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Record Malta Main Event Ends With Bengtsen Turning the Tables on Yazdanpanah
- Terje Bengtsen wins Main Event after beating record 804 entries and staging dramatic comeback.
- Graham Clarkson makes history by winning both the 10-Game Mix and TORSES Main Event.
- Mystery Bounty event surprises with biggest payouts not going to the winner.
The Festival Malta needed a bigger Main Event record to finish the week. It got one and then a final heads-up match that refused to follow the chip counts.
Terje Bengtsen won the €550 Main Event for €65,001, overturning a major deficit against long-time leader Mehdi Yazdanpanah. Their battle closed a tournament that attracted 804 entries, comfortably passing the 666-player Malta record set only a year ago.
Yazdanpanah Leads Until Bengtsen Changes the Ending
Everything pointed towards Yazdanpanah for much of Sunday.
He began the final 16 with 6.42 million chips and maintained his advantage as the field narrowed. By the time nine remained, he was the only player with more than 10 million and continued sending opponents out as the final table developed.
Jozsef Hegyi was one of the notable eliminations. He called for his tournament life with ace-king against Yazdanpanah’s ten-nine on an ace-ten-four flop, but the Swede completed a flush on the turn.
The field quickly contracted after that, with Serhii Ivanenko, Pel Nieuwenhuis, Sami Pulliainen, Davide Biondo and Bas De Laat all departing before the last three. Bengtsen’s climb included quads against Biondo, while Yazdanpanah removed Sebastian Mortensen in third to enter heads-up with roughly four-fifths of the chips.
That advantage almost became the title on one of the first major heads-up hands. Bengtsen’s pocket nines made a set, Yazdanpanah turned a straight, and only a paired river kept the Norwegian alive with a full house.
Bengtsen followed that escape with consecutive doubles and eventually took the lead. His flopped two pair then held against Yazdanpanah’s top pair and straight draw in the biggest pot of the match, leaving the Swede with less than a blind. One hand later, the comeback was complete.
Main Event Final Table
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Terje Bengtsen | Norway | €65,001 |
| 2 | Mehdi Yazdanpanah | Sweden | €40,100 |
| 3 | Sebastian Mortensen | Denmark | €28,900 |
| 4 | Bas De Laat | Netherlands | €21,915 |
| 5 | Davide Biondo | Italy | €17,429 |
| 6 | Sami Pulliainen | Finland | €13,375 |
| 7 | Pel Nieuwenhuis | Netherlands | €10,150 |
| 8 | Jozsef Hegyi | Hungary | €8,110 |
| 9 | Serhii Ivanenko | Ukraine | €6,810 |
Bengtsen had started the day only 12th of the remaining 16. By the end, he had his first Festival Series trophy and the largest payout of the week.
Clarkson Becomes First to Complete TORSES and 10-Game Double
The mixed-game schedule ended with a piece of Festival Series history.
Scotland’s Graham Clarkson won the €1,100 10-Game Mix, only days after taking down the €550 TORSES Main Event. No player had previously won both tournaments at the same Festival stop.
Clarkson had built a sizeable advantage by the time three players remained in the 10-Game. Konstantinos Vatseris exited in third before Jens Voertmann became the final challenger.
The tournament ended during a Razz round, with Clarkson making a seven-low to close out his second trophy of the week.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Graham Clarkson | Scotland | €10,400 |
| 2 | Jens Voertmann | Germany | €7,200 |
| 3 | Konstantinos Vatseris | Greece | €4,600 |
| 4 | Barrie Dear | Scotland | €2,500 |
The result added €10,400 to the €10,835 Clarkson had already collected for winning TORSES, giving him more than €21,000 from the two mixed-game titles alone.
Mystery Bounty Produces an Upside-Down Payout Sheet
Kevin Quinlan won the €350 Mystery Bounty, although anyone looking only at the prize totals might have guessed otherwise.
The British player’s title was worth €9,810 including bounties. Fourth-place finisher Ken Egeland, meanwhile, left with €17,850 after hitting larger envelopes, while second-place Panagiotis Grammatikakis collected €14,884.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kevin Quinlan | United Kingdom | €9,810 |
| 2 | Panagiotis Grammatikakis | Greece | €14,884 |
| 3 | Dennis Mercier | Netherlands | €5,890 |
| 4 | Ken Egeland | Norway | €17,850 |
| 5 | Marc Hunter | United Kingdom | €4,720 |
| 6 | Mathias Jordi | Switzerland | €3,495 |
| 7 | Lin Chen | China | €6,659 |
| 8 | Piotr Swietek | Poland | €1,250 |
| 9 | Karl Magnusson | Sweden | €8,900 |
In total, €101,897 was paid between the regular prize pool and bounty envelopes. One of the bigger bounty scores even went to Juusoilari Salminen, who finished 30th but collected €3,210 through the chest.
From 666 to 804 in One Year
The Main Event has grown quickly in Malta.
The 2025 edition attracted a then-record 666 entries and generated €316,350. Twelve months later, the field was up to 804 and the prize pool had climbed to €381,900.
| Edition | Entries | Prize Pool | Winner | First Prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 666 | €316,350 | Nuno Morais | €61,001 |
| 2026 | 804 | €381,900 | Terje Bengtsen | €65,001 |
That is an increase of 238 entries in two years, and the winner’s prize has risen from €55,000 in 2024 to €65,001 this time around.
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