-y, with 713 entries and a prize pool of more than double the €300,000 guarantee
• The €2,200 Super High Roller, sponsored by ACR Poker, grew even more, increasing by 36%, with 131 entries.
• The Ladies Event, also sponsored by ACR Poker, grew by 29%, with 158 entries.
• The Novibet Ultra Deep Bounty increased by 19%, with over 622 entries.
• The daily Omaha and mixed game schedule was also much busier, with 127 entries in the busiest one, a 63% increase on the busiest in 2024.
• Most other side events saw significant uplifts in participation.

The success of the event was not just dictated by the numbers. It was efficiently managed, eliminating many of the issues of the previous year (which was a victim of its own success, resulting in several side event cancelations). Despite the increased attendance, queuing time was minimal for all events and only one tournament regrettably had to be cancelled, on one of the busiest days of the festival.

The Battle of Malta is a melting pot, where many different poker communities from all over Europe merge and become one for a huge week of action. Large contingents of players from Italy, Greece and the UK were joined by significant numbers of players from almost every country in Europe were in attendance. Overall, players from over 70 different countries attended the festival, with millions of Euros being paid out in prize money.

ACR Poker Ambassadors Taste Victory in Side Events

Headline sponsor ACR Poker brought several of their ambassadors, sponsored pros and streamers to the Battle of Malta and two of them tasted victory in side events on the final day of the festival. Storage Wars and Bargain Hunt star Rene Nezhoda had hosted the €2,200 Super High Roller, but failed to make the money. He then entered the €330 H.O.R.S.E, defeating 51 others to take the first prize of €4,670. Another ACR Prro, Jeff Sluzinski, better known as Jeff Boski, took down the Poker Experience Tour HyperTurbo for €3,395.

The Main Event

The Main Event of the Battle of Malta had nine starting days, five with a €600 buy-in, from which 15% of the entrants in each flight progressed to the second day and four costing €300 to enter. In these half-price flights, only 7.5% of the runners qualified for Day 2 and they started with 20,000 chips, half that of the full-price starting days. The numbers in most of the early starting days were actually lower than the previous year, but the key flights on Friday and Saturday blew away the 2024 participation numbers.

Once all nine were completed, 811 players had made it to Day 2, guaranteeing themselves a payout of at least €900. On Day 2 the attrition rate remained high, with just 196 players securing their seats for Day 3. At this stage, six former champions remained in contention, including Vasileios Zisis, Gabriele Re and defending champion Adrian Ziemichod. However most of these fell on the Day 3 battlefield, leaving Gabriele Re as the only one who progressed to Day 4, with 38 other contenders.

Re went very close to securing another final table seat, but fell short, exiting in 20th place ensuring there would be a new winner this year. Sadly, not all players were busted while at the table. Darren Harbinson was taken ill at during Day 3 and was unable to return for the penultimate day, his stack however laddered itself up to 28th place and a €6,900 prize.

By the end of the fourth day, just eight players remained, with Latvian Davis Modans taking a narrow chip lead onto the final table, with Candido Cappiello not far behind. Italian Maltese resident Marco D’Amico had the third largest stack, just ahead of the sole Pole Rafal Lubczynski. Marius Campan from Romania lay in 5th place, with the remaining berths on the final table all taken by Italian players Giuseppe Ciancia, Leonardo Romeo and Luigi Shehadeh, who was the short stack, with less than seven big blinds.

Candido Cappiello Dominates Final Table

The final began slowly, with no exits for several levels of very cagey play with very few all-ins. During this time Cappiello established a huge lead over the rest of the field. It was not until level 36 that Rafal Lubczynski became the 8th place finisher, followed by Marco D’Amico in 7th.

Davis Modans had played strongly on Day 4 to take the chip lead, but fell back early on in the final, becoming the 6th place finisher. When Marius Campan exited in 5th, it ensured that the champion to-be would be Italian and with over three times the stack of his nearest rival, Cappiello’s victory rarely looked in doubt from then on.

After taking out Leonardo Romeo with pocket sixes versus A♦Q♣, flopping a further six in the process, Candido pulled even further ahead. The third place finisher was Giuseppe Ciancio, whose 7♥5♥ was no match for Candido’s Q♣9♠ and he was sent packing to the payout desk to collect over €110k for his 3rd place finish.

Cappiello had a 6-1 chip lead going into the heads-up stage of the tournament, but Luigi Shehadeh, who was the most experienced of the final table players, doubled up on the very first hand, to turn it into more of a contest. Shehadeh then had a chance to significantly close the gap, but failed to make the call with Q♦9♠ when Candido made a pot size bluff with 6♣4♠ on a board of A♦A♠5♠Q♠7♥.

He had another opportunity to level the scores on the very next hand, his A♦9♦ dominating Candido’s A♣8♠, however they chopped that one when a broadway straight was dealt out on the board. After a further 15-minutes of play, Luigi was left with just four big blinds after making a big bet on the river with bottom pair, only to be called by Candido, holding top pair.

In the very next hand all the chips went in with Luigi holding J♣6♠ to Candido’s T♥9♦. The flop of 8♣8♥9♥ moved Candido one step closer to the title and after a turn of 6♦ and a river of Q♣, it was official. Candido Cappiello is the Battle of Malta Champion.

The pair had done a deal after the Luigi doubled up, resulting in Luigi Shedaheh taking €185,750, while Cappiello secured €225,770 and the Mdina Glass trophy.

The Final Table Result

Pos	Player Name	Prize
1	Candido Gabriele Cappiello	€225,770
2	Luigi Andrea Shehadeh	€181,750
3	Giuseppe Ciancio	€110,150
4	Leonardo Romeo	€83,800
5	Cristian-Marius Campan	€63,700
6	Davis Modans	€48,450
7	Marco D’amico	€36,850
8	Rafal Piotr Lubczynski	€28,000

 

The final table was live streamed on the Battle of Malta’s YouTube Channel, with commentary hosted by Jason Glatzer, with guests including ACR Pro Ana Marquez and mixed games specialist Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon.

The dates for the next edition of the Battle of Malta were also announced towards the end of the festival, taking place from May 27- June 3, 2026, a month later than this year’s Spring Edition.