Saturday’s Day 1 G was the biggest ever starting day in the history of the battle of Malta. It began with over 500 players, but this grew to over 900 within the first couple of levels of the flight.

By level 2, the €1.5m guarantee on the event had been met and by the dinner break and by the first break in play there were over 1,300 entrants.  During the second session of play, the next milestone was reached when the 1,760th person bought in it, surpassing last year’s 1,759 who participated in the equivalent flight.

By the dinner break, over 1,900 entries had been made and the only question left was whether it would get to 2,000 entries. It fell just short, ending up with a staggering 1,990 buy-ins.

A further 578 played in Day 1h, taking the total number of entries up to 5,047. With just one starting day left, the only record left is last year’s final total of 5,799. Last year, the final starting day had 849 entries and if that number is repeated today, a new overall attendance record will be set!

Kristian Kis Bags Day 1g Chip Lead

The biggest starting day saw 298 of the 1,990 players progress to Day 2. Hungarian Kristian Kis booked the chip lead, on 1,293,000, the second biggest stack so far from the first eight flights. He was on of just three chip millionaires who emerged from the day. In second place on the leaderboard is Victor Azanon, with 1,158,000, followed by Battista Locati on 1,012,000. All three received bonus prizes of €1,500 packages to the Spring 2026 BOM.

Top 10 Chip Counts from Day 1g

Position	Name	Chips
1	Krisztian Kis	1,293,000
2	Victor Azanon	1,158,000
3	Battista Locati	1,012,000
4	Angelos Michael	967,000
5	Alexander Neumann	964,000
6	Lior Sahar	926,000
7	Luis Lionco	853,000
8	Jakub Fiala	790,000
9	Georgi Mektupchiyan	790,000
10	Mike Georges Alonso	778,000

BOM Champion Zisis Tops Day 1h

The Battle of Malta’s greatest ever storyline just keeps on giving. Vasileios Zisis almost did the inconceivable this time last year, finishing one place away from going back-to-back, having won the 2024 Spring Edition Main Event.

He arrived in Malta a couple of days ago and cashed in the Mystery Siege yesterday. He played  in Day 1g, but failed to progress, so chanced his luck in the half-price Day 1h. Quite remarkably, he emerged from that skirmish as the chip leader, securing 1,194,000 for Day 2, one of the five biggest stacks of the BOM so far. He also ensured he will return in Spring next year, taking down the bonus package for posting the largest stack.

There were 578 entries in the flight, with one other player, Dennis Stemmler, bagging over 1m. Just 42 players made it into Day 2.

Top 10 Chip Counts from Day 1g

Pos	Player Name	Chips
1	Vasileios Zisis	1,190,000
2	Dennis Stemmler	1,070,000
3	Richard Van Wingerden	717,000
4	Macario Coglianese	600,000
5	Giovanni Capuano	524,000
6	Jonathan Stoeber	470,000
7	Nuno Sales	407,000
8	Joao Canas	404,000
9	Lorenzo Antetomaso	325,000
10	Andreas Putz	316,000

Paul Murphy Wins Mystery Siege of Malta

The €450 Mystery Siege of Malta was won by Paul Murphy, after a three-way deal with Srdjan Milicevic and Hans Werge. They left €5,000 to play for after the deal, but it didn’t take long to complete, with Murphy cashing for €48,200, including €16,000 in bounties. Third place finisher Hans Werge actually won the most, having taken more in bounties than Murphy, but did not secure the trophy.

Pos	Player Name	Prize
1	Paul Murphy	€48,200
2	Srdjan Milicevic	€32,600
3	Hans Werge	€49,085
4	Panagiotis Petrou	€15,220
5	Konstantinos Mimikopoulos	€12,180

 

Paul Murphy, Mystery Siege of Malta Winner

Side Event Winners

The first side event of the day was the €300 NLH MAS, which finished with a three-way chop. Claus Spiekermann took the most in the deal (€5,980), which he made with Pavlos Benakis and Maciej Toma.

Adam Milewski won Saturday’s €330 PLO, which had 133 entries, generating a prize pool of €32,851.  Milewski took the title after defeating Jeraint “JJ” Hazan heads-up, scooping the first prize of €8,705. Both his prize money and the €5,920 won by Hazan were greater than the rather lowly €5,000 guarantee which was set for the event.

Vikram Digpal won the Dark Knight, defeating fellow Brit Michael Johnson heads-up to bank the first prize of €9,920. It was the biggest edition of the Dark Knight so far this week, with 315 entries.

Full Results of all side events can be found here.

Sunday’s Schedule at the Battle of Malta

There is just one more flight for the Main Event on Sunday, the early starting Day1i, which begins at 10am. It’s a full price flight, but runs on a turbo, clock, from which the top 15% will join the 736 who have already booked their seats into Day 2, which is scheduled to start at 8pm.

As well as being Day 2 of the Main Event, it’s also the first day of €300,000 guaranteed €1,100 High Roller, sponsored by Qui Gioco. Registration for this stays open until the second level of Day 2. There are also two satellite to the High Roller today, at 11am and 10pm.

Today’s non-Hold’em offering is Sviten, which begins at 5pm, with a €330 buy-in. There’s also another running of the €400 White Knight and Day 1 of the Shark Bay Eurorounders €300 Bounty.

Time	Tournament Name	Buy-in	Stack	Levels
10:00	BOM 1.500.000 GTD Day 1I 15% Progress to Day 2	€530+€70	40K	20 min
11:00	NLH Satellite One Shot – HIGH ROLLER €300,000 GTD	€110+€20	10K	20 min
15:00	NLH White Knight	€340+€60	30K	20 min
17:00	Sviten	€300+€30	30K	25 min
19:00	SHARK BAY – EUROROUNDERS BOUNTY €50,000 GTD (Play till level 10) Day 1	€110+€150+€40	30K	20 min
20:00	BOM Day 2 1,500,000 GTD	–	–	60 min
21:00	NLH – HIGH ROLLER €300,000 GTD (Play till level 10) Day 1	€1000+€100	50K	30 min
22:00	NLH Satellite Accumulator to HIGH ROLLER €300,000 GTD – soft cap	€110+€20	10K	20 min