2024 The Festival Rozvadov Day 4

While we have mostly focused on the two key final tables today, there have been several other events taking place today. Here’s a brief roundup of what’s been going down here in RozVegas on the fourth day of the Festival Series.

€125 Half ’n’ Half

The half Hold’em half PLO event had 113 entries and paid out 14 places. It was won by Earde Bearda from Netherlands, who took the most in a four way-deal, €2,607.

€250 PLO Freezeout

Bulgarian Lachezar Angelov Tsenov took the most (€2,839) in another four-way deal to become the €250 PLO Champion. There were 45 entries in total.

€300 Mystery Bounty Day 1b

The second flight of the Mystery Bounty had 113 entrants and with five levels left to play there are just 25 players left. We will update further on this in the recap of Day 4 article, which will be published tomorrow morning.

€125 Texas Progressive Knockout

The last side event of the day was another busy one and a rare chance to play a live progressive bounty tournament. They are currently on the bubble with 21 players left and only 20 getting paid, from 171 starters.

Franke’s Flip Flops

Franke’s Flip Flops has been a roaring success so far, with dozens of Flips having already taken place. They are being played in very good spirit with lots of laughter, oohs and aahs echoing around the venue during the 2 hours that they run for each evening.

Cash Game Challenge

There have also been two further heats of the Cash Game Challenge. Unfortunately these were not live streamed due to a technical error, but we are hoping that will be fixed for the remaining heats later this week. We’ll update further on the scores of this challenge tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the least busy day of the ten-day festival, but we will return to keep you updated on the proceedings, with a little more focus on the off-the table activities that The Festival Series is so famous for. Until then, that’s all folks!

Iranian Majid Alimoradpour has emerged victorious after a gruelling 3-hour heads up encounter with Marek Soukop from the Czech Republic. Tehran resident Majid has not only added a Cz flag to his THM profile, he’s actually going to be added to the database for the very first time, as this is his first cash in a live event. Very impressive flag hunting!

He scooped the first prize of €35,250, including a seat in the €10,350 WSOPE plus a €2,000 package to The Hendon Mob Championship in Cape Town. Runner up Marek Soukop also received the same prize, as the pair had done an equal chop after the first hour of heads up play. They played on for a further two hours for the trophy and the Cape Town package.

Although it ended up being an extremely long heads up battle, it could have been over on the very first hand, as they got it all in with Majid holding pocket tens versus Marek’s AQ. A queen on the flop enabled Marek to double up and take a narrow lead. From then on it became a more cagey affair, with the chip lead flip flopping a few times. But eventually Majid ground out a lead and after three hours of intense rivalry, it was eventually settled in Majid’s favour.

On the final hand, Marek raised from the button, Majid moved all-in and Marek made the call. Majid had another pocket pair, this time eights and he found himself up against K5. The board ran dry, the eights held and the rest as they say, is history. 

Majid follows in the footsteps of many successful Iranian poker players, or those of Persian origin, such as Antonio Esfandiari, Amir Vahedi and no less than three former WSOP champions: Mansour Matloubi, Hamid Dastmalchi and most recently Hossein Ensan, the 2019 winner. 

Part of his Majid’s prize includes a seat into the 2024 WSOPE event here at Kings Casino in Rozvadov, so he will soon have a chance to shoot for a bracelet.

Majid seemed genuinely delighted with his win, thanking both Kings Casino and The Hendon Mob for staging the event during his post-victory interview with Andreas ‘Wiseguy’ Hoglund.

The Final Table Result

Sascha Manns is already well known as a regular of The Festival Series and really needs no introduction, but we thought we’d do it anyway. 

Sascha defeated Belorussian Siarhei Narozhny after a fairly short heads up encounter for €8,788, but to be fair, the result was never in doubt. Last night Sascha narrowly missed out on the 8-Game title and returned this afternoon, still in the zone and determined to finally get a trophy.

There was definitely no horsing about today. He was one of the fifteen players from 46 starters who returned for the second and final day of the championship. Manns took the chip lead early on in the day and never looked back, but refusing to count his chickens before they were hatched, he remained fully zoned in on the goal.

Although the points haven’t been calculated, with a win and a second place finish, Manns is surely now at the top of the unofficial Player of the Series leaderboard.

Congratulations once again to The King of Malta*, who is now also the King of Kings here in Rozvadov. Which country will he conquer next?

The Full Result

*A few years ago Portomaso Casino in Malta held a few editions of a tournament called the King of Malta. Sascha won the second edition and reigned for two years, until Lawrence Bonnici took his crown in 2019. Sascha narrowly missed defending his crown, finishing 3rd in that edition, but you know what, if they ever do revive that tournament, it’s a certainty that Sascha will return to try and reclaim his kingdom and show his loyal poker subjects that he’s still the one wearing the ermin.

P.S. The player who came second in the King of Malta tournament to Sascha was none other than The Hendon Mob’s Roland Boothby.

P.P.S. Antoine Degiorgio claims he was the original King of Malta, but there’s no record of him assuming the Malta poker throne on The Hendon Mob database.

P.P.P.S. It would be rude not to mention Giulio Spampinato, who was also a King of Malta and to add that on that occasion, Roland Boothby was also the runner up. Close, but no sceptre.

The H.O.R.S.E.S Mixed Games Main Event is now also heads up, with Sascha Manns from Germany commanding a chip lead over Belorussian Siarhei Narozhny. Sascha has 1.3m chips to Siarhei’s 540k. 

Meanwhile, in The Hendon Mob Championship, the chip lead has been flip flopping. Majid reassumed the lead soon after losing it, but the balance of poker power has now swung back in favour of Marek.

Tomas Svec has been eliminated in third place, leaving Iranian Majid Alimoradpour and Czech Marek Soukop as the last two players to fight it out. Both players took pots off Tomas, but it was Majid who sent him to rail, taking just under a 3-1 chip into the final stage of the tournament.

It was very nearly a one-hand heads up match, as they got it all in immediately with Marek holding AQ versus the pocket tens of Majid. A queen flopped, to give Marek a slight chip lead.

It’s not nice, nobody likes it and it’s always slightly uncomfortable for the rest of the players when the bubble bursts on the final table. I have to say, all the remaining contestants were incredibly respectful and nobody outwardly celebrated the fact that they are all now at least €2,256 richer than they were before the exit hand. 

As per yesterday in the Hendon Mob Championship, we’re going to respect the privacy of the player and not reveal his name. It’s also sad to see Yoshi exiting the tournament.

Despite the big pay jump between 3rd place and 4th place, it didn’t take long for the next exit to occur and that unfortunate soul was Matthias Steinberg, who will be somewhat consoled by the €10,400 prize. Just enough for him to buy himself into the €10,350 WSOPE Main Event later in the year.

Unfortunately I missed the exit and the players are so focused on the prize that they all shrugged and said they didn’t remember how or who took Steinberg out! Go figure?

It’s quite possible it was Majid Alimoradpour, as he seems to have by far the largest stack of the remaining three. The other two players remaining are Tomas Svec and Marek Soukop.

Alexander Dovzhenko has trotted back to paddock, after falling at the last fence, which means that with just six runners left on the course, its now bubble time!

After being seven-handed for quite some time, there have now been a flurry of quick exits in The Hendon Mob Championship. The first of these was Visa Kiviharju from Finland, who was eliminated by Tomas Svec. Visa can now load his card up with the €4,700 payout he received for his 7th place finish.

The Super Six wasn’t super for very long and it was overnight chip leader Martin Georg Wolf who took 6th, after being ousted by Matthias Steinberg. Martin has a good record here at Kings Casino and he’s sure to be back again. This time, he pocketed €6,400.

The Famous Five was also a short lived stage of the tournament, as another starting day chip leader, Robert Palasz from Poland had his tournament abruptly ended, also by Tomas Svec.

The championship is now at the Fantastic Four stage and its a big money jump between 4th and 3rd, especially when you take into consideration that the top three all get a €10,350 WSOPE ticket as well as the prize money.

Although our coverage today is largely focusing on The Hendon Mob Championship Final Table and the Mixed Main Event, there are also side events taking place.

The first side event of the day was the €125 Half ’n’ Half and no, that does not mean half a plate of spaghetti with half a pizza. The poker version is half Hold’em and half PLO. Its quite a popular one and had 113 entries. Late registration is now closed and there are 36 players remaining.

The second side of the day is a straight up PLO event, with a €250 buy-in. It is currently in level 4 with 8 levels for late registration.

There are now seven players left in the Mixed Main Event, which is one place away from its bubble and therefore two places away from the money.

The horses that have so far ejected their riders include Antoine Degiorgio, Paddy Schmidt, Bruno Stefanelli, Scott ‘Pokerbrahs’ Kenyon and Barrie Dear.

Two players have now been eliminated from the final table, while the magnificent seven continue their quest for glory. 

The first player to hit the rail was Ivica Malovan, who had gone into the final as the lowest of the nine finalists. The Croatian player takes €2,530 home for his efforts.

Having been reduced to an un-hateful eight contenders, German Rainer Sollfrank became the next player to bite the felt, losing his tournament life in flip against Martin Georg Wolf, when his AT failed to improve against pocket sevens. He collected €3,200 for his 8th place finish.

Martin Georg Wolf topped the chip counts on his starting day and maintained that lead going into the final day of the €250 tournament. He has now failed to continue that trend, but sits in a tidy second place as the money begins to get serious. Wolf has now been overtaken as chip leader by Czech player Tomas Svec.

And this is what they’re playing for, good luck to all!

It’s been a swift day so far in The Hendon Mob Championship, with the final table being reached within 90 minutes of play. Unfortunately there is a technical problem with the live stream today, so it won’t be possible to watch the action remotely, but we’ll keep our eye on the the action and will keep you updated on how its progressing.

Chip counts to follow shortly.

Last night Sascha Manns was in the zone. He was super focused throughout the €250 8-Game and ended up taking second place for a payout of €3,355. He was beaten heads up by Nikolas Bokowski in the early hours of the morning and just a few hours later they both returned for the final day of the Mixed Main Event, with a H.O.R.S.E.S format. 

Manns will be determined to get that winners trophy this time and Bokowski will be going for his second. If either of them makes it deep they will be strong contenders for Player of the Series, hoping to pick up a €1,600 package to The Festival Series in Malta. Manns used to be a resident of the small Mediterranean island (which I have also called home for the last decade) and will savour a chance to return to his old stomping ground, where he is considered a local within the Maltese poker community.

There is another fully fledged Maltese player still in the H.O.R.S.E.S as well, possibly the best known Maltese player on the scene. That player is the very likeable and jovial Antoine Degiorgio, who drives the mixed games poker scene in Melaland (only Maltese residents and frequent visitors will get this joke, sorry).

Best of luck to all riders today, they still have a long way to go, with several more laps of the track to complete before the winning line will come into view.

The cards are once again the air as another fun filled and action packed day gets started. Both the H.O.R.S.E.S Mixed Games Main Event and The Hendon Mob Championship (THMC) have started their final days with two tables left in each. 

I managed to catch up with THMC chip leader Martin Georg Wolf at the breakfast buffet here at Kings Casino this morning and he’s brought a couple of fans with him to rail him to potential success here today. Martin first discovered poker in 2003, inspired to play by the Moneymaker effect, like so many other players of his generation. He mainly played online, occasionally venturing into live casinos for local events, but then he drifted away from the game for a few years. 

When he returned to the live scene last year he tasted immediate success here at Kings Casino, taking third place in The German Poker Tour event for a lifetime best €28,350 cash. After this he decided to play more, what he considers to be semi-professional. He competed in last year’s WSOPE Main Event and made the money. Now he is going for first place, to try to better his GPT score.

The Festival Series wishes Martin and all of today’s remaining competitors the best of luck!

Welcome to the fourth day of The Festival in Rozvadov. Yesterday was a busy one as both The Hendon Mob Championship and the H.O.R.S.E.S Mixed Main Event held their last starting days. The Hendon Mob Championship also moved into Day 2 and is now down to the last 16 players, who will fight it out for the first place prize of €30,900.

Mixed Games remained a key part of the schedule on Sunday when it was the turn of 8-Game to be the format for the afternoon tournament. There was also a Win The Button NLH side event and another two Cash Game Challenge sessions.

The Festival news page includes full story of the third day.

Monday at The Festival in Rozvadov

The final days of The Hendon Mob Championship and the H.O.R.S.E.S Mixed Main Event restart at 1pm. The second flight of the Mystery Bounty begins at 6pm and there are three other side events, including a €250 PLO. Further heats of the cash game challenge are also scheduled and Franke’s Flip Flops continues between 8-10pm.