2024 The Festival Rozvadov Day 6

It’s the end of today’s blog coverage, but there’s still plenty of poker being played at Kings Casino in Rozvadov. 

The Main Event still has the best part of three levels left to play and there are still 39 of the day’s 109 entrants still left in. 

The €300 Mystery Bounty is down to the last six players and the €125 PLO Wednesday Night Turbo, which had 113 entries still has two tables left.

On Thursday there are two further starting days for the Main Event, the first of which begins at midday. We’ll be back in the morning with news of how tonight’s ongoing tournaments ended up and chip counts from the Main Event Day 1 survivors. As a Maltese resident, I’m completely unashamed to say that I’m rooting for Antoine Degiorgio to make it through the day. At the time of posting, with over two levels of the day left to go, Antoine has a slightly above average 168,000. Good luck sir!

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The €125 Roulette Tournament has been won by Thomas Gugerbauer, who’s score of 138,200 was far ahead of second placed Rolf Arne Bechstroem’s 90,000 total. There were 91 entries, making it by far the busiest roulette tournament ever held at The Festival Series. 

Gugerbauer’s win was the result of one extremely lucky spin where he covered the zero and all its splits with as many chips as possible. That spin alone earned him 122,000 points and was good enough for first place. many tried to knock him off the top spot, but all failed. 

However, as per yesterday’s blackjack tournament, it was not until the very last few spins that the result became inevitable. Third placed Esko Virri had chances to win, having accumulated over 60,000 with five spins to go. However he played it cautiously to ensure third place rather than risking it all for glory. The Full Result to follow.

By winning the roulette, Gugerbauer became the first double winner of The Festival in Rozvadov, going back-to-back after taking down Tuesday’s PLO Knockout. He is having a really good festival, as he also took second place in the €250 PLO Masters and now moves into pole position (to be confirmed) in the Player of the Series race.

Top spinning Thomas!

Tonight’s roulette tournament is proving to be just as exciting as yesterday’s blackjack was. There’s still 30 minutes left for late registration and the current leader is Thomas Gugerbauer, who posted a massive 138,200 score, which nobody has come close to yet. 

The early running was made by Rolf Arne Bechstroem, who scored 90,000, but took nine bullets to get there. He still lies in second and has a big lead over third placed Sander Laprik on 55,000.

The spin that rocketed Gugerbauer to the top of the leaderboard was a bold play with huge amounts of chips on the zero and all the surrounding splits. It took quite a while to pay out the bet, which amounted to 122,000.

Franke has had (at least) seven entries, none of which proved fruitful. He went all in on lucky number seven each time, but didn’t manage to hit.

Registration is closing soon, but as we have already seen, anything can (and probably will) happen. Will Franke have another last minute bash at hitting the seven?  Will Thomas Gugerbauer retain his lead? We’ll find out soon!

The €550 Main Event is now in level 6 and now has 99 entries, which means it i still 901 players away from hitting the guarantee. Obviously the guarantee won’t be hit for several more starting days, if at all. There have been a few overlays here this week already, most notably The Hendon Mob Championship, which missed its €200,000 guarantee by over €20,000. Could the Main Event post an even bigger one and give all players a bit of great value to get their teeth into?

Amongst the players who started their tournament today is Seven Card Stud winner Siarhei Narozhny, who is one of the players in contention for the Player of the Series award. 

The unofficial front runner for that title, Sascha Manns has already fired one bullet and missed. He cashed in 39th place in the Mystery Bounty, his third score of the series and then loaded his gun for his first tilt at the Main Event. However the barrel jammed, backfired and sent him to rail within 90 mins of taking his seat. He can easily afford a few more bullets though, having already cashed for over €15,000 this week, including a €3,000 bounty in the Mystery.

Other players in their seats today include the godfather of the Maltese Mixed Games scene (heck, the godfather of all poker in Malta) Antoine Degiorgio, plus Party Poker online qualifier Michael Sowale from London, who hasn’t used his online seat yet, as he won his way in today via an €80 satellite.

Late registration remains open until the end of level nine and they will play 13 levels in total.

The Mystery Bounty is now down to the last two tables and its getting serious. All the big bounties have long gone and the remaining contestants are now fully focused on the first prize of €27,150, which includes an entry into the WSOPE Main Event. The average stack is now just under 2m and the chip leader, Mikael Hanouna has about 5.5m. Other well stacked players still in the running include Viorel Gavrila, Igor Kubarev, Maksim Belomestnoi and Aleksander Giorgiev. 

I spoke to Aleksander earlier and he’s running good at the table, but terrible when it comes to picking the bounties. Earlier on, two of the €10,000 bounties were pulled one after the other and he was next in line to press the red button that starts the chest opening sequence. There had been great cheers and gasps when the big bounties were pulled, but these turned into groans when Aleksander got the minimum €100 prize. He has since taken several more bounties and every single one was for €100. Still, it’s got to better than when he bubbled the H.O.R.S.E at the recent Battle of Malta, where he had been one of the early chip leaders, oof…not to mention being taken out by reporting colleague Frank Visser, oof oof.

The bounties came into play at the beginning of the second day, but only 63 of the 95 players made it to the money. By the time they got there, about 90 minutes into the day, all three of the biggest bounties, worth €10,000 had been pulled, but there are still 3 x €3,000 valued prizes left to pull. 

One lucky Mann, with the first name Sascha, has already added to the loot he banked in the H.O.R.S.E.S and the 8-Game, pulling the first of four €3,000 bounties. He took it calmly, with no overt celebration, just a wry smile, acknowledging that he is the golden child this week in Rozvadov.

The bubble has also just burst in the €125 PLO 4/5/6 card and there are 13 players left to shoot for the top prize of €3,354. Lachezar Angelov Tsenov is still in, notching up his third cash and going for his second trophy of the series, but he is relatively short stacked. Scott Kenyon has also recorded his third cash of the festival and has an above average stack, but the runaway chip leader is Massimo Navarra who has a quarter of the chip in play and is shipping pot after pot.

The big one has begun, the €500,000 guaranteed Main Event of The Festival in Rozvadov. This is the first of six starting days in the €550 buy-in headliner, which is the biggest draw of the Festival Series. They are still on the first level of the day, with 47 players playing. Players may have a maximum of 2 bullets per flight and late registration closes after level nine. They play 13 x 40 minute levels on the first day.

Spotted in the field today is last night’s Seven Card Stud winner Siarhei Narozhny, who is one of the front runners for the Player of the Series award. 

Yesterday’s Blackjack tournament was a heap of fun and kept everyone guessing until the very last hand. Today the casino games tournament is roulette. The registration is open until 11.30pm and players may join the game at any time. The goal is to win as much as possible with 10 spins of the wheel, but there are a few rules to consider.

The Rules

• Players receive 10,000 points each
• No outside bets
• Call bets are allowed but must be placed before the wheel spins
• Minimum bet is 100 points per spin
• Maximum bet is 2000 per box/split
• You can bet all your chips on one spin, maximum bets only apply to each individual bet

Full rules are available in this excellent article, written by The Festival’s social media manager Melvin Schroën.

The biggest roulette tournament ever held at The Festival Series was in Bratislava in 2021, when 34 players entered and already it looks like that record is going to be blown away. Within the first hour and half of the table opening, there had already been 18 entries and most of the casino regulars haven’t even arrived at the casino yet. We’re going to call this early, it will get well over 100 runners.

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The fourth and final starting day of the €300 Mystery Bounty has concluded, with 29 players joining the 66 who made it through from the first three flights for a Day 2 field of 95 players.

Due to the quick turnaround we won’t be getting any chip counts from the players who qualified from this final flight. These are the players who made it through the day:

Mystery Bounty Prize Pool

And this is what they’re playing for:

What About the Mystery Bounties?

Oh yes, lets not forget about those. From the start of Day 2, all players have bounties on their heads. When a player is eliminated, their vanquisher gets to open the chest to find out how much they have won? The biggest bounties are worth €10,000 each and there are three of them. This approach is genius, as the big prizes stay in circulation for longer, increasing the excitement for players for much longer.

Registration has now closed in the final flight of the €300 Mystery Bounty with 187 players making one final attempt to sneak into Day 2, which begins at 5pm. There are still 112 players left in and they will play down until there are 29 left.

The total field of 620, absolutely destroying the previous best for this event. The ball has been well and truly smashed out of the park! The total prize pool has not yet been confirmed and first prize they are shooting for remains a mystery, but will be confirmed soon, along with details of bounties, which will start to be claimed on Day 2.

The first of today’s two PLO tournaments began at 2pm and they are falling thick and fast, with 19 of the 57 entries (so far) hitting the rail within the first hour of play. Lots of re-entries are expected in the €125 buy-in event, which has a fast structure, on a 20 minute clock. Late registration will remain open for another 4 levels.

The first Main Event satellite of the day has also just begun and there is another one scheduled for 8pm this evening. 

Just as I was about to hit publish, a loud chorus of people chanting ‘Flips, Flips, Flips, Flips’ made their way into the casino, having returned from today’s sports day and BBQ, which means that Franke’s Flips will be starting earlier than scheduled. More info on how that contest is progressing coming soon…

There’s no hump day at The Festival in Rozvadov, as the series lasts for an even ten days, but this is the the first day of the second half of the series. Once again there’s a pretty packed schedule, with a little something for everyone.

First up at midday is the final starting day of the €300 Mystery Bounty, which already surpassed its €100,000 guarantee yesterday and is going to climb further before late registration closes after the first ten levels. This flight is a turbo structure with a 15-minute clock and they play down to 15% of the field. The survivors will join the 66 players who have made it through the first three starting days when Day 2 begins at 5pm.

Omaha fans are in for a treat today, with two tournaments on today’s schedule. The first of these is a €125 PLO 4/5/6 Card tournament, which will be played with a maximum of seven players per table. The late night side event at 10pm is a PLO Turbo, also with a €125 buy-in.

The casino games event today is a Roulette Tournament that starts at 4pm and runs throughout the evening costing €125 to play. Registration closes at midnight.

And last but absolutely by no means least, at 6pm today is the first of six starting days for The Festival Series Main Event. The €550 event will be the main focus for the rest of the festival.

The Kings Cup in the Games Zone, our pub games fun tournament also continues today, having reached the third day, with 30 players left in contention. Those left in the darts, air hockey and Fussball competitions include streamers Ylva Thorsrud and Scott Kenyon, plus tour regulars Lisabeth Sunde and ‘Vambola.’  The Kings Cup concludes on Friday, when the winners of each game will walk away with a 250€ ticket to the Poker Listings Championship on Saturday.

The recap of yesterday’s action is now available in the news section.