2024 The Festival Malta Day 4

At Portomaso Casino in St Julian’s, Malta, a man has won a poker tournament . We can’t tell you his name, because he legally is allowed to withhold it and we respect that right, regardless of the reason for his desire for anonymity. Congratulations to that man! You played a blinder!

We’ll be back in the morning with a more polished report on the event in question.

The end of the night is approaching, not for the players, as there’s still several tournaments still in play, but this blogger is heading home to rest his weary head, before getting up and doing to all again tomorrow.

But before I head off to get the free bus home (yes Maltese residents get free bus travel) here’s a glance at what’s happening on the tournament floor.

The Hendon Mob Championship

THMC is now down to three players, with Frederic Max and Stewart Kirby having very similar sized stacks, with Scotsman Lewis Aikman still plugging away as the short stack, doubling up when required. They have not yet discussed a deal, but one is likely if Lewis fails to win his next all-in.

8-Game

Today’s mixed games offering is the €125 8-Game tournament, which ended up as a busy one with 85  entries. It pays 12 places and they are now down to 8 players and are on a break. Scott ‘Pokerbrahs’ Kenyon is still in and is streaming. You can watch the stream via his Twitch channel.

PLO High Roller

The €1,100 Pot Limit Omaha is also now on a break, with eight of the 16 players who began the day still in. It has a €20,000 guarantee and is still €4,000 short. Late registration closes after this break.

Wednesday Madness

Late registration is still open in the newly added Wednesday Madness event, with 81 players, 49 of whom are still in. 

Satellites

There are still two satellites still going also, one for the Main Event and one for the €1,100 NLH High Roller.

By the time the day ends, we’ll be at the half-way point of the series. Stay lucky folks!

Today’s blackjack tournament was won by Marko Keskel from Estonia, who took the €1,280 first prize, topping a field of 20 players.

In the first round, Franke and JP McCann found themselves on the same table, but neither managed to progress further in the tournament.

There were three rounds in total and Alex Henry unfortunately bubbled from his semi-final, however his friend, another Frenchman Simon Legouge did make it the final. He was outnumbered on the final table by three Estonians, who’s presence attracted quite a crowd. Simon was not quite able to better all his Baltic opponents, but did finish as the runner up.

Marko’s win means that the Blackjack Champion remains in Estonian hands, as the Rozvadov winner Maili Tannbaum is also from the same Baltic country.

The second starting day of the Festival in Malta has concluded and a further 52 players have joined the 15 who progressed from Day 1a. It was a much busier day with 130 entrants, which brings the running total up to 170, with three starting flights left to go.

The chip leader from this flight is Jon Persent from Norway who bagged up 256,000 chips, the largest stack from the first two starting days. The Chip Race podcast presenters both bagged up stacks, although they are well off the pace with Lappin on 64,700 while O’Kearney has just 1k more than the 30,000 starting stack.

Day 1b Survivors Chip Counts

The final table of THMC has now begun in the poker room on the lower floor of the Portomaso conference centre. Rozvadov Main Event champion Presiyan Tsvetanov didn’t quite make to this final, exiting in 13th place, despite having held the lead with 30 players left.

The chip leader going into the final was German player Frederic Max, who has now increased his lead and has 2.2m of the 10m chips in play. All the other eight players have less than 1m each and Frederic is rolling the table like a boss at the moment, dictating proceedings in every hand he plays.

The nine players who made the final table are:

• Seat 1 – Kenny Burke
• Seat 3 – Scott Boyle
• Seat 4 – Stewart Kirby
• Seat 5 – Lewis Aikman
• Seat 6 – Edvin Strom
• Seat 7 – Joona Koivisto
• Seat 8 – Nikolaos Tsitos
• Seat 9 – Frederic Max

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As new events have been added the Festival Schedule has now been updated.

Yesterday’s roulette tournament was an exciting and lively event, which was enjoyable both to participate in and as an onlooker.

Today’s casino games tournament is blackjack and many of the usual degens are now sitting down to participate in the first round.

Franke made it back from today’s pool party just in time to take his seat. Also playing today is Unibet Deepstack Open operator Alex Henry, who simply couldn’t resist a bit of a gamble. Irish Open Operator JP McCann is also here, sharing a lively table with Franke.

The Rozvadov blackjack tournament champion is also playing Maili Tannbaum, as is runner up Matti Pirn. Will she go back-to-back?

To be fair, if I wasn’t writing this blog, i’d be playing this too. I’m no stranger to blackjack tournaments, having finished as runner up in the European Masters or Blackjack way back in 2010.

Meanwhile, today’s flight of the Main Event now has 110 entries, bringing the total up to 150, including the 40 who participated in yesterday’s first starting day.

A clash of Festival Series Titans has just occurred in the Hendon Mob Championship (THMC) between Presiyan Tsvetanov and Siarhei Narohzny.

The two clashed in consecutive hands, resulting in elimination for the Belorussian player. In the first of these, Prisiyan made a river bet of 165,000 on a 9 5 A A Q board. Both had an ace but Narohzny was out kicked, sending a huge pot of over 500,000 to the Bulgarian’s side of the table. 

In the very next hand they got it all in with Narohzny’s KJ dominated by Prisiyan’s AK. the board brought no face cards and Narohzny exited the tournament in 31st place. Narohzny was down to his last 188,000 at this point and these wins pushed his stack just over the 1m mark.

Narohzny wasted no time and jumped straight into the 8-Game, which now has 78 entrants and is in its final level for late registration.

There are now 30 players left i the tournament and other big stacks in the room include Lewis Aikman in 905k and Frederik Max with 795k.

THMC restarted at 1pm with 81 players returning for the final day, with 47 places paid. Joe Grech and David Lappin, who had been amongst the   big stacks at the start of the day both scraped into  the money, Joe exiting in 45th while the Unibet ambassador David hit the rail in 41st place.

Today’s non Hold’em offering is the €125 8-Game event, which began at 2pm. They are now in the fifth level of the day with 63 participants, creating a lively atmosphere in the poker room on the upper level of the venue.

All the usual suspects are getting involved in this one, including the very vocal JJ Hazan. I’m sitting a fee tables away and I can hear every word of his usually entertaining table jabber. Another contender for loudest player in the room is my fellow Scotsman William Lynch, who’s jovial laughter is frequently filling the room.

However, both JJ and William are far behind Eva Jiretorn in the volume stakes. She recently joined the tournament as a late registrant and has easily won the loudest player in the room award this afternoon.

This is not a complaint, in case anyone is wondering, boisterous table chat beautifully encapsulates the spirit of The Festival Series

The first of the new events that were added to the schedule took place on Tuesday evening, where 72 players contested the €125 Turbo NLH Tuesday Madness.

David K Lappin picked up his second cash of the day, departing in 6th place for €420. He exited in the very same hand as his Chip Race podcast co-host Dara O’Kearney, who took 5th for €555. Rafael de Asevedo Silva was 4th, with Koen Roos in 3rd place.

The top two players then did a deal and chopped the remaining prize pool, but played on for the trophy. It was won by The Festival Series’ Operations Chief Karev Tralla, who spiked a 2 outer on the river to take the title. 

It was nearly 4am by the time the final hand took place and Karev celebrated wildly, as captured in this clip on The Festival’s Facebook Page. Click on the pic of Karev below to view the final hand and Karev’s enigmatic celebration.

The Hendon Mob Championship has now started its second and final day. There were 334 entries across three starting days and the 81 who made it through are now pokering away, with the first goal of the day being to make the prize money. 

Presiyan Tsvetanov was the overwhelming chip leader at the beginning of the day with 425,000 but there are plenty of experienced players in the chasing pack, including Maltese all-time money leader Joe Grech and Unibet Poker ambassador David K Lappin.

This is What They’re Playing For

Yesterday we delivered the news that four additional €125 NLH Turbo Madness tournaments had been added to the schedule. Not long after that decision was made an additional two tournaments were added to this Festival Series Pop-Up Special.

An additional ‘Madness’ event was added for Thursday evening and on Saturday there will be a 2-7 Triple Draw event, also with a €125 buy-in, starting at 6.30pm.

Here is the full schedule of new events that were added. All events are being played on a 20 minute clock, with 8 levels for late registration, reducing to a 15 minute clock from level 9 onwards.

Eat, poker, sleep, repeat! Here we go again for another action packed day at The Festival in Malta. The Main Event is already in play and there are more players seated now during the first level of the day than there were in the entirety of Day 1a.

There are currently 44 players in their seats for Day 1b, including the runner up in the Mixed Games Main Event Ruud Alsemgeest from Netherlands. They play twelve x 40 minute levels today, starting with 30,000 chips and players are permitted to make a maximum of two entries (per flight).

This is the blinds structure that is being used.

Another day has dawned in Med’s hottest poker destination, but while the action is picking up in Portomaso Casino, the weather has taken a turn for the worse. There are high winds and partial cloud covering. But we won’t let that dampen our spirits, there’s a lot going on here today on the fourth day of The Festival in Malta.

This is today’s schedule and please note that there is an additional tournament that was not originally on the schedule, but was added yesterday. The ‘Madness’ €125 NLH Turbo tournaments are scheduled for 8.30pm every day up-to and including Saturday.

Please note that there is a time change for today’s Blackjack tournament, which will now start one hour later than originally scheduled, at 5pm.