2024 The Festival Rozvadov Day 10

The results from the final day of The Festival Series in Rozvadov were not covered in the live blog, as our attention was fully focused on the conclusion of the Main Event. And what a conclusion it was, but that’s another story…click here for more on Presiyan Tsvetanov’s epic win.

There were a few other tournaments on the 10th and final day, notably a couple of €1,100 high roller events, Open Face Chinese and No Limit Hold’em. At the other end of the bankroll spectrum there were two tournaments with entry level €125 buy-ins, one NLH, the other Five Card PLO.

Open Face Chinese

Opening the day, even before the Main Event resumed, was the Open Face Chinese High Roller. It was never expected to be a busy one and started with just five players. The total number of entries didn’t quite make it into double figures, halting at nine, at least three of which were re-entries. 

It only paid two places and the last pair were Mati Pirn and Twitch streamer Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon. Both players had narrowly missed out on trophies earlier in the series. Mati took the runner up spot in the Blackjack while Scott had flirted with the winner’s enclosure on more than one occasion. 

After a lengthy and hard-contested final session of play, it was Scott who took down the title and the first prize of €5,130. For anyone interested in watching how it all openly unfolded, he streamed it all live on his Pokerbrahs Twitch channel and it’s now available to rewatch.

Scott may not have defended the Player of the Series award that he won in Bratislava, but he will have gone close, with one win, one second and one third place finish plus two further cashes to his name at The Festival in Rozvadov.

NLH High Roller 

The final event of the series to end was the €1,100 No Limit High Roller, which had 41 entrants, creating a prize pool of €38,950. It was not until after 4am that this one drew to a close with New Zealander Johan Lees emerging victorious, to take the €14,412 first prize. 

The €125 Five Card PLO

The last of many Omaha tournaments was a five card version and there were familiar faces on the final table, notably Player Of The Series in-waiting Thomas Gugerbauer, who’s third place finish surely cemented his status as the POTS, although we may have to wait for a few more days before this is confirmed. Runner-up Barrie Dear from the UK claimed his best result of the series, his 5th cash overall. The winner of the top prize of €1,812 chose to remain anonymous. 

The final €125 NLH event had 103 runners and was won by Michal Mrakeš for €2,958.

Full Results from these tournaments and all events at The Festival in Rozvadov can be found here.

And that was that, another edition of The Festival Series is in the can. But it doesn’t need to be over yet, you could relive it all again through the day-by-day updates on the blog, or you can venture onto our various social media channels for a wide variety of coverage from the hardest working team that i’ve ever had the privilege to be a part of. See you in Malta!

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Roll the Credits…

Photographer: Mairo Toom

Videographer: Nikit Hellsjesus

Video Editor:  Aleksandr Pljuw

Hospitality: Anastasia Buk

Interviewer: Andreas “Wiseguy” Hoglund

Social Media: Melvin Schroen

Commentator: Vaclav “Lemon” Dusek

Blogger: Jonathan Raab

Hugs: Jason Glatzer

Enforcer: Karev Tralla

Commander in Chief: Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk

Fade to Black…

Presiyan Tsvetanov has won the Main Event of the Festival in Rozvadov to capture the €80,000 first prize and a seat in the €10,350 Main Event of the World Series of Poker Europe. He triumphed after a long heads-up battle with Czech player Michal Riczak. 

Bulgarian Tsvetanov had gone into the final heads-up stage of the tournament with a 4-1 chip deficit, but clawed his way back into contention with an early double up holding AT versus Riczak’s K6. Tsvetanov then turned the tables and assumed the lead, but it took over two and a half hours to reach its conclusion.

In the final hand, with the blinds at 300k/600k and a big blind 600k ante, Presiyan had applied the ultimate pressure against his short-stacked adversary, open shoving with 10 8 , which was snap called by Riczak, who was in the lead with K Q . However, the 9 J Q flop gave Presiyan a straight and left Roczak needing a ten to make a better one. The 3 on the turn and 2 on the flop brought the tournament to close.

Congratulations to Presiyan, who scoops the €80,000 first prize. Congratudolences to runner up Michal Riczak, who left with €47,900 for his efforts. They both also scored a seat into the WSOPE Main Event, which takes place later this year.

The adventure is over for Antoine Degiorgio, who has been shunted off the final table when making a move with 3 2 on a flop of 6 Q 4 , in a hand against chip leader Michal Riczak. The Maltese Mixed Games Maestro had a flush and straight draw and was up against K K . The turn was the 10 and an unhelpful 4 on the river brought the best run of Antoine’s poker life to an end. He leaves with €33,900 plus WSOP Main Event Seat.

Not even a ‘Mela’ exited Antoine’s mouth, as forever the gentleman, he immediately rushed to hug and congratulate the last two players left, who will now fight it out for the title.

Despite favouring mixed games, Antoine’s previous best was also in No Limit Hold’em, when he won €14,006 for 1st in a €400 event at the Israeli Poker Championship at Portomaso Casino in Malta. Antoine will return to Malta on Monday evening on the 7pm flight from Munich. I’ll be on that flight too and I really hope the Maltese poker community makes an effort to welcome him back when he walks out of the Arrivals Hall at Malta International Airport! Antoine, you da man!

Heads Up for the Title

Michal Riczak has a huge chip lead going into the final two versus Bulgarian Presiyan Tsvetanov. These are the chip counts as the heads up commences:

Michal: 41m

Presiyan: 8.4m

Watch the Heads Up on The Festival’s Twitch Channel

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Not long after Yann Lormel was dusted out of the tournament another big hand took place. This one was a more straightforward affair, a classic you might say.

Barnabus held Q Q versus the A K of in Michal Riczak in another all-in pre-flop situation. The K on the flop was enough to nudge Nagy out of the tournament in 4th place for €25,600 and a WSOPE Main Event Seat.

Hungarian player Barnabus Nagy is an experienced player who has graced many final tables all over Europe. He made the final table of the Eureka Poker Tour Main Event in Varna, Bulgaria in 2012, where he finished in 8th place. I was there for that event, as The Eureka Poker Tour was my creation. He went on to win an event on the Eureka Poker Tour, the big field Prague Poker Cup in 2015, where he cashed for €55,750. This score doesn’t quite match that feat, but it is the second biggest cash of his life. He’ll be back at Kings Casino later in the year to take his seat in the WSOPE Main Event.

Chip Counts Three Handed

Michal: 26.15m

Antoine: 11.65m

Presiyan: 10.6m

Aces do look nice and they are almost always going to be a hand you will risk your tournament life with. Unfortunately for Frenchman Yann Lormel, they don’t always hold up, as was the case when he found himself all-in holding the A A versus Presiyan Tsvetanov’s A 2 . Presiyan had made the call, but Yann was still well in front on a flop of Q 6 8 . The turn brought the 5 giving Presiyan a flush draw and his luck was in when the 10 hit on the river.

Yann has been one of the more aggressive players in the latter stages of the tournament and was one of the top three stacks for much of the second day of the tournament. He continued to dominate today and went into the final table as the chip leader with over 10m chips. However his opponents on the final table started to play back at him and eventually he was punished for it.

Yann’s best ever score was also here in Rozvadov, in July 2022, when he took down the Dach Masters Open for €39,500.

Runen777, the second and last anonymous player at the final table has been sent to the rail in 6th and takes home €15,300 plus a €10,350 seat in the WSOPE Main Event. Soon after Erik exited in 7th, Runen777 began to pick up a few hands, first an AK, then AJ, which he won small uncontested pots with. 

However it was all over for the player of indeterminate nationality, when he made a 4m chip all-in move with A 10 over the top of Michal Riczak’s opening bet. The Czech chip leader called with 8 8 and the board blanked to send Runen777 spinning to the rail in 6th, for €15,300 plus a WSOPE ME Seat.

Michal has extended his lead and now has almost 20m chips.

Having been left with less than a small blind, Erik found himself all-in soon after the restart and although his J 8 was dominating both the J 7 of Michal Riczak and the 9 8 held by Yann, the 7 on the flop weas enough to end his tournament.

Erik has played a strong game throughout the tournament, has been the most aggressive player on the final table and just misses out on a career best score. His best result remains last year’s Estonian Championship, where he finished 2nd, cashing for €11,000. 

Latest Chip Counts

The remaining seven players have now gone on a break. We’ll update chip counts shortly, but there was a huge hand just before the break that left Estonian Erik Polluveer with fumes of the stack he once had. He held A 10 on a A Q 7 9 A board and made the call to Yann Lormel’s re-raise, only to find himself up against Q Q . Erik was left with less than a small blind.

Chip Counts at the Break

The second player to depart was anonymous German player ASSO, who moved all-in with 5 5 from early position for his last 2.295m chips. Fellow short-stack Erik Polluveer from Estonia woke up with K K and also moved all-in with an almost identical stack. However Yann Lormel also made the call with A K to put both players at risk.

The 7 Q 8 3 4 board blanked everyone, trebling up Erik, while ASSO was sent to the rail in 8th for €7,500.

It took almost an hour for the first player to be eliminated from The Festival Series Main Event final table. The unfortunate player to have had his final table cut short is Rickard Olsson from Sweden, who secures his biggest ever live cash of €5,950.

It was a brutal exit, as Olsen, all-in pre-flop with A K had connected on a flop of 10 K 4 , losing to the straight of Michal Riczak’s Q Q when the board ran out J 9

The final table has now begun and can be viewed on either The Festival Series Twitch Channel with English commentary and on the Stream Like a King Twitch Channel (Kings Casino) in German. When they get down to six left it will go live on Czech TV.

The Final Nine

They started with 989 players and 980 have fallen, meaning we have now reached the final table of the Festival in Rozvadov Main Event. Full chip counts and seating draw for the final nine coming soon. The players who narrowly missed out on the final table were

10th place: DOV-HOZ (nickname)

11th place: Kai Wattenberg

12th place: Claudiu Descultu

Twenty-four players returned today for the final day of the Main Event and half of them have now exited, leaving twelve poker disciples still chasing divinity…and a very nice €80,000 payday.

The current chip leader is Czech Michal Riczak on 8.7m

Other news we have recently discovered is that the final table will be screened live (on a 30-minute delay) on Czech national television. Just how the players who wish to remain anonymous are going to cope with that remains to be seen.

However if you want commentary in English, you can watch on The Festival Series Twitch Channel.

Recent Exits

The first hour of the day has been a quick-fire one and there are now 16 players left. The table that started on the TV table has now been swapped, but the stream is half an hour behind. Coverage in English is by Václav ‘Lemon’ Dušek on The Festival ’s Twitch Channel. 

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17th-24th Placed Finishers

Four events concluded on Saturday at The Festival in Rozvadov. Unfortunately three of those winners chose to remain anonymous, which means that most of the article that I have posted in the news section is about the winner of the €250 PokerListings 30k Texas NLH, Aleksandar Georgiev from Bulgaria.

Congratulations to all winners, full details and payouts on the results page.

The last three tables are back in action, having just resumed after one of Franke’s final speeches of The Festival in Rozvadov. These are today’s contestants, all looking to make the final and have a pop at poker immortality by joining that exclusive club of Festival Series Main Event Winners. The €80,000 first prize and WSOPE Main Event ticket is also worth winning, but there’s a long way to go before we get heads up.

There is of course a feature table today, operating on a 30-minute delay, which can be viewed on The Festival Series Twitch Channel with English commentary and on the Stream Like a King Twitch Channel (Kings Casino) in German.

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Here are the chip counts, starting stacks and seating draw for the last 24. Table 37 is the feature table.

Today is the 10th and final day of The Festival Series first visit to Rozvadov. But as Franke said in one of his speeches yesterday, we expect to be back! It’s been a jam packed Festival Series with highs and more highs and not very many (if any) lows. 

But we’re not done yet, there’s still a full day of poker ahead of us and the main focus of the blog today will be on the 3rd and final day of the €550 Main Event. They are down to the last 24 players, who resume play at 1pm, to settle the matter of the €80,000 first prize, plus a WSOPE Main Event seat.

The first event to start today is the Open Face Chinese High Roller. That’s not the only high roller event today, the NLH High Roller, with the same €1,100 buy in starts at 6pm. 

It’s not all high stakes action as there are two more reasonably priced €125 events, an NLH Texas Freezeout at 3pm and 5 Card PLO at 4pm.