The Festival Malta has set a new Main Event attendance record after 804 entries piled into the €550 No-Limit Hold’em showpiece at Portomaso Casino. The five starting flights generated a €381,900 prize pool and comfortably beat the 666-entry mark set at the previous Malta edition.
It is a healthy number for a festival that did not need a giant guarantee to drag players through the door. The field grew the old-fashioned way, with 256 entries arriving for Day 1D before another 109 joined the evening turbo, pushing the final count beyond 800 and giving The Festival its biggest Malta Main Event yet.
Yazdanpanah Takes the Lead Into Day 2
Sweden’s Mehdi Yazdanpanah emerged from Day 1D with 1,340,000 chips and the overall lead heading into Day 2. Yazdanpanah already has some serious live-poker pedigree, having won a WSOP Circuit event for $59,465 and a $5,000 WSOP Paradise package.
Andreas Mai sits behind him on 1,250,000, while Pel Nieuwenhuis bagged 1,130,000. A total of 101 players survived the five opening flights, leaving roughly one in eight of the original entries still hunting the trophy and the biggest slices of the €381,900 pool.
The jump from 666 entries to 804 represents growth of more than 20 percent year on year. That is particularly notable at a time when European players have no shortage of festivals competing for their bankrolls, from established tours to destination events built around a broader poker-holiday experience.
The Festival’s Malta Formula Keeps Growing
The Festival has leaned heavily into variety rather than trying to be another week of wall-to-wall Hold’em. The Malta schedule includes mixed games, Open Face Chinese, mystery bounties, Big O, TORSES and a 10-Game Mix alongside the Main Event, plus the series’ familiar casino-game championships and hospitality events.
That approach gives the stop a different flavour from many mainstream tours. Poker Type has previously covered Malta’s wider poker scene, including how the Malta poker community came together earlier this year, while the island remains a regular destination for major live events such as the Battle of Malta.
The 2026 Festival runs at Portomaso Casino in St. Julian’s from September 14 to 20. Last year’s Main Event was won by Portugal’s Nuno Morais for €61,001, but the significantly larger field this time around means the 2026 champion will have navigated the biggest Malta field in the tour’s history.
Historic OFC Win for Ulrika Tengström
The record Main Event was not the only milestone produced on Friday. Sweden’s Ulrika Tengström became the first woman to win an Open Face Chinese title at The Festival, beating a 60-entry field in the €250 OFC Pineapple event after an 11-hour session.
Tengström defeated Belgium’s Wouter Schuurbiers heads-up to collect €3,720, with Estonia’s Mati Pirn taking third for €1,920. She brought more than 15 years of OFC experience to the table, having first played the game at Poker SM in 2012.
Christel Natri also made it a double Swedish celebration by winning the €125 Festival Queens event. Natri topped a 34-player field for €1,500, beating the UK’s Lisa Andrews heads-up after Andrews collected €1,078 for second place.
What Happens Next in Malta?
Day 2 of the Main Event gets underway on Saturday with the 101 survivors returning to Portomaso. The schedule remains busy around them, including the €350 Mystery Bounty, €1,100 10-Game Mix and the rather less conventional Bomb Pot ROE Madness.
The Main Event is scheduled to reach its final 16 before Sunday’s concluding Day 3. With the attendance record already in the books, attention now turns to who can convert a stack into the title, and Yazdanpanah has given himself the best starting position for that particular grind.
Malta has become an increasingly crowded battleground for live-poker festivals, including online-to-live promotions such as Battle of Malta packages. An 804-entry Main Event is therefore more than a nice round number for The Festival. It is evidence that its mix of accessible buy-ins, unusual formats and a social poker-trip atmosphere is finding an audience.
