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Clarkson Completes Malta Double as Quinlan Adds Another UK Trophy

2 hours ago

Samantha Doyle 2 hours ago

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Terje Bengtsen won the record 804-entry Main Event for €65,001 after a big comeback.
Graham Clarkson made history with a two-title mixed-game sweep; Kevin Quinlan took the Mystery Bounty for the UK.
Festival Malta entries and prize pool hit all-time highs, up 21% from last year.

Terje Bengtsen may have taken the biggest trophy of the week, but British players had plenty of luggage of their own to find space for on the way home from Malta.

Scotland’s Graham Clarkson completed a two-title mixed-game sweep, while Kevin Quinlan won the €350 Mystery Bounty on the final day. Their victories came as Bengtsen overturned a huge heads-up deficit to win the record 804-entry Main Event for €65,001 at Portomaso Casino.

Bengtsen Denies Yazdanpanah in the Main Event

The Main Event initially looked set to belong to Mehdi Yazdanpanah.

The Swedish player entered the final day with 6.42 million, more than 2.4 million ahead of second place, while Bengtsen started 12th of the final 16 with 1.53 million. Yazdanpanah was still comfortably in front when the official final table began and eventually reached heads-up holding roughly 80% of the chips.

undefined — The Main Event Final Table at The Festival Malta

Bengtsen’s first major escape came with pocket nines. He flopped a set against Yazdanpanah’s ace-eight, watched his opponent turn a straight, then rivered a full house when the board paired.

It was the hand that kept the tournament alive, and Bengtsen did not waste it. Two consecutive doubles erased the deficit before another large pot moved him firmly ahead.

In the decisive hand, Bengtsen held seven-five against Yazdanpanah’s nine-eight on a 5-9-7 flop. His two pair survived the turn and river, leaving Yazdanpanah with only 75,000 chips. Bengtsen finished the job on the following deal.

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

The 804 entries produced a €381,900 prize pool, both new highs for a Festival Malta Main Event.

Clarkson Makes Festival History With Second Trophy

Graham Clarkson’s week began with a title and ended with another one.

The Scot had already won the €550 TORSES Mixed Games Main Event for €10,835 before reaching the closing day of the €1,100 10-Game Mix. Thirteen players returned for Day 2, but only four reached the money.

Clarkson held the majority of the chips when play became three-handed. Konstantinos Vatseris finished third, leaving Germany’s Jens Voertmann as the final obstacle.

Their heads-up battle finished during Razz, when Clarkson completed a seven-low to secure another €10,400 and his second trophy of the stop.

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

Barrie Dear’s fourth-place finish meant two of the four cashes went to Scottish players.

Clarkson also became the first player in Festival Series history to win both the TORSES Main Event and the 10-Game Mix, turning an already good Malta stop into one of the stronger mixed-game weeks by a British player on the series.

Quinlan Takes the Mystery Bounty Trophy Back to Britain

The UK’s other closing-day title came through Kevin Quinlan.

Quinlan won the €350 Mystery Bounty and €9,810, although the format produced the sort of payout table where finishing first did not necessarily mean winning the most money.

The Festival Malta Day 1b — The Festival Malta 2026

Norway’s Ken Egeland finished fourth but pulled enough bounty value to leave with €17,850, the largest total payout in the tournament. Runner-up Panagiotis Grammatikakis also finished above Quinlan in cash terms with €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

Marc Hunter also made the final table for the UK, finishing fifth with €4,720.

Quinlan got the title rather than the biggest payout, but paired with Clarkson’s double it gave the British contingent a strong finish to a week that had already produced several deep mixed-game runs.