Seat 1: Daniel Maunders (15,130,000)

Daniel Maunders comes from Southampton and usually plays in local casinos in his home town and nearby Portsmouth, where he achieved his best live cash to-date, £19,736 for winning a £400 buy-in tournament in Portsmouth. It’s not first trip to Malta and this is second Battle of Malta Main Event cash. He is now retired but used to work in the shipping industry. Today he intends to come out of retirement and ‘ship’ the main event.

Seat 2: Erik Lindqwist (4,815,000)

Erik is from Sweden but lives in Malta, running a gaming affiliate business and playing poker as often as he can, frequenting most of the poker festivals that take place in Malta. This is his third Battle of Malta main event cash, but his first final table. His best live result was last September when he finished 5th in the Party Poker Millions. 

Seat 3: Nico Frenn (1,965,000)

Nico from Zurich is an insurance specialist, who loves playing tournament poker. This is the third time he has cashed in the main event at the Battle of Malta, which he has played four times, giving him an impressive 75% strike rate. He was supposed to visit the event with fiends, but eventually made the journey here with his parents instead, so they could enjoy a holiday while he played. However, they had booked return flights for Wednesday, which now have to be rebooked. Nice problem to have.

Seat 4: Filippo Busatto (3,685,000)

Filippo Busatto comes from Conegliano Veneta in the north-east of Italy, near Treviso and Venice. He is mainly a mixed games player but sometimes plays Hold’em tournaments, mostly in Nova Gorica. This is his first time coming to play at the Battle of Malta.

Seat 5: Vasileios Zisis (14,170,000)

Vasileios Zisis is from Katerini in northern Greece, close to Thessaloniki. He’s an online poker pro, mainly playing cash games and in fact he usually plays Omaha. So what’s he doing here playing in a Hold’em tournament? Well its simple, he loves tournaments too and the stratgey involved in them. Having been playing professionally for six years and sometimes it’s a refreshing change from the online grind. This is his first time at the Battle of Malta and he loves the slow structure of the tournament. He had only one live cash before coming to Malta, but also made the money in the Mystery Siege earlier in the week, but didn’t manage to open an envelope.

Seat 6: Giusseppe Rosa (4,750,000)

The most experienced player on the final table is Giuseppe Rosa from Siena in Italy. He has almost $400,000 in live cashes in his poker career and is a former Battle of Malta Champion, winning the main event of the Spring Festival in 2022 for €200,340. He works in gaming and plays poker professionally. 

Seat 7: Jan-Joost Van Den Bogert (4,375,000)

Jan-Joost Van Den Bogert is originally from Netherlands, but has made London his home for the last 12 years, and regularly plays poker, at the Vic. He works as a management consultant in the financial industry but has been playing poker for 17 years. He is quite a private person and his live poker results have been removed from results databases, however he did admit that he is a GUKPT Champion, having won a main event in London a few years ago.

Seat 8: Alfredo Cuti (5,360,000)

Alfredo is an Italian who was born in Sicily, brought up in Germany and now lives in Malta, where he works as a therapist. He started playing poker five years ago and mostly plays in Malta, but has also played in Rozvadov, where he cashed in the Mini Main of the WSOPE in 2022. This is his second Battle of Malta main event cash. Alfredo is also a technology expert and keen statistician, but plays a more exploitative style of play.