2023 The Festival Bratislava Day 7

It has been an amazing week at Banco Casino to say the least at the 2023 The Festival Series Bratislava with all guarantees met, side events booming, cash games running around the clock, and, of course, the €550 Main Event attracting a banner field of 1,025 entries to create a €486,785 prize pool.

Local Slovakian Peter Jesko leads the way with defending The Festival Series Bratislava Main Event champion Michel Molenaar still in the mix with hopes still alive with just 16 players remaining heading into the final day to become the first two-time The Festival Series Main Event winner.

The final day will be broadcasted at TheFestivalOG Twitch channel starting at 1:30 p.m. until a winner is crowned. So be sure to tune in.

Main Event Final Day Seat Draw

Franke & Kaljulaid Win The Festival Series Packages

Saturday was full of action with tons of side events. Before we get into the tournaments, congratulations are in order for The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk for winning the Cash Game Challenge for a second time in a row after his 1,239 big blind he won at a televised €5/€5 pot-limit Omaha Cash Game Challenge table proved to be enough to win the leaderboard. The package he won, valued at €1,600 to the next The Festival Series at a location to be announced soon from Feb. 25 to March 3, will be given away in a contest similar to what happened with The Festival Photo Competition after Franke won the same title in Malta.

Meanwhile, Keito Kaljulaid won 11 flips in the Franke’s Flip Flop challenge by Thursday night and this was enough to stay on top of the leaderboard to win the second The Festival Series package valued at €1,600. A third package will be given away for the player that wins the Player of the Series award with Lithuania’s Rinatas Suleimanovas and British poker streamer Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon just one point apart heading into the final day.

Other Winners

Many other players had a day to remember on Saturday, including the aforementioned Suleimanovas who won one of the side events last evening. Check out yesterday’s winners below:

• Event #46: €250 PLO Freezeout – Andrew Hanak (United Kingdom) – €4,620
• Event #47: €250 NL Texas Freezeout – Henri Piironen (Finland) – €5,797
• Event #50: €125 Saturday Turbo PLO5 Midnight Madness – Rinatas Suleimanovas (Lithuania) – €2,915
• Event #52: €125 Saturday Turbo Texas Midnight Madness – Omer Yozgat (Germany) – €2,403

Day 8 Schedule (Dec. 3)

The final day boasts two new tournaments in the €60 Low Roller and the €1,100 OFC High Roller. The Low Roller won’t count towards the Player of the Series calculations while both the OFC High Roller and the two ongoing tournaments in tlhe Main Event and Mystery Bounty will count. Check out the schedule for the final day of the 2023 The Festival Series Bratislava at Banco Casino:

Event #52: €125 Saturday NLH Turbo Midnight Madness kicked off at midnight and eventually attracted 84 entries to create a €8,778 prize pool.

Omer Yozgat earned the title after he defeated Leif Hetland heads-up to claim the €2,403 top prize.

The €125 Saturday Turbo PLO5 Midnight Madness attracted 103 entries to create a €10,765 prize pool. Lithuania’s defeated Serguei Palomera heads-up to win the title and the €2,915 top prize. This was just enough to push him to the top of the Player of the Series leaderboard. He is just one point ahead of Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon, who will get at least that point as he plans to play the €1,100 OFC High Roller on Sunday at 4 p.m. for his final shot at The Festival Series glory and valuable leaderboard points.

Event #48: €250 Mystery Bounty attracted 283 entries on its Day 1 on Saturday to create a €60,135 prize pool to blow past the €50,000. The final 35 players locked up at least a €250 min-cash with a €6,410 top prize on the line for Sunday’s champion.

That is just half the story as there will be tons of excitement with the mystery bounty envelopes introduced on Day 2. A player earns a choice at an envelope after they eliminate an opponent. The prize could be €315 but could also be as high as €5,650.

Nikolaos Ktenas leads the way with 672,000 followed by Jeroen Aarts with 635,000. But it is anyone’s game on Day 2. Check out the final Day 1 chip counts and keep your eyes peeled for the seat draw before cards are in the air at 1:30 p.m. for the second and final day of the Mystery Bounty.

Event #47: €250 NL Texas Freezeout attracted 125 unique players to create a €26,718 prize pool. A three-way deal between Scandanavian neighbors occurred near the end of the event. Sweden’s Thomas Videll and John Bonds both collected €4,348, while Finland’s Henri Piironen won the title after the deal was made and banked €5,797 in the process.

Check out the 15 players that cashed in the €250 NL Texas Freezeout.

*Reflects three-way deal at final table.

On Saturday evening, Andrew Hanak defeated Vesa Heikkinen in Event #46: €250 PLO Freezeout for €4,620. The event attracted 72 entries for a €15,390 prize pool. Check out all of the players that cashed in the PLO Freezeout below:

The Festival Series Bratislava €550 Main Event added 90 new entries during the first two blind levels of Saturday’s Day 2 to blossom to 1,025 entries for a €486,875 prize pool. The 398 Day 2 entries whittled past the money bubble to just 16 hopefuls remaining.

Slovakia’s Peter Jesko bagged the overnight chip lead with 3,255,000 for one physical chip more than Sweden’s Bo Alm who managed to advance with 3,250,000. Spain’s David Trueba (3,015,000) also finished the penultimate day with more than 3 million.

Meanwhile, all eyes are on Netherlands’ Michel Molenaar who advanced with a shorter stack of 1,270,000. The Dutch poker hero won The Festival Series Bratislava Main Event last year when at Banco Casino and has been hungry to become the first two-time The Festival Series Main Event champion by winning the same event in back-to-back years.

The start of the day chip leader Kelly Kellner made a grand entrance but hit the rail near the bubble after losing what he described as six flips in a row. JJ Hazan had a similar story with his fifth place stack. Meanwhile, players including The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk, The Festival’s Karev Tralla, and Adam Tomasson managed to cash today despite starting off with fresh stacks.

Check out the final Day 2 chip counts below and stay tuned for the Day 3 seat draw. Cards will be in the air shortly after 1 p.m. with the live stream kicking off 30 minutes later at TheFestivalOG Twitch channel and other social media.

Players have bagged their chips on the penultimate day of the Main Event with just 16 players. The remaining players locked up €3,855 with a shot at nailing down a whopping €80,000 haul tomorrow. Check out all of the payouts during Saturday’s Day 2 of the €550 Main Event.

Drea Karlsen was the final woman in the Main Event until she bowed out in 23rd place for €3,355. Also collecting the same prize were Dushko Bogoevski, Andras Halasi, and Tadeusz Raczynski. The final 19 players locked up €3,855 with players bagging their chips into tomorrow’s Day 3 when there are just 16 hopefuls remaining.

In case you missed it, The Festival Series announced the dates for its tour for next year in 2024. The actual locations are a closely guarded secret and will be revealed from the latest to the earliest over the next week or so.

For now, save the following dates on your itinerary, and see you at The Festival Series in 2024!

• February 25 to March 3, 2024
• May 31 to June 9, 2024
• September 9-15, 2024
• November 18-24, 2024

The tables rebalanced with 24 players remaining in the Main Event. Shortly after, Jonatan Wedde ended his deep run in 24th place for €2,955 leaving Drea Karlsen as not only the last female remaining but the last Norwegian in the Main Event.

Seven others cashed for €2,955 alongside Wedde while the remaining 23 players include Karlsen and defending The Festival Series Bratislava champion Michel Molenaar €400 richer as they all locked up €3,355.

As a reminder, players will bag and tag their stacks on Day 2 after the field is down to 16 players or less. The final two tables of players will resume their battle for the title and the €80,000 top prize on Sunday at 1 p.m. We will provide some updates along the way in the blog, however, the entire day will also be live-streamed at TheFestivalOG Twitch channel from the beginning until a winner is crowned.

The €250 PLO Freezeout attracted 72 unique players to create a €15,390 prize pool. The action is on the money bubble with 10 players remaining and just nine of them adding to their wallets at least a €450 min-cash. Tonight’s winner will go home with a much bigger prize of €4,770.

Mark Adams, Benjamin Binyaminov, Andrew Hanak, Savvas Hayiannis, Vesa Heikkanen, Johnny Johansen, Gabor Skrinyar, Michael Tastanis, Arjan van Bavel, and Alexander Zirckelbach are still alive and competing for one of the final titles of The Festival Series Bratislava. Best of luck to all of the remaining players and check out photos below by The Festival Series photographer Mairo Toom.

The following players cashed for €2,600 in the Main Event. Players now banked a bit more with the top 31 players locking in at least €2,955.

The following players cashed for €2,300 in the Main Event including Betsson’s Jostein Groedum who ended another impressive run in 47th place and The Festival Series veteran Kasper Wuertz who took 42nd place.

Allan Arjut and seven others cashed for €2,055 on Day 2 of the Main Event. The remaining 47 players each locked up at least a €2,300 min-cash.

The following players, including Value Town’s Martin Kanaker, hit the rail for €1,830 in the Main Event. The remaining 55 players locked up at least a payout of €2,055. Kanaker we learned lost a big 2 million pot on stream with aces vs. kings. Quite a brutal way to go.

There are not one, but two €125 Midnight Madness tournaments on Saturday evening. The €125 Saturday 5-Card PLO Turbo Friday Midnight Madness kicks off at 10 p.m. followed by the €125 Saturday Texas Turbo Midnight Madness at midnight.

Player of the Series leaderboard captain Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon already confirmed he will enter both events even if he needs to play them at the same time running from table to table.

Good luck to everyone joining in on the midnight fun. Remember to double your pleasure and double your fun. Or perhaps leave the multi-tabling to Pokerbrahs.

Two players from Norway, two from Poland, and Netherlands’ Bas de Laat were among the eight players to cash for €1,635 in the Main Event. The remaining 63 players each locked up at least a €1,830 payout.

The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk is in the driver’s seat in his hunt to win back to back Cash Game Challenges at The Festival Series. He won the challenge by winning the most big blinds in a Cash Game Challenge session in Malta and gave the package away in The Festival Series Photo Competition.

The other night, Franke won 1,239 big blinds in €5/€5 pot-limit Omaha to take the lead in the Cash Game Challenge at the 2023 The Festival Series Bratislava at Banco Casino. This puts him in the lead in the competition and Franke already shared he will give away this package as well if he wins the prize.

There are two more chances to stop our hero from becoming the first player to win two Cash Game Challenges at The Festival Series. First, there is a €10/€10 no-limit Hold’em Cash Game Challenge starting at around 8 p.m. followed by a €10/€10 pot-limit Omaha Cash Game Challenge starting at around 10:30 p.m. Players can sign up for these special tables on the casino floor. They will not be televised this evening as TheFestivalOG Twitch channel is busy with Day 2 of the Main Event instead.

Two players from Sweden in Robert Kontkanen and Mats Rosqvist cashed for €1,450 in the Main Event alongside players from six other nationalities. The final 71 players now locked up at least a €1,635 payout.

Defending The Festival Series Main Event champion Michel Molenaar is among the players still battling it out and has one of the bigger stacks from around the room with more than 1 million in chips with blinds at 6,000/12,000 with a 12,000 big blind ante.

Players are dropping out quickly including three players from Denmark in Michel Petersen, Blackjack Championship winner Nicklas Dehli, and Henrik Brun who all collected €1,300 for their efforts along with the below players. The top 79 players will go home with at least a €1,450 payout.

The following players cashed for €1,175 in the Main Event including The Festival Series veteran Peder Behr. The remaining 87 players bumped up their payouts to at least €1,300.

The following players, including The Festival Series’s Karev Tralla, hit the rail for €1,075 in the Main Event. The remaining 95 players each locked up €100 more with at least €1,175 secured.

The Festival Series founder and The Festival Series co-commentator Jacob Dideriksen-Nielsen both hit the rail recently to collect a €1,000 prize along with all of the other following players.

The two-day €250 Mystery Bounty kicked off moments ago with 73 entries. This event will get big as late registration is open for 12 blind levels.

The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk earned some unneeded (they are unneeded since he isn’t in the running) Player of the Series points by entering but won’t get any more points unless he re-enters as he was the first player to hit the rail.

There is a generous €50,000 guarantee slapped on this event with half reserved for the prize pool and the other half going towards the mystery bounty pool. The excitement heats up further in this event on Sunday when players will be in the money and doing their best to grab the biggest mystery bounty envelopes every time they eliminate a player.

While Franke is on the rail, many others are just beginning their battles including JJ Hazan, Georgiou Antonios, Simon Dodd, Per Gjelten, Sturla Hiller, Sascha Manns, Risto Ponnio, and Andre Sorm. While Hazan entered this event after busting his big stack in the Main Event before the money, the start-of-the-day chip leader Kelly Kellner who also didn’t make the money is continuing his break away from the tables.

The following players were eliminated from the Main Event for a min-cash of €955. The rest of the field (including Franke!!?!?!) locked up a little more with at least a €1,000 prize awaiting them.

Estonia’s Keito Kaljulaid has a comfortable lead in the Franke’s Flip Flops competition with just one day of flips remaining. While he isn’t a lock just yet, it’s pretty close, and it appears he is in line to win a free The Festival Series package valued at €1,600 to the first The Festival Series stop next year on February 25 to March 3, 2024.

This might soften the blue for Kaljulaid who just bubbled the Main Event in 129th place after several hand-for-hand hands were played out at all of the tables. Meanwhile, a massive congrats to the remaining 128 players including The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk for cashing in the Main Event. We will have more photos of the Main Event, including the bubble, to share with you shortly.

The Main Event is getting close to the money with the action down to 130 players with 128 players earning at least a €955 min-cash. We will report who that unlucky bubble person was shortly after it goes down with photos by our experienced team.

The Festival Series Bratislava €550 Main Event attracted 1,025 entries for a €486,875 prize pool. The payouts have just been announced. The action is down to just 160 entries with 128 of them going home with at least a €955 min-cash. The pay jumps move up from there until the last player standing on Sunday will go home with an €80,000 top prize.

As a reminder, Day 2 is scheduled to end when there are just 16 players remaining. The action will be deep into the money with just two tables of players when the action resumes on the live stream starting at 12 p.m. on Sunday. Here is a look at the payouts of the 2023 The Festival Series Bratislava €550 Main Event:

The second freezeout event of the day in the €250 NLH Freezeout just kicked off with 42 players. Like the Omaha version that kicked off, late registration will be allowed for the first four blind levels. However, no re-entries will be permitted as this is a freezeout affair.

Heidi Bekker, Matthew Adams, Tone Fester, Pia Jeppesen, Brian Klindrup, Dominik Ostrowski, and Sandor Mate are among the early players in action.

Ola Brandborn, who left Banco Casino more than a day ago, relinquished his spot on the top of the Player of the Series leaderboard’s unofficial standings and slid down to third place.

Scott Kenyon managed another runner-up finish, this time in the €250 PLO Masters to claim the top spot while Lithuania’s Rinatas Suleimanovas, who took fourth place in that event, climbed up to second place.

Neither player remains in the Main Event, so it could be someone else that pushes past both of them with some impressive names on the leaderboard including Michal Janczarski, Alexander van Dijk, Andre Sorm, Pawel Keller, Jon Kyte, Paul Berthet, and Robert Kontkanen all in the top 10 heading into today.

Keep in mind the below results aren’t official and as of now do not include all bounty tournaments which will be added later. Events not open to everyone including The Seniors 49+ and The Festival Queens do not count towards the leaderboard. This is the same for qualifiers and any tournaments with a buy-in under €125 also not included on the leaderboard. Check out the top 10 players on the Player of the Series leaderboard at the 2023 The Festival Series Bratislava at Banco Casino.

The Festival Series Bratislava is booming in style for its last stop in 2023 at Banco Casino. The Main Event met its lofty €500,000 guarantee with 1,025 players getting into the mix despite a heavy focus on mixed games and casino games throughout The Festival Series Bratislava.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled with the attendance,” shared The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk. “Players, including qualifiers from nearly 20 partners, came from just about every country in Europe and from as far away places such as Canada and Australia to join in on a fun week of poker full of poker and casino events. We look forward to providing an even better experience next year in 2024.”

With that being said, The Festival Series is thrilled to announce its dates for next year. There will be plenty of hold’em action including Main Events with big guarantees while still providing plenty of action for all mixed-game enthusiasts and casino fans with Blackjack tournaments, Roulette tournaments, Slots tournaments, and sports wagering competitions to continue and just get bigger. This year boasted stops at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham, UK, Portomaso Casino in Malta, and Banco Casino in Bratislava, Slovakia. Next year’s locations for now will be a closely guarded secret and released one-by-one starting with the last stop of the year over the course of the next week to add to the suspense. That being said, qualifiers will already start running in just 10 days with full packages to the next The Festival Series stop on tap.

Without further ado, here is a look at the schedule for the 2024 The Festival Series.

• May 31 to June 9, 2024 – Rozvadov
• September 9-15, 2024 – Malta
• November 18-24, 2024 – Bratislava

So be sure to save the dates, keep your eyes peeled for the locations to be released in reverse order throughout the next week, and join us for even more excitement in 2024.

While most of the tournaments at The Festival Series have allowed re-entries, the €250 PLO Freezeout is an exception to that rule. Players can still late enter for the first four blind levels but can’t re-enter during that time.

The event kicked off with 20 players including Zoltan Gal, Jari Hurri, Jaroslav Peter, and Georgi Voomets. Both Player of the Series leader Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon and runner-up Rinatas Suleimanovas recently shared they both plan to play. We will see if this changes anything at the top of the leaderboard.

Best of luck to all of the PLO Freezeout players!

Players are on their first break of Day 2 of the Main Event with late registration closing after the break. There were 1,024 entries with 239 players remaining at the break with the prize pool reaching €486,400. It will grow a little during the break and shortly after the break we will have the final prize pool and payouts.

Best of luck to all of the Main Event players as now is for keeps with no more second chances.

The €500,000 slapped on the Main Event has been reached with the 1,000th player awarded a free The Festival Series Main Event ticket for the first stop of next year. Many of the last few players to enter before the guarantee was reached were awarded free The Festival Series merchandise.

Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk was patiently waiting for the guarantee before he entered.

“I will watch the first hand,” said Franke’s good friend Peter La Terra. “He will be all-in for sure.”

“What happens if he doubles up or, even better, double up twice?” we asked.

“That won’t happen but if it does I will go take a bath,” we replied.

Franke did indeed shove the first two hands. The first hand was a good one with king-queen. He got folds both times and actually folded the third hand. He was quickly on 55,000 from his 30,000 starting stack and, at least for now, La Terra is still on his rail.

It appears that the lofty €500,000 guarantee will be smashed as there are already 30 new entries getting into the mix before the start of Day 2 to bring the total field up to 965 entries. Players can still get into the mix with late registration open for the first two blind levels of Day 2.

Cards are in the air after speeches spanning multiple rooms.

Best of luck to all of the players in The Festival Series Main Event.