It’s an educated guess, a big part of the global poker community would say that Malta is one of the most fitting places for a live poker adventure. The tropical paradise island has been the host of many prestigious live poker events for centuries, and there are multiple reasons why people keep coming back to Malta, competing for prestigious poker titles, big cash prizes, and eternal poker glory.

The Battle of Malta, at the luxurious Casino Malta and Intercontental Hotel Malta, has established itself as one of the highlights on the Maltese poker calendar. Time and time again, the event keeps raising the bar, and the recently concluded 2026 Battle of Malta (Summer Edition) was no exception. 

The tournament had eight starting-day flights; eight of them held the full €600 buy-in tournament, and 15% of the field made it through from these flights. The other four were turbo affairs were everything was halved; the buy-in was €300, and 7,5% of the entries would advance to Day 2. All in all, the tournament scored 2,667 entries, which translated to a massive €1,186,962 prize pool; the €700,000 guarantee was smashed, to say the least. A top prize of €176,070 was announced for the eventual winner, alongside the coveted trophy and eternal poker glory.

Overall, 358 players made it through to Day 2, all guaranteed a €1,000 min cash. The field on the second day included former Battle of Malta Main Event winners such as Adrian Ziemichod and Dario Barone, accompanied by many other skillful players, for example, 2026 WSOP Europe €5,300 Main Event final tableist Joona Nyholm. During the second day, the field was reduced from the aforementioned 358 down to 75. Those then locked horns in Day 3, which played down to 24 players. The players on the final three eight-handed tables returned on the penultimate day of the festival, Tuesday, June 2. Greece’s Stavros Passias was going into Day 4 as the chip leader, and he was fighting for a deep run together with competitors such as poker media icon Florence Mazet and skillful player Marko Cosic. Mazet eventually bid farewell in tenth place, which set the stage for the “unofficial” final table of nine players. When Arnaud Boudet was eliminated in ninth, play wrapped up, and the remaining eight contestants bagged their chips. They returned the next day, June 3, and resumed the fight at the tournament’s final stage.

Spain Takes the Cake

The final table kicked off at 14:00 at the center stage of the Intercontinental Hotel adjacent to Casino Malta. Players could follow the action through the Battle of Malta live blog (courtesy of Richard Hayes and Christoffer Karlén) and/or the livestream on Battle of Malta’s YouTube channel, which offered both English and Italian commentary.

The last hand of Day 4, Georgios Papakonstantinou secured the chip lead going into Day 5, as he was the one who knocked out Boudet. Up until that point, Passias had maintained his lead all through Day 4. While the two Greeks were topping the final table chip counts, Gianluca Donini, Danilo Scevola, and Fredrick Bratein were the three smaller stacks. Together with Angelo Censabella, Alejandro Asenjo, and prominent player Marko Cosic, they would all lock horns for the first-place finish.

Apart from Scevola doubling through Papakonstantinou, not much happened during the first two levels. When play resumed after the first break, though, the fireworks would kick off. Norwegian Bratein, who’d mostly been biding his time, found himself forced all in, seated in the Big Blind with 5♠2♣. Censabella made the call from the Small Blind with Q♦2♥, and Bratein’s tournament life came to an end. For his eighth-place finish, he was awarded €19,350.

Shortly thereafter, Asenjo, Cosic, and Donini all clashed all-in pre-flop. Donini was at risk against both of his opponents with K♠T♦, while Cosic was looking good with K♥K♦. Asenjo’s A♣K♣ improved to a pair of aces on the flop, though. He won the big pot, while Donini bid farewell in seventh place for €27,050.

The next one to go was Scevola, who was flipping pre-flop with 5♠5♥ against the A♠T♦ of Passias. Passias wasted little time before improving to a pair of aces on the flop, and Scevola wasn’t able to catch up. He earned €35,600 for finishing sixth; not too bad, considering he began the final day with 13 Big Blinds.

The most active (and, arguably, most entertaining) player on the final table up to this point had been Censabella. He’d been pulling off some creative moves, displaying some old school poker. With five players left, he committed half of his stack to a four-bet with K♦J♣, but then decided to fold to a five-bet shove from Passias. Now being the shortstack, Censabella was soon all in with K♥J♣ against the 4♣4♠ of Cosic. Even though flopping trips, Censabella was eliminated in fifth place for €43,900 against Cosic’s turned full house.

Straight after Censabella’s exit, the four remaining players agreed to a four-way ICM deal. This saw current chip leader Passias locking up the biggest slice of the cake €114,150). Considering the current Blinds and the fairly even stack distribution, all four contestants seemed pleased with the deal. After the four-way handshake, the action would ramp up, to put it mildly. Two hands later, all four players moved all in, which saw Papakonstantinou going out in fourth place for €100,800 (the previous hand, he had lost the bigger chunk of his stack to Asenjo).

The players kept pushing the chips in the middle, and some of the outcome was left to chance. A few flips later, Passias went out in third, and the stage was set for a heads-up showdown between Kosic and Asenjo. Assumingly, Passias didn’t feel too sad about the outcome; after all, he was the big winner thanks to the deal, at least in terms of cash in hand.

The trophy and the title were still in play, though. Kosic won the first flip against Asenjo and evened out the stacks. Asenjo was still a small chip leader, albeit by the smallest of margins. Then, Kosic moved all in with 7♠2♣ and was up against the A♦8♣ of Asenjo. Asenjo improved to a straight on the 9♥T♦T♠J♥Q♠ flop to seal the deal. That settled it; Kosic was declared the runner-up for €90,850, while the fireworks around the stage went off to salute Asenjo. He was awarded €94,520, the trophy, and the title. He is now a Battle of Malta champion, and he will forever be a part of poker history.

So: what now? Well, that’s an easy question to answer. During the 2026 Battle of Malta (Summer Edition), it was announced that the legendary event will expand outside the island. The 2026 Battle of Malta Slovakia Edition will be played September 7-14 at Card Casino, Bratislava. While the schedule has not yet been announced, it’s official information that the €400 Main Event will have a €400,000 overall guarantee. Make sure to stay tuned to all Battle of Malta channels in order not to miss out on any information regarding what’s going to be a superb live poker event.

Then, in October, it’s back to the paradise island. The 2026 Battle of Malta (Autumn Edition) will be played at Casino Malta and the Intercontinental Hotel Malta (of course) between October 24-November 4. Prepare yourself, as the nine-day festival is headlined by a €2,000,000 guarantee. Once again, new records will be set in St. Julians.

Thanks to everyone – staff, dealers, organizers, players – who’ve made the 2026 Battle of Malte (Summer Edition) to the legendary event that it has been. See you all in Bratislava!