2024 The Festival Malta Day 3

Presiyan Tsvetanov, the winner of The Festival in Rozvadov Main Event has bagged a massive stack in Day 1c, the third and final starting day of The Hendon Mob Championship. The Bulgarian player accumulated a chip stack of 425,000, which is more than 50% more than that of his nearest challengers.

Luka Bulatovic on 282,000 and Stefan Gvozdenovic on 280,000 lie in second and third place respectively. Norwegian poker streamer Ylva Thorsrud made it into Day 2 with 133,000.

Also claiming a place in Day 2 is Belarusian Siarhei Narohzny, with a 131,000. He had made it to Day 2 of the Mixed Games Main Event, as he did last time in Rozvadov, but failed to make the money this time.

The flight had 160 entrants, bringing the total size of the field up to 334 players, of which 37 will join the 44 players who had already made it into Day 2 from Day 1a and 1b. Play resumes at 1pm on Wednesday.

Day 1c Survivor Chip Counts

The Mixed Games Main Event has been won by Eirik Presttun from Norway. The story of his victory has been posted in the news section of The Festival website.

Play is still ongoing in Day 1c of The Hendon Mob Championship. This third and final flight of the €250 event and was the biggest of the three flights with 160 entrants, bringing the total number of runners up to 334.

They are in the last level of the day, with 50 players still in. The survivors will join the 44 players who already made it through from the first two starting flights for Wednesday’s second and final day. The winner of the event also wins a package to The Hendon Mob Millions event in Cape Town later this year. Play resumes for Day 2 on Wednesday at 1pm

The Heads Up tournament is also still playing and still has some way to go until the champion is known. They have only just started the semi-final stage, so its likely to be a late finish.

The Tuesday Madness is also still playing, with 39 players from 72 entries. Not a bad turnout for an event that was only added to the schedule three hours before it started!

We’ll be back tomorrow with the results of the Heads Up and Tuesday Madness, until then it’s time to take a deep breath, have an end of the night cup of tea and rest our weary heads.

The first starting day of the Main Event is now over, with 15 of the 40 players who entered progressing to Day 2. The Day 1a chip leader is Jesper Lucas from Netherlands, who bagged just under 200,000 chips. 

Lying in second place with 169,100 ids Milan Ljubisic from Germany, who has a habit of bagging the second largest stack, as he also made it through to Day 2 of The Hendon Mob Championship after finishing in the same spot from his starting day.

Neil Rawnsley, who busted six players in the opening few levels finished in 4th place with 139,900. He had won four seats online into this via Grosvenor Poker, but only needed one to book his passage into Day 2.

It was really never in doubt, Rolf was always going to win something this week. I’d have bet my house on it (if I owned one).

Rolf very nearly won the roulette tournament in Rozvadov, leading for most of the competition, until Thomas Gugerbauer bested his score close to the end of play. The format of the tournament was different then and for this version here in Malta we reverted to the original format of the event.

He has now avenged that defeat in Rozvadov and proved that no matter the format, he will be a contender.

Rolf is also a two-time Franke’s Flip Flops Champion and is yet to book his seat in Sunday’s Final Flip, but we fully expect him to emerge victorious from one of the remaining four sessions.

Today’s €250 PLO Masters began at 1pm and its the first tournament of the day to finish. It was an intimate event with 33 entrants, in which five players made the money.

The winner was Dutch player Jacco Hester, who beat David Lappin to take the €2,800 first prize.

The Mixes Games Main Event is now on the final table, with seven players left battling it out for the title. They are now on dinner break and will resume play shortly. Eirik Presttun, who at one point was in possession of 40% of the chips in play has been pegged back and there are now four players wiuth very closely matched stacks.

Eirik still has the lead but he is now on 390,000 with Ruud Alsmegeest in second place on 350,000. Lachezar Tsenov sit in third place with 330,000 while Mattia Rubenstrunk is only a few lengths of the pace on 310,000. 

The other three players left are relatively short stacked and this group includes Frank Visser.

Barrie Dear, winner of last night’s Sviten Special narrowly missed out on recording his second cash of the week, bubbling in 8th place.

The Festival Series is designed for the players and it has to work for them. When players speak we listen and on this occasion there has been feedback that players would like some cheaper tournaments to play.

The Festival Series Team has taken this player feedback on board and as a result we’ve added an additional four tournaments to the schedule. It’s not always perfect, but The Festival Series does listen to the players and Franke is happy to admit that the schedule could have been better. We value all players feedback, encourage it and are happy to hear both positives and negatives about the Series.

The new tournaments are all €125 NLH side events, which will start at 8.30pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. They will be run on a 20-minute clock and players will start with a 20,000 chip stack. Late registration is open for eight levels, with unlimited re-entry.

Estonian Andre Sorm won his way into the Franke’s Flip Flop Grand Final on Monday, winning two of the three flips that took place. He talks to Andreas “Wiseguy” Hoglund, giving expert advice on what it takes to become a flips pro.

This is the busiest day of the Festival schedule, with 10 events plus Franke’s Flip Flops and right now six of them are in play simultaneously. With so many events, the fields in each a little smaller than usual, as players spread themselves out, choosing the events that suit them best.

There’s no guarantees on any of these events, so players can choose the events they genuinely want to play, rather than being influenced by which one will have the biggest overlay potential. From a recreational player perspective, if it keeps some overlay hunting sharks away, it’s a good thing.

Main Event Day 1a Update

The Main Event is now in level 7 with 25 players in their seats, with 33 having entered so far. Eight players have been eliminated so far and remarkably Neil Rawnsley has taken six of these scalps, Unluckily for Neil, this isn’t a bounty tournament, as he would already be free-rolling if it were. Unsurprisingly, he’s one of the early chip leaders.

Mixed Games Main Event (H.O.R.S.E.S)

The Mixed Games Main Event is now on the bubble, with ten players left and only nine getting paid. The winner will cash for €9,100 while the min cash is worth €1,025. Norwegian Eirik Presttun started the day as the overwhelming chip leader and has now extended it even further and is currently in possession of 40% of the chips in play. Lachezar Tsenov, who was second in chips is still in also, however Siarhei ‘The Machine’ Narohzny has been eliminated.

Roulette Tournament

The roulette tournament is now taking place on the stage of the upstairs tournament area. The 31 players who entered seem to be enjoying themselves, based on the amount of laughter emanating from that part of the room.

The first starting day of THMC had 54 entries, yesterday’s day 1b had 120, but how many will there be today for the third and final flight?

Play has just begun with 34 players seated at the start, including Rozvadov Main Event Champion Presiyan Tsvetanov from Bulgaria.

So far 44 players have advanced into tomorrow’s Day 2, with Ivonne Montealeagre commanding the biggest stack on 276k, just ahead of Maltese Joe Grech on 275k.

It’s taking place in the ground floor poker room, where the Heads Up is also running. The first round of the Heads Up has now been completed and one-half of the Chip Race podcast presenting team is now on the cutting room floor (David), while other half is locked into Day 2 (Dara).

If you haven’t checked out our social channels you are missing out. Here’s yesterday’s highlights video. For more video content, check out The Festival’s YouTube Channel.

The €550 Mixed Games Main Event H.O.R.S.E.S. has its second and final day today, with play will resuming at 3pm. There are 22 players left and we will have a new champion this time, as previous champions Jon Kyte and Sascha Manns are not in this one.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on proceedings of this one and will update further on this as the day progresses. These are the chip counts of the remaining players.

The first Pot Limit Omaha tournament of the festival series in Malta has also now started today and is taking place in the Poker room on the upper floor.

The event has a €250 buying has been run on a 20-minute clock and will be completed before the end of the day.

they have just started the fourth level of the day and there are currently 25 players who have entered the tournament. 

Perhaps the loudest player in the field is JJ Hazan who arrived in Malta yesterday, but I had a very late night as he was doing commentary on a live poker stream from Bratislava which only ended at 5 AM, after eight hours of play.  

JJ is an extremely talented man with many feathers in his cap. For example, one of his previous career paths it was that of a stand-up comedian however, but nowadays when he stands up, it’s usually because he’s been knocked out of the tournament. Boom boom! Ok, I’ll get me coat… (for non-native English speakers, this is an expression that people sometimes use when they tell a bad joke).

At previous editions of The Festival Series, JJ has run masterclasses to teach people intricacies about the great game of Pot Limit Omaha, however this week the only masterclasses he will be giving are at the tables themselves. JJ has graced many Festival final tables over the years and has one victory to his name, winning the PokerListings Deepstack in Bratislava in 2021.

Streamer Scott Kenyon is also playing this one and streaming it live on his Pokerbrahs Twitch channel. Please note that to comply with casino rules, no chat is available on this stream, or any other stream while play is in progress.

One of the highlights of the varied tournament schedule is a rare Heads Up tournament with a €250 buy-in. It’s capped at 32 players left and so far there are 30 entries, leaving just 2 places left for any late-comers to join the tournament.

1st round matches are already in progress, with just three completed so far. Sadly Rolf Arne Bechstrom is one of the early casualties.

Both of the Irish Unibet Pros David Lappin and Dara O’Kearney are have a pop at this tournament today. David bagged one of the biggest stacks in yesterday’s Day 1b of The Hendon Mob Championship, however Dara busted in the latter stages of the day.

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Good afternoon everybody, I hope you all slept well. The day is now underway with the first of five starting days for the Main Event. 

There are just nineteen players so far in this opening flight, but its early days and is sure to pick up as the day progresses. They will play 12 x 40 minute levels today and registration is open throughout the day. Players are permitted to have a maximum of two bullets per flight.

We’ll fill you in later on who’s playing, but a few players have already been spotted, including Kenny Burke and Neil Rawnsley from the UK.

Kenny posted one of the biggest stacks on Day 1a of The Hendon Mob Championship and will be looking to book a place in Day 2 of this one as well. When I ran the GUKPT many years ago, I once described Kenny as a ‘professional drinker’ in his walk-on introduction in the Manchester GUKPT in 2009, in which he finished 4th.

He reminded me of this and reassured me that he took it as the joke it was intended to be. Well, he’s in good company here this week, there’s several players who are at least pro-am drinker status and many other professionals too.

Neil Rawnsley is another player I know from my PokerStars day, he was a regular satellite qualifier on the tours I used to run, such as the Eureka Poker Tour, UKIPT, Estrellas Poker Tour and even a few short-lived gems like the Portugal Poker Series. Neil is still a serial qualifier and this week he has four bullets that he won in iPoker satellites via Grosvenor Poker. He’s using the first of these today.

Who will follow in Rozvadov Main Event winner Presiyan Tsvetanov’s footsteps and become The Festival in Malta Main Event Champion?

Good luck to all!

Welcome to Day 3 of the Festival in Malta live blog. Only one event has concluded at the series so far and congratulations go to Barrie Dear from the UK, who won the Sviten Special, emerging victorious in the early hours on Tuesday morning to claim the €4,950 first prize. Congratulations Barrie, your winners drawing will be on the way soon.

Today is the busiest day of the Festival in Malta, with 10 events on the schedule, but make that 11 as there’s also Franke’s Flip Flop. By the end of the day, three more winners will be known, as the Mixed Games Main Event, the €250 Heads Up and the €250 PLO Masters will all conclude today.

For a more in depth look at today’s schedule, check out the Day 3 welcome post in the news section.

In addition to this liveblog, you can also follow coverage of the event via The Festival’s social media channels. Use the icons below to access for video montages, interviews, shorts and more.

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