2023 The Festival Bratislava Day 3

Norwegian poker beast Jon Kyte came into Bratislava not too short of accolades. Whether is notching a victory at The Festival Series, the EPT, the WSOP Circuit, and many more, Kyte has done it once again. On Tuesday evening, he shipped The Festival Series €550 Mixed Main Event HORSES in history for €8,825.

Three other players won titles, while Tuesday also marked the start of the €500,000 guaranteed Main Event and the final opening flight of the €250 Bratislava Deepstack.

Skills Put to the Test for Kyte; WSOP Champ’s Bust Maybe for the Best

The structure of the inaugural €550 Mixed Main Event HORSES was designed by mixed-game beast and the President of the Norwegian Poker Association Tobias Leknes and tweaked a little to fit the expected crowd in attendance. The event attracted 67 mixed-game entries to create a €31,825 prize pool.

Jon Kyte navigated through a talented field which included recently crowned WSOP Europe 8-Game champion Dainius Antanaitis, who was one of the first players on the rail during Day 2, and all of the accomplished players listed below:

Don’t feel too bad for Antanaitis as he took the lead in the Cash Game Challenge in the €2/€2 pot-limit Omaha televised affair after winning 1,068 big blinds for a tidy profit of €2,136. This pushes him to the top of the Cash Game Challenge leaderboard. The player that wins the most big blinds during any Cash Game Challenge taking place this week that players can sign-up on the casino floor will win a free package to the next The Festival Series in February.

Havavka Defeats Adams to Keep Heads-Up Trophy Home

The heads-up trophy of a customized frame sketch will be staying in Slovakia as local player Michal Havavka defeated United Kingdom’s Matthew Adams heads-up to win the title in Event #11: €250 Heads-Up. Havavka banked €3,090, while Adams earned €1,840 for falling one player shy of the title. 

Kaspar Valk and Jari Hurri came close to heads-up glory in the capped 32-player field before bowing out in the penultimate matches of the event to earn the €955 min-cash.

Andrew Hanak Wins Half n’ Half

Event #13: €125 Half n’ Half is another fun one on The Festival Series schedule with games bouncing back and forth between no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha. Andrew Hanak defeated Paul Berthet heads-up to outlast all 102 entries and win a lion’s share of the €10,659 prize pool.

Congrats to all 13 players that cashed in what proved to be a popular event on Tuesday evening.

Mike Hansen Ships the Win the Button

Event #17: €125 Win the Button was an entertaining late-night affair. Every time a player won a hand, they got to keep the button the next hand allowing any player to gain momentum at any time. Denmark’s Mike Hansen came out on top of the 57 entries after defeating Michail Tastanis heads-up to win €2,200. Jill Mellstroem, Axel Howe, Oskar Wedde, Bo Lindahl, and Rinatas Suleimanovas also cashed in this event.

Other News

Event #2: €250 Bratislava Deepstack attracted 354 entries to create a €75,665 prize pool. Lithuania’s Matas Kubulius leads the way among the 60 survivors who will battle down to a winner in hopes to claim the €14,400 top prize. The top 44 players will earn at least a min-cash of €450, meaning that 16 players today will go home empty-handed while all others have a good reason to celebrate.

Despite all the events on Tuesday, the €500,000 guaranteed €550 Main Event got off to a hot start with 73 entries getting into the mix for the first of six opening flights. Bo Alm led the 18 survivors after he parlayed his 30,000 opening stack into 190,000 in chips.

CasinoTogether’s Domagoj Kuterovac bested a field of 18 entries to win the €125 Roulette for €941 with Dzintars Lacis and Jakke Schraal also finished in the money in this fun casino-based tournament where players were competing against each other instead of against the house.

In other news, Keito Kaljulaid extended his lead to 10 flip wins out of the 45 Franke’s Flip Flop flips that took place the last two days. The player that wins the most rake-free flips throughout the week will win a free package to the next The Festival Series with them taking place every day until Saturday from 9 p.m. until 11 p.m. outside the tournament registration area.

Today’s Schedule (Nov. 29)

Nov. 29 will be another busy day including the continuation of the Main Event with Day 1b, the conclusion of the Bratislava Deepstack, the second casino event in Blackjack, 8-game, progressive knockouts, Cash Game Challenge sessions, and more. Check out what’s happening poker wise in the tournament arena, and, of course, cash games will continue to run around the clock on the casino floor at Banco Casino.

Event #13: €125 Half n’ Half proved to be popular with hold’em and Omaha fans with the game alternating between the two until Andrew Hanak shipped the event for the €2,800 top prize.

The tournament attracted 102 entries for a €10,659 prize pool. Check out the 13 players that cashed in this event.

Denmark’s Mike Hansen defeated a field of 57 entries including Michail Tastanis heads-up to win the lion’s share of the €5,956 prize pool in Event #17: €125 Win the Button for €2,200. Jill Mellstroem, Axel Howe, Oskar Wedde, Bo Lindahl, and Rinatas Suleimanovas also cashed in this event.

The heads-up hand-designed, frame-sketched trophy will be staying in Slovakia as local player Michal Havavka defeated United Kingdom’s Matthew Adams heads-up to win the title in Event #11: €250 Heads-Up and the €3,090 top prize.

Meanwhile, Kaspar Valk and Jari Hurri also advanced deep from the capped 32-player field and managed to cash after bowing out in the penultimate matches of the event.

Norway’s Jon Kyte has accomplished quite a bit on the poker felts across a variety of games. He now will have bragging rights over many of his friends including the President of the Norwegian Poker Association and one of the best mixed-game players by most people’s standards in Tobias Leknes, who was influential in designing the structure.

Kyte battled through a field of 60 entries including 28 players that advanced to Day 2 in the inaugural €550 Mixed Main Event HORSES for €8,825.

There appears there was some creative deal-making between the final three players based on the payouts. We will try to grab Kyte for a quick interview today. If not, we will at a minimum find out more about the deal after the players had some rest.

In the meantime, a massive congrats to Jon Kyte for shipping the first The Festival Series €550 Mixed Main Event HORSES in history, and well done to the skilled group of players that cashed.

Lithuania’s Matas Kubulius snagged the overall chip lead by turning his 30,100 starting stack into a whopping pile of 584,000 in chips on Day 1c of the €250 Bratislava Deepstack to surpass the 375,000 that Day 1b chip leader Aleksandar Kamendoliev advance with. Daniel Daw and Chalkiotis Charmpos also bagged more than Kamendoliev to jump into the top three with 60 players remaining to compete for the €75,668 prize pool created by the 354 runner including a whopping 202 entries on Day 1c alone.

The action will continue on Wednesday at 2 p.m. for Day 2 and will play down until one player has all the chips. Stay tuned for the seat draw before we update the rest of the results early tomorrow.

While we won’t call it a night yet, we will be slowing down on the posting for the rest of the evening. We do promise to share the final chip counts of Day 1c of the €250 Bratislava Deepstack along with the seat draw for tomorrow’s Day 2 and any results that become final before then.

In the meantime, you can click on the Stream tab within our coverage to check out the €2/€2 Pot-Limit Omaha Cash Game Challenge session live on Twitch with George Sandford and Andreas Hoglund back behind the microphones announcing the action.

The €125 Win the Button kicked off with a dozen players including the likes of Peter Bumba, The Festival Series Malta Main Event champion Oeystein Brenden, Sturla Hiller, Bo Lindahl, and Jari Pekka Rattya.

Good luck to all the players in holding onto the button en route to victory.

Day 1a of the €500,000 guaranteed €550 Main Event attracted 73 entries on the first of six opening flights. Just 18 players found bags led by Bo Alm with 190,000. Ziga Klopcic, Coolbet’s Elisabeth Nordskog, Rostyslav Sabishchenko, Ohad Freund, Sylvere Paillot, Stein Thanh Du Karlsson, Value Town’s Martin Kanaker, Paul Danko, Brian Klindrup, Stansislav Koleno, Robert Kontkanen, and Quinten Spyckerelle also all bagged six-figure stacks from the 30,000 starting stack.

Meanwhile, Jostein Groedum, Victor Fryda, Daniel Smith, Daniel Koloszar, and Trang Le also all found bags, albeit with shorter stacks. Check out all of the ending chip counts below from Day 1a of the Main Event.

The €150 Turbo Satellite to tomorrow’s €1,100 PLO High Roller just kicked off with just six players. This could prove to be some value as two players are guaranteed seats to tomorrow’s big-action affair.

Riku Koivurinne, Raffaele Farris, Patrick Heaney, Hans Koronen, Nicolas Mastrantonas, and Stefano Moi in the action from the beginning.

Good luck to everyone in getting into the PLO High Roller on the cheap!

Rake-free flips costing just €20 are running outside of the tournament registration area with players winning tournament vouchers that they can put towards buy-ins at The Festival Series.

This is all part of Franke’s Flip Flops which run every evening from 9 p.m. until 11 p.m. from Monday until Saturday. The player that wins the most flips throughout this period will be dubbed the champion and win a framed pair of Franke’s actual flip flops. As if this wasn’t enough, The Festival Series will toss in a package to the next The Festival Series in February.

Keito Kaljulaid currently sits on top of the leaderboard after winning six flips out of a total of 23 possible run. Joseph Jackson won three while a few others managed to get their names on the leaderboard as well.

Franke’s Flip Flops Leaderboard After Monday (23 Flips)

Four players already hit the rail to leave just 24 players remaining in the field on the final day of Event #2: €550 Mixed Main Event HORSES.

WSOP Europe bracelet winner Dainius Antanaitis won’t be able to further showcase his mixed game skills in this event as he was one of the four players to hit the rail alongside The Festival Series Tallinn Main Event champion Eirik Kristiansen, Allan Arjut, and Liking Saiyasely. Check out the early Day 2 photos of the Mixed Main Event and best of luck to all of the HORSES.

The €125 Roulette Championship is in the books after CasinoTogether’s Domagoj Kuterovac amassed the biggest stack to win the event for the €941 top prize. Dzintars Lacis, who has had a few mentions this week thanks to leading the Cash Game Challenge, finished runner-up for €565 while Jakke Schraal’s podium finish earned him a €375 payout.

Day 1a of the €500,000 guaranteed The Festival Series Bratislava €550 Main Event has been a success thus far with 73 entries in the mix with one more blind level to go. Just 24 players remaining and we will update with the chip counts shortly after players bag their stacks for the evening.

Familiar names such as Bo Alm, Kristin Flataker, Victor Fryda, Martin Klaar, Coolbet’s Elisabeth Nordskog, Sylvere Paillot, Daniel Smith, and Adam Tomasson are all in the mix.

Check out some of the photos from Day 1a of the Main Event.

The quarterfinals have been reached in the €250 Heads-Up affair with the final eight players out of an original field battling one more match until they at least reach the money with third and fourth places guaranteed at least a €955 payout. The eventual runner-up will win €1,840 while the winner will take home a €3,090 top prize.

Here is a look at the quarterfinal match-ups featuring two players each from Finland, Estonia, and the United Kingdom and one from Slovakia and one from Greece:

• Jari Hurri (Finland) vs. Kyle Kronin (United Kingdom)
• Kaspar Valk (Estonia) vs. Georgios Livanos (Greece)
• Jesse Liljegren (Finland) vs. Matthew Adams (United Kingdom)
• Andres Allsalu (Estonia) vs. Michal Havavka (Slovakia)

The first of two Cash Game Challenges is about to begin. In fact, it has begun in live time but you will be able to watch it with hole cards exposed by clicking on the “Stream” tab in our coverage with George Sandford and Andreas “Wiseguy” Hoglund announcing the action.

Dzintar Lacis took the early lead on the Cash Game Challenge leaderboard after winning 215 big blinds during yesterday’s €2/€2 no-limit hold’em session and today another player will have a chance to unseat him whether in the early €2/€2 no-limit hold’em or the €2/€2 pot-limit Omaha in a few hours.

The action has resumed with the 28 players who advanced during the three opening flights in the €550 Mixed Main Event HORSES battling it out for their share of the €31,825 prize pool generated by the 67 entries.

Jon Kyte holds the chip lead to start things off in the hopes of becoming the first-ever HORSES champion. However, not all the players will end up feeling satisfied as only the top ten players will go home with at least a min-cash of €1,325. Barring any deals, tonight’s winner will go home with much more with a €8,675 top prize on the line.

A €60 Super Satellite guaranteeing 10 seats to the €500,000 guaranteed €550 Main Event kicked off moments ago with already 31 entries in the field. Last night’s super satellite attracted 120 entries and it awarded 10 Main Event seats and a cash prize for 13th place.

Runar Borge, Vincent Picard, and Tibor Hoffman are among the players in action.

The €125 Roulette Championship attracted 18 entries for a €1,881 prize pool. The first round just concluded with six players making the final table.

“I’ve made my first final table!” said Jason Kiselis fresh in from Australia. “Just put in microprint that it was _{in the Roulette Championship and not at the poker tables}.”

Kiselis will be joined by Marco Herzog, current Cash Game Challenge leader Dzintars Lacis, Jakke Schraal, Domagoj Kuterovac, and Morten Lie.

Lie held this reporter responsible for giving him the idea to enter, so now we will have to keep our fingers crossed he at least cashed.

Meanwhile, it appeared for a while that Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon would get his way through and nearly did. Two players put their entire stacks on the green Zero and their miracle came in. Kenyon got no miracle back his way on the final spin and will now watch from the sidelines.

Meanwhile, the payouts were also announced as follows:

1. €941
2. €565
3. €375

The €125 Half n’ Half kicked off moments ago with a field of 17 players. The game will continue to rotate between no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha until a winner is crowned.

JJ Hazan, Georgi Voomets, Mark Adams, Andre Sorm, Carlo Braccini, and Martin Steen were among the early entrants.

The Festival Series photographer Mairo Toom was busy snapping away earlier away from the casino as players with the hospitality package were invited to a fun afternoon of pool. Check out the photos below:

A total of 13 players found a bag out of the 30 players to enter on Day 1c of the Mixed Main Event. This means that 28 players out of the 67 entries will battle it out on Day 2 starting at 8 p.m.

Cyprus’s Dimitris Giannakou performed the best on Day 1c and bagged up 142,000 putting him only behind Day 1b chip leader Jon Kyte who advanced with 147,500. The floor is preparing the Day 2 seat draw, which we will share shortly after it is made official.

The €125 Roulette Championship just kicked off with 16 players deciding to have some fun with a unique tournament to create a €1,672 prize pool.

Of course, The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk is in the mix as this is one event he never misses. Joseph Jackson, who will be back in the same room this evening for Franke’s Flip Flops, is also obviously in this event as well.

Meanwhile, Morten Lie was walking by the media desk and it didn’t take too much arm twisting for him to join in as well.

“I am going to play the (Bratislava) Deepstack,” Lie shared. “But, I didn’t want to join in this early.”

“Well, there is the Roulette Championship that is about to begin,” we shared.

“That decides it, of course I am hopping into the Roulette,” Lie said before he registered at the last second.

Players are back from their break in the €550 Mixed Main Event HORSES and late registration has closed. Day 1c attracted 30 entries to bring the total up to 67 entries when taking into account the 37 entries coming in during the first two opening flights.

So far, just 15 players advanced to Day 2, which will kick off at 8 p.m. and we will learn shortly before then how the €31,825 prize pool will be shared in the inaugural €550 Mixed Main Event HORSES.

Day 1c of the €250 Bratislava Deepstack just kicked off with 58 entries already in the mix. This is the last chance saloon for players that want to play in tomorrow’s Day 2 for a chance at the title.

Players will enjoy a deep structure with a starting stack of 30,100 (extra 100 chips makes it a Deepstack, obviously) with blinds increasing every 30 minutes. Late registration is open for 10 blind levels with players bagging their stacks after 16 levels are in the books.

Totti Lind, Daniel Briggs, Kristo Erala, Vytautas Kacerauskas, Sandor Mate, and Kasper Wuertz are among the entries in the field. Good luck to all of the Deepstack players.

WSOP Europe bracelet winner Dainius Antanaitis entered the €550 Main Event Day 1a despite being slated to play a short stack later on for Day 2 of the €550 Mixed Main Event HORSES.

He has a long story about his Day 1a Main Event run as follows:

“I sat down, unpacked my stuff, and soon after packed everything back up again,” shared Antanaitis.

“What happened?” we asked.

“I lasted just one hand,” Antanaitis shared.

The gist of the story is that Antanaitis opened off a fresh 75 big blind stack with blinds at 200/400 (400) from middle position. A player one seat over called before the big blind jacked it up to more than 10 big blinds. Antanaitis called with fives and the other player folded.

The player in the big blind continued on a queen-nine-trey flop.

“I called in case he gave up on the turn with something like ace-king,” shared Antanaitis.

A five on the turn appeared like a pot of gold under a rainbow for Antanaitis as he improved to a set. His opponent fired out for half the pot and Antanaitis jammed with two possible flush draws on the table. His opponent called and tabled aces.

Of course, his opponent rivers an ace to send Antanaitis out of Day 1a of the Main Event just as quickly as he came in.

We wish Antanaitis better luck in the Mixed Main Event HORSES when Day 2 kicks off at 8 p.m. Late registration for Day 1c, which thus far attracted 24 entries including the recently-arrived JJ Hazan.

Around this time last year, Dutch poker player Michel Molenaar won the 2022 The Festival Series Bratislava €550 Main Event for €126,650.

Molenaar has had some nice scores since then and most recently eclipsed his record score with a victory in the partypoker MILLIONS Dublin €3,000 Main Event for €210,000.

He just arrived back to where it all began last year from his home in Vienna and immediately hopped into Day 1a of the €500,000 guaranteed €550 Main Event in hopes to do it all once again.

Meanwhile, the Main Event field continues to grow with Day 1a already reaching 53 entries with 43 players in their seats.

Belgium’s Wouter Schuurbiers loves to play mixed games and open-face Chinese. But he also tends to play the bigger field hold’em events as well at festivals he has attended over the years.

Schuurbiers popped in a little late today, so we weren’t sure what his plan was.

“I guess I will hop back into the HORSES (for Day 1c),” said Schuurbiers after not making it through on his first try on Day 1a.

“I thought you might be playing the last chance saloon Day 1c of the Bratislava Deepstack instead,” I replied.

“I’ll probably play both,” Schuurbiers said with a shrug.

Let’s hope he won’t have time to enter the Bratislava Deepstack and has a good run in the HORSES which will also feature Day 2 at approximately 8 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Day 1c field of the €550 Mixed Main Event HORSES is up to 19 players with 18 players (including Franke) still in their seats with just Dario De Toffoli being the only player to hit the rail thus far. This brings the total field up to 56 entries and counting with still four more levels of late registration available.

Event #11: €250 Heads-Up capped out with 32 players creating a €6,840 prize pool.

“It’s sold out?” cried current Mixed Main Event HORSES chip leader Jon Kyte to Franke and myself.

“It started at 1 p.m.,” said Franke along with his iconic laugh.

Kyte came a little late and wasn’t able to get a seat but 32 others will be battling it out per the brackets below.

The heads-up affair has one of the deepest structures this reporter has seen especially at a €250 price point. Players start with 100 big blinds and blinds increase every 20 minutes. This is not all, as each match-up is a best-of-three format meaning that some matches will take much longer than others.

The top four players will go home with a tasty €955 payout. The runner-up will nearly double that with a €1,840 consolation prize, while the eventual winner will go home with a €3,090 top prize. Good luck to all of the heads-up players!

Today is a hold’em day for most players as every event is in hold’em outside the €500,000 guaranteed €550 Mixed Main Event. It was expected that many players might pop into side events including the last chance to advance on Day 1c in the two-day €250 Bratislava Deepstack, the €250 Heads-Up, and more.

That being said, the Main Event already attracted some early players with the field up to 40 entries already. Kristo Erala was the first player to hit the rail in this event followed by Mika Hietala and Patrick Malm.

Best of luck to all of the Main Event players!

The fun Event #12: €125 Roulette Championship is set to begin at 5 p.m. near the tournament registration area. The rules are simple, players will play a certain number of rounds at various Roulette tables. Players need to bet a minimum of 1 chip on inside bets and 5 chips on outside bets with a 200 chip maximum. The top two players at each table will meet for the final round until a winner is crowned.

The third and final flight for Event #2: €550 Mixed Main Event HORSES kicked off with ten players hopping into the mix to bring the total thus far up to 47 entries for a €22,325 prize pool.

This is just the start and these figures will grow with players permitted to re-enter twice per opening flight during the first eight blind levels. Players will bag up their stacks after ten blind levels of play and join the 15 players that already advanced during the first two opening flights led by Day 1b chip leader Jon Kyte and Day 1a chip leader Bas de Laat.

The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk shared with those playing in his pre-event announcement that he has tried without success with max bullets the first two flights but plans to bag big into Day 2, which also will be featured today with the action beginning at 8 p.m. or shortly thereafter.

Franke is joined by Matteo Crapanzano, Flips Master Keito Kaljulaid, Allan Arjut, Jonas Jurkaitis, Twitch streamer Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon, and Slovenian poker legend Blaz Zerjav. Best of luck to everyone in the Day 1c in their quests to become the champion of the inaugural Mixed Main HORSES event.

The first of six opening flights of the €500,000 guaranteed €550 Main Event kicked off a few minutes ago after announcements by the floor and The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk.

Players will enjoy 12 blind levels of 40 minutes each with a deep 30,000 starting stack and can re-enter twice per opening flight. Late registration will stay open until the end of the second blind level of Day 2 providing players plenty of chances to build a huge stack in hopes of becoming the latest TFS Main Event champion.

Event #4: €125 Crazy Pineapple champion Martin Kanaker from Value Town, Totti Lind, Kristo Erala, Bo Alm, Martin Klaar, Leif Iversen, Jari Pekka Rattya, Andres Leppik, and Brian Klindrup are among the early players in the field. Best of luck to all of the Main Event players in finding a big bag on Day 1a.

The third day at The Festival Series Bratislava will be the busiest to date with tons of new events including the start of the €500,000 guaranteed €550 Main Event and the debut of the first casino event of the festival in the €125 Roulette Event which we will share the rules of later in our coverage.

Many other interesting events are on tap including the continuation of the €550 Mixed Main HORSES and the €250 Bratislava Deepstack. The €250 Heads-Up tournament will also be one to keep our eyes open about as will be the live-streamed Cash Game Challenges. In other words, get ready for a fun day!