2023 The Festival Bratislava Live Blog

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.

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:

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.

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.

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 €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.

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.

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.

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

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!

The €125 The Festival Queens attracted 35 female entries to create a €3,657 prize pool. Valerie Slavickova was awarded a bubble prize of €122 while Gia Carnestroem took home €400 for fourth place before the final three ladies agreed to a deal. Jade Walker went on to win the event for €1,180, while the Norwegian duo in Siv Vekseth and Catherine Snildan took home €970 and €985 respectively.

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 €125 NLH proved to be popular with 238 entries creating a €27,027 prize pool to nearly double the €15,000 guarantee.

Greece’s Theordoros Ampelikiotis made the most of the event by defeating Denmark’s Michel Petersen to win the €5,950 top prize. Check out the list of all 31 players who cashed in this event:

The €125 Friday Turbo Midnight Madness attracted 88 late-night runners to create a €9,196 prize pool. Giovanni Capitano defeated Robin Olsen to win the €2,245 top prize.

While congratulations are in order for all of the players that cashed, we will give an even more special one to our friend in The Hendon Mob’s Hans Kleinsman who min-cashed this event.

For many years, Kleinsman was joked around with about his lack of The Hendon Mob cashes considering he works at The Hendon Mob. He resolved this issue with a few cashes over the past few years but all those cashes have had someone else’s money at least partially involved. However, his min-cash in this event was the first The Hendon Mob recorded cash for Kleinsman where he put up the entire buy-in himself. Congrats to Kleinsman for unlocking your latest achievement!

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.

Event #42: €125 PLO/PLO8 rotated between regular PLO and PLO h/l Eight or Better throughout the event which attracted 79 entries for a €8,255 prize pool.

Michal Janczarski was the star of the show after defeating Niklas Nyman heads-up to win the title and the €2,405 top prize. Nyman arrived with a small crew including Antoine Degiorgio early Friday morning from Malta to provide fresh reinforcements to the existing crew and their lack of results thus far. He made the most of his day and nearly won the title. Instead, he will have to settle for the €1,550 runner-up prize.

Scott Kenyon, also known as Pokerbrahs at Twitch, came into the Player of the Series leaderboard competition only behind Paf’s Ola Brandborn. Brandborn went home leaving it up to Kenyon to take charge.

Kenyon did just that as he took yet another runner-up spot in an event this festival after he was eliminated by Vangelis Kaimakamis in second place for €3,600 in the €250 PLO Masters, while Kaimakamis won the trophy and the €5,828 top prize. Lithuania’s Rinatas Suleimanovas also moved up the rankings to second place thanks to a fourth-place performance in this event for €2,100.

The €250 Masters attracted 101 entries to create a €21,588 prize pool. It was an international affair, especially at the end with the final 12 players boasting 12 different nationalities.

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.

On Friday evening, Tomasz Walkowiak defeated OFC beast Risto Ponnio heads-up in Event #37: €250 OFC Pineapple for €4,300. The event attracted 54 entries to create a €11,542 prize pool and paid out the following eight players at least a €450 min-cash.

The two-day €250 The Hendon Mob Championship attracted 172 on its opening day on Thursday to create a €36,765. A total of 22 players returned Friday evening already in the money for at least a €450 min-cash.

Slovenia’s Mitja Rudolf achieved the max result in this event by defeating Germany’s Frederic Max heads-up en route to the title and the €9,100 top prize. Check out the payouts below from The Hendon Mob Championship:

Event organizers decided to roll back blind levels for a repeat of the 1,000/2,000 (2,000) blind level for the start of Day 2 with late registration closing at the end of Level 14 with blinds at 1,000/3,000 (3,000). After these two blind levels, the floor will announce the total prize pool and payouts of the €500,000 guaranteed €550 Main Event.

Players will continue to battle with longer 45-minute blind levels until just two tables remaining before returning on Sunday for even deeper 50-minute blind levels.

The final opening flight is in the books with 120 more entries getting into the mix for a total of 935 entries with still two blind levels of late registration permitted on Saturday’s Day 2 with cards in the air at 12 p.m.

Markus Cerny and Daniel Paluk each managed to bag 180,000 from their 30,000 starting stack to end the day on top of the 52 survivors, meaning a total of 308 unique players found a bag into Day 2 when taking account all the player that survived the first five opening flights.

Canada’s Kelly Kellner still leads the way after bagging up 349,000 on Day 1c. Check out all of the Day 1e chip counts below and stay tuned for the Day 2 seat draw.

Day 1e nearly doubled the size of the €500,000 guaranteed The Festival Series €550 Main Event on Friday with 405 new entries getting into the mix to grow the field up to 815 entries with still Day 1f and the entries coming in during the first two blind levels of Saturday’s Day 2.

A total of 129 players survived to more than double the previous total of 127 survivors to 256 Day 2 players thus far. Krisztian Kis with 311,000 and Christoforos Christoforou with 300,000 became the second and third players to advance with at least 300,000 in chips, albeit both players are behind Day 1c chip leader Kelly Kellner with 349,000.

The Festival Series regular JJ Hazan also had an impressive day showing he can do more than just play Omaha and mixed games with 256,000, while Raymond de Groot (168,000), Mats Orstad (108,000), Matiss Celmins (80,000), and Jon Kyte (39,000) were among some of the many other players to find a bag.

Day 1f is still ongoing and our next update will likely be either when that concludes to provide the final chip counts and hopefully the Day 2 seat draw as well if available or the results of an ending side event. In the meantime, feel free to say hello while this reporter is mingling around the casino floor.

United Kingdom’s Daniel Smith was the brightest star on Day 1 after bagging the chip lead among the 22 survivors after bagging the chip lead. He is back to battle along with 21 others including The Festival Series commentator Jacob Dideriksen-Nielsen and Sturla Hiller with the action just resuming in hopes of locking down the €9,100 top prize.

The €125 PLO/PLO8 kicked off with 16 runners at 9 p.m. Sascha Manns, birthday boy Allan Arjut, Craig McLuckie, Per Gjelten, and William Lynch are among the early players in action.

Tired of skill games? Why not give Franke’s Flip Flops a chance. It is the best “luck” game in the casino as these are rake-free €20 flips for tournament vouchers to be used at The Festival Series Bratislava. The vouchers are transferrable to friends, so don’t worry if you are leaving as this might be the perfect fun for you this evening.

To add a little more fun, The Festival Series juiced up the competition as the player that wins the most flips throughout the week will become the Franke’s Flip Flops champion and be awarded a framed pair of Franke’s actual flip flops that he wore all week at The Festival Series Bratislava. This player will also be awarded a package valued at €1,600 to the first stop of The Festival Series in 2024.

Keito Kaljulaid currently leads the way after winning 11 flips. But there is still time to catch up to him with two more nights of flips. Best of luck to all of the flippers in the Franke’s Flip Flops challenge.

The Cash Game Challenge will resume any minute with stakes at €5/€5 no-limit hold’em with a later session of €5/€5 pot-limit Omaha hosted by George Sandford and guests including Andreas “Wiseguy” Hoglund and perhaps also Jacob Dideriksen-Nielsen depending on whether he can run up his short stack on Day 2 of the €250 The Hendon Mob Championship which resumes with 22 players and a €9,100 top prize at 9 p.m.

The player that wins the most big blinds throughout the week during a single Cash Game Challenge will be crowned the contest’s winner and be awarded a free package valued at €1,600 to the next The Festival Series. The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk took the lead last night after winning 1,239 big blinds in a televised €5/€5 pot-limit Omaha affair.

You can check out the stream by clicking on the ‘Stream’ tab within our coverage or by heading to TheFestivalOG Twitch channel. Best of luck to all of the players in passing Franke in the dust to take the lead.

Cards are in the air with 41 players in their seats to start Day 1f. Blind levels will be 20 minutes instead of the 40 minutes during most of the opening flights. Players will still start with 30,000 in chips and be allowed to re-enter twice during the entire day of a dozen blind levels. In addition, players will be able to re-enter tomorrow for Day 2 with a short stack during the first two blind levels.

Dan Kothari, Andres Leppik, Mark Adams, Robert Kucma, Harald Redl, David Spacek, Martin Toth, and Paul Johnson are among the players in their seats from the start.

Best of luck to all of the Day 1f players in finding a big bag into tomorrow’s Day 2.

The €125 NL Texas €15,000 guarantee just kicked off with 63 entries. Late registration will remain open for eight blind levels of 20 minutes each.

Markus Ganglbauer, Brian Klindrup, Anu Lilja, Toni Sarkama, and Andre Sorm are among the early players in their seats after the welcome announcement by The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk.

Day 1e of the Main Event has reached 400 entries with about half of them still in their seats to nearly double the size of the Main Event. The final opening flight in the Turbo Day 1f will kick off in an hour at 8 p.m. Check out some photos from Day 1e by The Festival Series photographer Mairo “EstonianWeirdo” Toom.

The €125 Festival Queens just went on dinner break. The field grew to 35 entries with late registration closing as soon as the players reconvene for action.

Anastasia Bukstynovic, Pia Jeppson, Slots Championship winner Marita Magi, Annette O’Carroll, Trang Le, Vanessa Webley, and Coolbet streamer Ylva Thorsrud are among the players returning for action with chips.

We wish all the ladies a good dinner and the best of luck when the action resumes.

The Festival Series hospitality host Anastasia hosted a bowling outing for those with the hospitality package. Check out the photos from The Festival Series photographer Mairo Toom below:

The Day 1e field of the 2023 The Festival Series €500,000 guaranteed €550 Main Event has reached 387 entries during the closing minutes of Level 8. It has a good chance to match the 410 entries attracted during the first four opening flights with the current field at 797 with one more opening flight and the first two blind levels of Day 2 to go before we know the final figures.

The €125 Festival Queens is up to 27 entries. Yesterday, some of the ladies joined The Festival Series for a hospitality lunch. Check out the photos below.

The fun €250 PLO Masters has kicked off with 27 entries. Birthday boy Allan Arjut kept his promise and entered this event as did Sviten Special guru Peter La Terra, Georgi Voomets, and the recently arrived Niklas Nyman.

Nyman flew in from Malta with Malta Poker Fish administrator Antoine Degiorgio to the delight of many here in Bratislava. Degiorgio is out with friends, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see him get into the action later. Meanwhile, Nyman went straight to business in hopes of securing a title in his first event of the 2023 The Festival Series Bratislava at Banco Casino.

The €250 OFC Pineapple attracted 54 entries to create a €11,542 prize pool. While notable players such as birthday boy Allan Arjut, Twitch streamer Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon, and Wouter Schuurbiers, all hit the rail many others rage on including Morten Antonsen, Johnny Johansen, Sviten Special champion Harald Redl, and Mixed Main Event HORSES champion Jon Kyte.

Check out some photos from the event by Mairo Toom.

There were 410 entries entering the action of the €500,000 guaranteed €550 Main Event heading into Friday’s final two opening flights. Day 1e could double that figure by itself with already 338 entries midway through Level 6.

We expect a decent crowd coming in for the final opening flight this evening with the Turbo Day 1f kicking off at 8 p.m. In the meantime, check out some photos of Day 1e by The Festival Series photographer Mairo Toom.

Ladies alert! The €125 Festival Queens just kicked off with 13 ladies in their seat eager for the title including Vanessa Webley, Anu Lilja, Katre Kokk, Annette O’Carroll, Anastasija Bukstynovic, Gia Carnestroem, Malin Johansen, Drea Karlsen, Marthe Lyngvaer, Jill Mellstroem, Lisbeth Sunde, Siv Vekseth, and Jade Walker.

Late registration will be open for about two hours in this event that features 25 minute blind levels. Players that lose their stacks from Level 7 and beyond will be permanently eliminated from the event. Best of luck to all of the ladies in earning the Festival Queens title.

If you want to learn more about Open Face Chinese Poker or already know some about it and want to check out more, we recommend you check out the Pokerbrahs Twitch stream by Scott Kenyon who is battling it out live on his own stream in the €250 OFC Event.

• Head to Pokerbrahs on Twitch to check out the action.

It is a special day every day during The Festival Series but even more so for Estonia’s Allan Arjut.

“Should we sing?” asked Andreas “Wiseguy” Hoglund.

“Perhaps not,” we were thinking but keeping this to ourselves.

Instead, we will wish him a happy birthday in the blog. He is busy battling it out in the 35-entry field €250 Open Face Chinese in hopes of winning a title today.

“This is my birthday treat to myself,” Arjut shared. “It is my first time playing this in a tournament format and having fun.”

Arjut’s birthday poker run won’t necessarily end with the OFC event as he also shared he planned to play the €250 PLO Masters and/or the €125 PLO/PLO8 events. But let’s be clear, he did share he wouldn’t be playing them at the same time. We will leave that to the likes of Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon who shared he will likely do this in the evening to earn Player of the Series leaderboard points where he resides in second place behind Paf Poker’s Ola Brandborn.

Brandborn has left the building, so the leaderboard is anyone’s game. We wouldn’t even be surprised to see the birthday boy Arjut climb his way up the ladder as he is putting in the volume and has shown he can get results to match.

The Franke’s Flip Flops have been a blast every night from 9 p.m. until 11 p.m. from Monday until Saturday. Players enjoy rake-free flips for €20 and if they win they not only get the full prize in tournament money for a The Festival Series event but also are part of a leaderboard competition.

The winner of the Franke’s Flip Flops leaderboard will be the player that wins the most flips throughout the week and will be awarded a free package valued at €1,600 to the first The Festival Series stop of 2024.

The top two spots on the leaderboard remained unchanged with Keito Kaljulaid still leading the way with 11 flips run out of the 82 that ran and Erik Hamre in second place with seven flips won.

Meanwhile, Allan Arjut won two flips for a third day in a row and moved up to third place on the leaderboard with six flips won. Check out the leaderboard of everyone who won at least two flips in the Franke’s Flip Flops this week so far:

Event #29: €250 The Hendon Mob Championship returns for its second and final day at 9 p.m. with just 22 players from the 174 entries remaining. All returning players are in the money for at least a €450 min-cash after battling it out hand-for-hand on the money bubble to end yesterday’s action.

Check out the seat draw for Day 2 of The Hendon Mob Championship below:

Day 1e is easily the biggest opening flight of them all with the field already at 221 entries midway through Level 3. Late registration is open all opening flight long and will stay open during the first two blind levels of Day 2, but as of now, the field is up to 631 entries and counting.

As has become tradition, we will ‘honor’ the first player out on Day 1e in Umut Bicakci. While he was the only player out on Level 1, eight others have joined him on the rail.

Meanwhile, Alexander van Dijk, Kaspar Valk, Thomas Udness, Franke Flip Flops leaderboard captain Keito Kaljulaid, Vytautas Kacerauskas, and Nunzio Lagana were among the players in the field on their first Day 1e bullets.

Paf’s Ola Brandborn came into Thursday on top of the leaderboard of the 2023 The Festival Series Bratislava Player of the Series. He is still on top, but thanks for the consistent cashing going on by Twitch streamer Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon, the gap is narrowed with Kenyon knocking down his door in hopes of securing the honor.

The player that wins the Player of the Series will win a free package valued at €1,600 to the first The Festival Series in 2024. Kenyon shared he might multitable events this evening in hopes that he can push his name to the top of the leaderboard before Saturday’s action.

Check out the top 10 of the leaderboard below. Keep in mind that for now the bounty tournaments are not included but will be added later. Satellites, tournaments with buy-ins of less than €125, and tournaments not open to all including the Seniors 49+ and the Festival Queens are not part of the competition.

The €250 Open Face Chinese Poker began with players starting with 24 players including the likes of OFC beasts Johnny Johansen, Wouter Schuurbiers, and Risto Ponnio. Bas de Laat shared he was playing his first OFC tournament while Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon, Allan Arjut, Sascha Manns, and Julius Jurksaitis were all noticed in the field.

Late registration is open for six blind levels of 30 minutes each. So expect the field to grow including The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk planning to get into the mix.

It is a friendly affair, so feel free to drop by to watch a hand or two as there is no bluffing and pure strategy. In the meantime, you can check out the rules of the game and how the OFC tournament works.

There was no shortage of poker and casino action on Thursday with tons of events at The Festival Series Bratislava at Banco Casino and cash games running around the clock at a variety of stakes and games.

Two more opening flights in the €500,000 guaranteed €550 Main Event were played out in the main ballroom with the field growing to 410 entries after four opening flights with two more opening flights to go on Friday and late registration permitted during the first two blind levels of Saturday’s Day 2. Canada’s Kelly Kellner leads the 127 survivors as he was the only player to pass 300,000 in chips after parlaying his 30,000 opening stack on Thursday’s Day 1c into 375,000 in chips.

Ersin Sancak earned his time in the spotlight on Thursday as well after defeating Slovenian poker beast Blaz Zerjav heads-up in the €1,100 High Roller to win the €18,000 top prize for the biggest thus far this festival.

Meanwhile, The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk found himself in familiar territory as he powered his way in the final few hands to take the lead in the Cash Game Challenge with a 1,239 big blind profit in the televised €5/€5 PLO Cash Game Challenge session last night to pass WSOP Europe 8-Game champion Dainius Antanaitis who amassed 1,068 big blinds earlier in the week in €2/€2 PLO.

Daniel Smith leads the final 22 players in the €250 The Hendon Mob Championship with players already in the money heading into Day 2 in hopes of securing the €9,100 top prize, while others managed to win customized framed sketched trophies in other side events. Read on to learn more about what happened on Thursday at The Festival Series Bratislava.

Ersin Sancak Wins High Roller

The €1,100 NLH High Roller sported a €30,000. This was blown out of the water with 51 entries creating a €48,750 prize pool.

Michel Molenaar, who won the last The Festival Series Bratislava Main Event and bagged big already this year, was hoping to add a High Roller title to his already impressive and growing poker resume. The Dutch poker superstar ran deep once again before hitting the rail in fifth place for €3,750.

Meanwhile, Twitch streamer Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon was on the rail rooting on his friend in Slovenian poker hero Blaz Zerjav. It came down to just Zerjav and Ersin Sancak with Sancak coming out on top to win the largest prize thus far this The Festival Series of €18,000. While Zerjav fell one short from the title, he will be able to wipe any tears away from not winning the customized framed sketch trophy with a runner-up prize of €11,500.

Igor Narajczyk Wins PLO 4/5/6

Event #32: €250 4/5/6 generated the second biggest prize pool of the day of tournaments that were completed with 94 entries competing in rotating PLO action for a piece of the €20,092.

The Festival Series veterans JJ Hazan and Johnny Johansen both managed to cash but missed out on the big money near the top. Lithuania’s Rinatas Suleimanovas’ deep run ended in third place for €2,600 leaving two players from Poland in Igor Narajczyk and Pawel Keller to battle for pot-limit Omaha supremacy. Narajczyk defeated his countrymate to win the €5,400 top prize while Keller settled for the healthy €3,542 runner-up prize.

Check out all of the payouts of the €250 PLO 4/5/6 below:

In other news, Marita Magi defeated 16 skilled fun slots enthusiasts to win the €125 Slots Championship for the entire €1,672 prize pool.

Italy’s Dario De Toffoli came out on top of a field of 88 entries to win the €125 HORSE for €2,800, while Finland’s Toni Sarkama was the last player standing in a bigger field of 147 entries in the €125 Thursday Turbo Midnight Madness for €3,760.

Despite not winning any flips on Thursday, Keito Kaljulaid still maintains a four flip lead with 11 flips won in the Franke’s Flip Flop challenge. Also, the preliminary Player of the Series standings show Paf’s Ola Brandborn on top with Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon, who finished runner-up to Brandborn on Wednesday in the €250 8-Game, hungry to push past him in second place.

Day 6 Schedule (Dec. 1)

The Festival Series host Andreas “Wiseguy” Hoglund made some announcements to the Main Event crowd before cards were in the air for Day 1e of the €500,000 guaranteed €550 Main Event.

The action began with 80 entries in the mix including Andres Allsalu, Leonardo Burdino, Mikolaj Domanski, Sandor Mate, Stig Moen, Arthur Navellou, and Heidi Bekker.

Players can re-enter twice throughout the day with players bagging their stacks after 12 blind levels of 40 minutes each. Tonight’s last chance turbo Day 1f will move faster with 20-minute blind levels. In both cases, players start with 30,000 in chips and can re-enter twice each flight at any point during the day. Additionally, players advancing to Day 2 can also re-enter until the late registration closes after the second blind level of the day.

Best of luck to all of the Main Event players and check out the schedule of Friday, Dec. 1 below:

The Festival Series founder Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk ran hot played well during the last The Festival Series at Portomaso Casino in Malta when he won more than 3,000 big blinds in a Cash Game Challenge session to win the Cash Game Challenge title.

Franke was known to win several titles at the Cash Game Festival that he also founded and wanted to become the first player to win back-to-back titles. On Thursday morning, he shared with us that WSOP champion Dainius Antanaitis, who was coming into the day on top of the leaderboard with 1,068 big blinds in profit, better watch out as he was going to take the lead.

Sometimes we hope for things that wind up happening and sometimes we don’t. In this case, Franke followed through and won 1,239 big blinds on the televised €5/€5 pot-limit Omaha Cash Game Challenge session on Thursday evening to take the lead.

Meanwhile, Tahsin Malumder won 358 big blinds in the early €5/€5 no-limit hold’em Cash Game Challenge session. While this wasn’t big enough to be in the leaderboard conversation, it still was a nice win in front of friends and family on TheFestivalOG Twitch channel.

Two more televised Cash Game Challenge sessions will take place on Friday with the games and stakes the same as Thursday. Sign-up on the casino floor if interested in joining the fun.

Event #37: €125 NLH Thursday Turbo Midnight Madness attracted plenty of late-night poker players with 147 entries competing for a piece of the healthy €15,360 prize pool.

Although it was a turbo event with 15-minute blind levels, it turned out to be a long one and it wasn’t until nearly 6 a.m. when Finland’s Toni Sarkama defeated Austria’s Harald Pabisch to win the €3,760 winner’s prize. Check out who were among the 18 players to cash in Thursday Turbo Midnight Madness:

Event #32: €250 PLO 4/5/6 witnessed 94 enjoying a rotation of pot-limit Omaha battling it out for a €20,092 prize pool. A total of 13 players finished in the money including JJ Hazan and Johnny Johansen.

It was two players from Poland battling it out after Lithuania’s Rinatas Suleimanovas hit the rail on the podium in third place for €2,600. Igor Narajczyk won the title for €5,400 after defeating Pawel Keller, who settled for the healthy runner-up prize of €3,542. Check out all of the payouts of the €250 PLO 4/5/6 below:

The €1,100 NLH High Roller was another success story at The Festival Series Bratislava with 51 entries creating a €48,750 prize pool to destroy the €30,000 guarantee.

Defending The Festival Series Bratislava Main Event champion Michel Molenaar ran deep once again before hitting the rail in fifth place for €3,750. At the end, it was Austria’s Ersin Sancak battling the experienced Slovenia Blaz Zerjav heads-up for the title with both players already locking up a five-figure haul of €11,500. Sancak won the battle to bank the €18,000 top prize and will forever be known as the 2023 The Festival Series Bratislava High Roller champion.

Event #29: €250 The Hendon Mob Championship attracted 172 entries on the opening day to create a €36,765 prize pool. Just 22 players advanced into Friday’s Day 2 with the action resumes at 9 p.m. with at least a €450 min-cash locked up with Day 1 ending after the money bubble broke. They will be playing for much more on Friday with a €9,100 top prize on the line.

United Kingdom’s Daniel Smith is in the captain’s chair to start the action with 615,000 in chips followed by The Festival Series veteran Strual Hiller with 522,000. Meanwhile, Jacob Dideriksen-Nielsen, whose voice you’ve heard if you’ve tuned into TheFestivalOG Twitch channel to watch the t.v. tables at The Festival Series, is among the shorter stacks with some work ahead if he wants to see the final table and beyond.

We will confirm the seat draw with Banco Casino prior to publishing.