The Festival series, a favourite with players and spectators alike, also landed in Malta this year, where it once again brought great fun and good poker to Casino Portomaso. Packed with various events and side activities, the festival culminated in a €550 Main Event that saw a total of 566 entries, bringing the prize pool to €268,850. The biggest cash prizes were played for during Sunday's final table, where 16 players successfully made it to the final table.
The start of the final day was a brisk pace that revealed the final table line-up in just 2 hours of play. The chipleader was Canadian Haven Taylor, who began play with an 87bb stack. On the other side of the leaderboard were two shorts - Sweden's Marthias Jordi and Macedonia's Oliver Mihaljovski, both with a stack of around 12bb. The following prizes were up for grabs at the final table:
- 1. 55,000€
- 2. 32,800€
- 3. 23,300€
- 4. 17,800€
- 5. 13,800€
- 6. 10,600€
- 7. 8,300€
- 8. 6,300€
- 9. 4,800€
The final table was all about chipleader Haven Taylor from the start, gradually increasing her chiplead. We also witnessed a unique moment when Taylor was involved in two 3-way all-ins in quick succession, and on both occasions she made sure to double seat-open. In the last four hands, she already had half of all the chips in play, but unfortunately even that wasn't enough to win the game.
Gradually, Taylor overwhelmed her opponents in this phase, but still made it through to the final heads-up against Spaniard Gil den Houting. Here, she was on the short end of the stick, but the flop decided the winner. , on which Haven sent all her chips into play with the . Her opponent den Houting willingly with two pairs called, and in the showdown it was clear that only a miracle could save Haven. It didn't happen, the board completed the a which determined that The Festival had not yet met its first female champion. Anyway, Taylor doesn't have to mourn, she was rewarded with €32,800 for her great performance.
The lucky winner, Spaniard Victor Fil den Houting, revealed that he hadn't played live poker for 10 years, but after this win he made no secret that he hoped to see him at the tables more often. As the champion, he takes home a full €55,000 without a deal, and we sincerely congratulate him on this achievement!
Final ME The Festival results:
| Pos. | Country | Player | Prize |
| #1 | SPA | Victor Gil Den Houting | 55,000€ |
| #2 | CAN | Haven Taylor | 32,800€ |
| #3 | MAC | Oliver Mihajlovski | 23,300€ |
| #4 | SWI | Mathias Jordi | 17,800€ |
| #5 | NET | Bart Dil | 13,800€ |
| #6 | AUT | Mario Eder | 10,600€ |
| #7 | POL | Krystian Nalepka | 8,300€ |
| #8 | MAC | Dragan Ignjatovski | 6,300€ |
| #9 | SPA | Jordi Ruiz | 4,800€ |
