2023 The Festival Bratislava Day 8

The 2023 The Festival Series Bratislava was a massive success at Banco Casino thanks to an amazing vibe and tons of excitement at the tables with 54 numbered events in poker tournaments and casino championships including Blackjack, Roulette, and Slots Championships at Banco Casino from Nov. 26 to Dec. 3, 2023.

While Gabriel Rymar may not have won the Player of the Series he will be forever remembered for a huge week. He came into The Festival Series as a relatively unknown player from Poland with just crumbs appearing on his The Hendon Mob profile. His rise to The Festival Series fame and glory all began when he recorded by far his largest cash to date when he defeated a field of 354 entries to win the two-day Event #3: €250 Bratislava Deepstack for €14,400.

While this was one of the largest tournament prizes awarded, Rymar was far from done. Rymar began the final day of the four-day €500,000 guaranteed The Festival Series Bratislava €550 Main Event in sixth place with 16 players remaining and was the chip leader by the time the final table kicked off. He maintained the chip lead for nearly the entire final table and amassed more than seven times the chips of Greece’s Christoforos Christoforou during heads-up play. Rymar made quick work of his opponent to win the €80,000, while Christoforou secured a healthy €57,750 runner-up prize.

Before the final table began, there was buzz brewing throughout the poker community with Michel Molenaar still in action with a quest to become the first two-time The Festival Series Main Event champion. He bowed out early on the final day after his ducks didn’t win a flip against WSOP bracelet winner from North Macedonia Ilija Savevski. Shortly after, Molenaar joined The Festival Series commentator George Sandford in the booth to analyse the late game of the Main Event including witnessing Savevski advance to the podium with an impressive third-place finish for €36,750.

2023 The Festival Series Bratislava Final Table Results

The 2023 The Festival Series Bratislava €550 Main Event attracted 1,025 entries to create a €486,785 prize pool. Check out the final table results below:

Three The Festival Packages Awarded

Despite winning nearly €100,000, another player is believed to have won the Player of the Series as Rymar didn’t enter too many side events and focused on two of the bigger ones. The Player of the Series was a tight contest with Lithuania’s Rinatas Suleimanovas holding a one-point lead over British Twitch streamer Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon. It is believed that Kenyon likely pulled ahead to win the competition, which he was also in the running for at the previous The Festival Series stop in Malta. It is also plausible that Andrew Hanak is in the running after winning three side events. Organizers will run through the figures with a fine-tooth comb before the official winner is announced as there is a bit on the line with a package to the next The Festival Series from Feb. 25 to March 3 valued at €1,600.

Meanwhile, The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk became the first two-time winner of the Cash Game Challenge after winning 1,239 big blinds in the €5/€5 PLO4 Cash Game Challenge table a few evenings ago. Franke gave away the package in The Festival Photo Competition after winning the package in Malta and already shared plans to do something similar with the package he earned this time around after securing back-to-back victories.

Estonia’s Keito Kaljulaid also won a package to the next stop thanks to winning 11 flips during the nightly Franke’s Flip Flops. These were unraked affairs at €20 a flip. Kaljulaid ran hot early and held on. Assuming he ran at least break-even on the plethora of side bets he accepted against fellow flippers, chances are he won more than just the package in the process.

Hanak, Ponnio, and Smith Win Titles on Final Day

Andrew Hanak pulled off an unheard-of trifecta (or hattrick for football fans) at The Festival Series Bratislava as he won three separate events. Early in the week, he shipped the €125 Half n’ Half for €2,800. He followed this up with a victory in the €250 PLO Freezeout near the end of the week for €4,620. His third and final cash was also a victory on the final day when he won the €60 Low Roller for €1,450. This is not all as even though it seems unlikely despite the three victories that Hanak wins a package for winning the Player of the Series, he won a package anyway as a fourth free package to the next The Festival Series was generously added for the winner of the Low Roller.

Meanwhile, Risto Ponnio bested a field of 15 players in the €1,100 OFC High Roller on the final day to win the €7,150 top prize and Daniel Smith came out on top of the two-day €250 Mystery Bounty for €6,290.

Get Ready for Four Stops in 2024

The Festival will be back for four more stops in 2024. You should reserve the dates now and stay tuned as we release the locations one by one from the latest to the earliest over the next week or two. Check out the dates below:

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

Poland’s Gabriel Rymar found himself in a familiar spot. Earlier this week, he was on the final table in the two-day €250 Bratislava Deepstack before going on to win the event in front of the lights and cameras of the t.v. table for €14,400. Today, Rymar led the way most of the final table of the 2023 The Festival Series Bratislava €550 Main Event at Banco Casino. Rymar had Christoforos Christoforou dominated chip-wise to start the heads-up play before he quickly sealed the deal to win the €80,000 top prize and entering his name into The Festival Series history books. Meanwhile, Christoforou had a fantastic day and will go home with an extra €57,750 thanks to finishing runner-up.

This concludes our coverage for this evening but we will be back tomorrow to wrap up the results of the other ongoing side events along with a recap of the Main Event and the rest of the day. A massive congrats to Gabriel Rymar for winning both the Bratislava Deepstack and the Main Event to cap off an amazing week of poker action.

It has been my pleasure this week and looking forward to seeing you again the next time. In the meantime, check out the Day 3 results from the Main Event.

North Macedonia’s Ilija Savevski was one of the most accomplished poker players to enter the Main Event with $807,070 in tournament winnings to put him on top of his country’s All Time Leaderboard at The Hendon Mob. Defending The Festival Bratislava champion Michel Molenaar advanced to the final day but was one of the early casualties of the day after unsuccessfully three-bet jamming his ducks into Savevski’s ace-nine suited and headed to the commentating booth with The Festival Series commentator George Sandford to commentate the end of the event.

Meanwhile, Savavski was one of two players to advance to the final day who earned WSOP hardware after winning a bracelet at the WSOP Europe Event #3: €1,350 Mini Main Event in 2022 for his largest career live tournament cash of €255,669. He has also had some success at Banco Casino as around this time last year he won the €199 The Hendon Mob Championship for €28,742. This is no longer his largest cash at Banco Casino as he just hit the rail in the Main Event on the podium in third place for €36,750 after losing his final hand as follows against Gabriel Rymar.

Savevski limped with A A from the button with blinds at 150,000/300,000 with a 300,000 big blind ante before Rymar checked back his option with the Robbi Jade Lew J 4 . Rymar check-called a min-bet by Savevski after improving to bottom pair on the K 5 4 flop before both players checked the J turn. Savevski led out for 500,000 on the J river. Rymar tanked for about 30 seconds before he jammed with his two pair. Savevski had 3,200,000 behind and tanked for a couple of minutes before he found a call only to get the bad news that his Main Event end was over after his pocket rockets proved to be no good.

Rymar has been putting on a dominating display and holds a massive 7:1 chip advantage over Christoforos Christoforou to start heads-up play.

Wouter Schuurbiers and Risto Ponnio were playing deuce-seven, Badugi in the middle progressive OFC pineapple with Johnny Johansen in the lobby as a warm-up before the start of the €1,100 OFC High Roller.

Johansen was the big winner in that game but gave it all back and then some by missing out on the money cut in the OFC High Roller. Meanwhile, Schuurbiers and Ponnio join Liking Saiyasely as the final three players in the money for at least a €2,850 min-cash. Tonight’s runner-up will bank €4,250 while the eventual winner of the final event to start at the 2023 The Festival Series Bratislava will take home €7,150.

Slovakia’s Peter Jesko’s poker history goes back for 15 years with $155,123 in cashes. He just nailed down the biggest cash of them after finishing one spot short of the podium in fourth place for €22,750 in the Main Event. Unfortunately, the hand was missed on the stream, but you can watch the interview with the start-of-the-day chip leader from before the start of the day below:

Laszlo Burany had a handful of tournament cashes, all in Bratislava, heading into the Main Event and secured his largest score of them all with a fifth-place finish worth €16,580. It could have potentially been more if not for a cooler of a hand against chip leader Christoforos Christoforou but at the end of the day it was an amazing result for the Hungarian.

Burany’s last stand took place after he got a walk through with ace-ten and the blinds increased to 100,000/200,000 with a 200,000 big blind ante. Christoforou opened the button for 500,000. Burany three-bet shoved for 1,200,000 from the small blind before the start-of-the-day chip leader Peter Jesko four-bet shoved for 2.1 million from the big blind. Christoforou folded A 8 and Burany was behind and at risk.

Laszlo Burany: Q J
Peter Jesko: A J

Jesko’s ace-jack held on the 6 8 10 3 8 board to increase his stack to 4.1 million in chips and end Burany’s Main Event run.

Christoforos Christforou opened for a min-raise with blinds at 80,000/160,000 with a 160,000 big blind ante and was called by Laszlo Burany from the button.

Christoforou led out for 450,000 on the K 9 J flop. Burany raised to 1,400,000 and Christoforou called. Both players checked the 3 turn before Christoforou jammed the A river for 4,800,000. Burany called for most of his stack only to get some bad news. Christoforou held the A A and nearly lost a big pot and perhaps his tournament life if not improving to a set of aces on the river as Burany was ahead on the flop and turn with his 9 9 only to be down to crumbs in his stack.

Meanwhile, Christoforou snagged the chip lead from Gabriel Rymar with around 13 million chips to 11 million.

The Festival Series €550 Main Event title won’t be heading to Sweden as Tommy Alm recently hit the rail in sixth place for €13,345. This was one spot better than Alm secured in an earlier multiday event this festival when he took seventh place in the €250 Bratislava Deepstack.

Chip leader and Bratislava Deepstack champion Gabriel Rymar opened for 375,000 from under the gun with blinds at 80,000/160,000 along with a 160,000 big blind ante. Tommy Alm three-bet to 850,000 from the big blind and Rymar called for both players to see the 5 3 Q flop. Alm shoved for 3.3 million into a pot of a bit less and Rymar didn’t waste too much time before he called.

Tommy Alm: 7 7
Gabriel Rymar: K K

It was horrific timing for a shove for Alm as he was down to just two outs or a pair of runners for a straight to stay alive. Instead, the A turn and 10 river completed the board and Rymar had more than 1/3 of the total chips in play with 11 million in chips after the hand.

Spain’s David Trueba has notched up a bunch of smaller cashes, mostly at Banco Casino, to accumulate $14,294 in live poker tournament earnings tracked by The Hendon Mob. Trueba just notched his largest cash after finishing in seventh place for €10,900.

He got involved from the cutoff with A 7 with a min-raise. Christoforou woke up with A Q from the big blind before the live stream went out for a hand. By the time the stream came back, Trueba was on the rail with his biggest career cash tracked by The Hendon Mob.

Germany’s Nicolas Sievers was quietly trucking away in the Main Event before he bowed out in eighth place for €8,800. Things could have turned out differently if he was able to win the following flip against Peter Jesko.

David Trueba opened for a min-raise from early position with 10 9 before Sievers jammed the button for 2 million with blinds at 60,000/120,000 along with a 120,000 big blind ante with A Q . Jesko woke up with J J from the big blind and four-bet shoved for 3.3 million. Trueba folded and Sievers was flipping to stay alive.

Sievers improved to top pair on the 6 Q J flop. However, Jesko was far ahead as this flop improved his hand to a set. The 10 turn provided four outs for Broadway but Sievers’ Main Event run was in the books after the 10 river paired the board to further improve Jesko to an unnecessary full house.

The Main Event lost its first player at the final table with Marios Pavlou from Cyprus exiting in ninth place after around 2 hours of nine-handed action.

Pavlou came into the Main Event with $30,929 in poker tournament earnings as tracked by The Hendon Mob and came just shy of notching his biggest overall cash which still stands as a third-place finish in the 2021 The Hendon Mob €250 Championship for €14,965 here at Banco Casino.

Pavlou bet on all three streets including getting his stack on the river with a set holding 9 9 with the 2 4 A K 9 on the board. Tommy Alm rivered a flush with Q 10 to win the hand and was near the chip lead of Gabriel Ryman with 5.9 million in his stack with blinds at 60,000/120,000 along with a 120,000 big blind ante.

ACR Stormer Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon was one point behind Lithuania’s Rinatas Suleimanovas in the Player of the Series competition heading into today with the winner of the competition earning a package valued at €1,600 to the first The Festival Series stop in 2024 at a located to be announced soon from Feb. 25 to March 3.

Kenyon entered the final event of The Festival Series Bratislava in Event #54: €1,100 OFC High Roller and is at least for now on the top of the leaderboard based on entry points alone with no sign of Suleimanovas. Of course, it is possible a player in the Main Event or from the Mystery Bounty will pass Kenyon, but at least for now, he is streaming at his Pokerbrahs Twitch channel his OFC action.

The OFC High Roller grew to 12 entries thus far. There has been no sign of Franke, but Coolbet streamer Oskar Wedde and Juuso Keskitalo both joined the action recently.

In other news, the Main Event is still at nine players. Head to TheFestivalOG Twitch channel to watch the action unfold.

Earlier this week, Gabriel Rymar shipped the two-day €250 Bratislava Deepstack for €14,400. He has already locked up €7,300 more in the Main Event and is in the driver’s seat to win much more with the chip lead and an €80,000 top prize on the line.

Players are represented from eight different countries with no play with too short of a stack. Check out the final table seat draw below and click on the Stream tab within our coverage or head to TheFestivalOG on Twitch to watch the action unfold.

Players with the hospitality package had fun playing “Find Anastasia” as she hid in various pubs and other locales throughout Bratislava as a fun hide-and-seek type of game. Now, we might need to play “Find Franke” instead as he is noticeably missing from the final event of The Festival Series Bratislava in the €1,100 OFC High Roller.

The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk found out that he won the Cash Game Challenge for a second straight The Festival Series after also winning this prize at The Festival Series Malta in May. He was up most of the night celebrating and we did see him win a pot or two earlier today in cash games. He typically doesn’t miss the €1,100 OFC High Roller, but today might be a first.

Meanwhile, Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon pulled ahead by default in the Player of the Series competition simply by entering the High Roller. Wouter Schuurbiers, Risto Ponnio, and Johnny Johansen were all warming up with games leading up to the event with a fun variant involving both deuce-seven and badugi for the middle hand.

Best of luck to all of the OFC aficionados. The field currently stands at nine entries but is bound to grow before late registration closes.

Back-to-back players from Denmark hit the rail to leave just a final table of nine players. The latest casualty was Nidal Dawoud, who made his first trip to The Festival Series and had a deep run in the Main Event only to bow out in 10th place for €6,080.

Not much was known about Dawoud until recently. He was witnessed squeaking into the final table at the Malta Poker Festival €550 Main Event but wasn’t able to get any further for a ninth place finish for €10,380. He was playing for much more today but it wasn’t meant to be. Better luck next year to run even deeper at The Festival Series and across the globe!

Denmark’s Mohammed El Khatib wasn’t a well-known player in the poker world or at The Festival Series. We hope this is the first of many trips to The Festival Series for El Khatib.

El Khatib nearly made the final table but instead settled for the 11th-place prize of €6,080. Moments later, the final Danish player hit the rail. Stay tuned for the next post about the final table bubble that occurred on stream the very next hand.

Krisztian Kis was one of two Hungarian players to advance to the final 16 players on the final day of the €550 Main Event alongside countrymate Laszlo Vaczy Burany.

Kis, who is also seen playing at this venue’s sister casino at Banco Casino Kosice, came into the Main Event with $109,567 in cashes tracked at The Hendon Mob and added another €5,275 to this total after bowing out in 12th place in the Main Event.

He would have notched his biggest career live tournament score if he went on to win the event but as it stands his podium third place finish in the Euro Poker Million €490 Main Event at King’s Resort in €72,126 in 2021 will still remain as he biggest live poker tournament haul.

Those hoping for the first two-time The Festival Series Main Event champion are bound to be disappointed but were at least let out of their misery early. This will prove to be no consolation for the Dutch poker beast Michel Molenaar who just hit the rail in the 2023 The Festival Series Bratislava €550 Main Event for €5,275.

Molenaar, who has been crushing online poker tournaments for many years, became a household name in European poker circles after he won the 2022 The Festival Series Bratislava €550 Main Event for €126,650 a little more than a year ago. Molenaar has been on an absolute live tear from there with several big cashed including his biggest one earlier this month when he shipped the Irish Poker Festival partypoker LIVE Dublin €3,000 Main Event for €210,000. These scores and many others pushed Molenaar to $753,480 in cashes to crack the top 50 players on The Netherlands All-Time Money List at The Hendon Mob.

We look forward to witnessing Molenaar dominate more events at both The Festival Series and other stops around the globe and congrats for another impressive run at The Festival Series Bratislava at Banco Casino.

Slovenia’s Ziga Klopcic had deep runs in both the €250 Bratislava Deepstack and the €250 The Hendon Mob Championship only to fall short of the big money on the second and final day of both events.

Klopcic came into the day with his hopes alive for a big score in the €550 Main Event and added to his $10,615 in The Hendon Mob tracked poker tournament cashes with a 14th place performance worth €4,500.

This was the second biggest score for Klopcic, who had the honor of having Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon on his rail and the rail of Kenyon’s other friend in defending The Festival Series Bratislava Main Event champion Michel Molenaar. Klopcic’s biggest score came when he took sixth place in the €250 SharkBay Main Event at Perla Casino in his home country of Slovenia for €6,500.

Egypt’s Madged Aziz is often at Banco Casino as it consistently offers quality poker close to his home in Vienna, Austria. Aziz dazzled the crowd with the second-biggest win in live poker with a runner-up performance in September at the €550 Coolbet Open for €38,690.

Although Aziz was able to add to the $293,854 in lifetime poker tournament cashes tracked at The Hendon Mob, he would have likely preferred to add a zero to the end as he had to settle for being the second player out of the €550 Main Event on the final day to bank the 15th place prize of €4,500.

The €550 Main Event lost its first player on the final day with local Slovakian player Samuel Stranak exiting in 16th place for €4,500.

Stranak is an accomplished poker player with $261,858 in tournament cashes according to The Hendon Mob. The local hero also has a WSOP Europe bracelet to his name after shipping Event #4: €2,000 Pot Limit Omaha for €101,764 in 2021.

This marks the second straight festival that Stranak had a deep run in The Festival Series Main Event. He finished in 10th place in The Festival Series Malta at Portomaso Casino for €4,100. Hopefully, we will see him get one table further at The Festival Series’s next stop in February.

The €250 Mystery Bounty just kicked off with the final 35 players already in the money. One of these players will draw the lucky top mystery bounty prize of €5,650. Time will tell who that will be. Check out the seat draw below for the second and final day of the €250 Mystery Bounty.

Cards are in the air for the final day of the €550 Main Event with 16 players remaining and 19 minutes left on the clock for the 25,000/50,000 (50,000) blind level. After this level, blinds will increase every 50 minutes.

Will chip leader Peter Jesko hold on to seal the deal? Will we potentially witness the first two-time The Festival Series Main Event champion with Michel Molenaar going for back-to-back titles after winning The Festival Series Bratislava Main Event in 2022 or will it be a new player among the final two tables thrust into the spotlight?

Time will tell, but we recommend you click on the Stream tab in our coverage or head to TheFestivalOG Twitch channel to watch along with George Sandford behind the microphone.

Best of luck to all of the remaining players in achieving The Festival Series Main Event glory!

The second to last event at The Festival Series Bratislava has just kicked off in Event #53: €60 Low Roller. This event has a small buy-in and doesn’t count towards the Player of the Series leaderboard standings. However, there is tons of value as the winner will not only go home with a lion’s share of the prize pool but also an added package valued at €1,600 to the next The Festival Series on Feb. 25 to March 3 at a location to be announced soon.

Jason Kiselis, Stig Moen, Per Gjelten, and Gia Carnestroem are among the early entrants.

Meanwhile, Day 3 of the Main Event will kick off at 1 p.m. It will be streamed from the beginning, so our updates will mostly also be on a 30-minute delay in that event due to the live stream. Click on the Stream tab within our coverage or head to TheFestivalOG Twitch channel to follow along.

The second and final day of the €250 Mystery Bounty begins at 1:30 p.m. following by the final event in Event #54: €1,100 OFC High Roller at 4 p.m.