2025 The Festival Bratislava Day 6

With just one day left and three ranking events still to be completed, the Player of the Series race at The Festival in Bratislava is poised for a photo finish. No players in the top 50 are left in the Main Event, but several did play and a few made the money. In order to get the clearest picture of who’s in the running to win the title, we’ve added any points for the Main Event to all 50 players on this penultimate leaderboard and there are just 7 points separating the top two. 

With just two ranking events – the Big O and the Open Face Chinese High Roller to be played on Monday (in addition to the Main Event, which has no further bearing on the Player of the Series race), any of the players in the top 10 could still end up victorious. 

The Front Runner – Krystian Nalepka

The standout performer of the series so far, with 148 points from just seven events played, Krystian Nalepka cashed in the Main Event, finishing in 17th place*, earning him 12.5 leaderboard points. He also finished runner up in the Sunday PLO5 Turbo PKO, for 31.25 pts, to jump up from 5th place to take pole position going into the last day of action. 

_{*Please note that an earlier edition of this article incorrectly had Nalepka’s Main Event finishing position listed as 18th. This is due to a discrepancy between PokerLens, where he is listed as the 18th place finisher and Banco’s tournament clock, which has the correct finishing position of 17th listed.}

The Challenger – Miles Rees

Just 7 points behind Nalepka is the UK’s Miles Rees, who didn’t play in the Main Event, but finished 3rd in the Mystery Bounty on Sunday, to earn 38.5 leaderboard points. 

Still Chasing – Ville Hakala

Just 15.25 points behind the leader on 132.75 pts is Finn Ville Hakala, who has been runner-up in the last two Player of the Series races and has attempted to buy the win this time, playing in an unprecedented 27 events, so far. He is certain not to give up on the final day and is expected to play in both the Big O and the OFC High Roller. But he’ll have to get in the money in at least one of them to be in with a chance of winning the whole shebang! 

Given Up the Ghost – Ville-Matti Keränen

Having been the leader for several days, Ville-Matti Keränen went AWOL from the Festival in Bratislava on Sunday, failing to enter any tournaments. Did he have other plans for the day, or has he gone home already, relinquishing his chance to take down the title? He has 129.25 pts and is in 4th place and could still challenge, if he returns to the casino on Monday.

What a Long Strange Trip Its Been – Fedor Stadtrucker

Just half a point behind in 5th place on 128.75 pts is Fedor Stadtrucker, who added 13.25 pts to his total for 12th place in the Sunday PLO5 Turbo PKO. He still hasn’t got his chips cashed in and will keep truckin’ on for the win, but the cards ain’t gonna be worth a dime unless he goes deep on Monday. 

The Chasing Pack

Outside the top five, several others can still win the Player of the Series title, with a strong showing on Monday. This includes defending champion Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk, who took second place in the Sportsbook tournament and cashed in the Main Event on Sunday, to keep his dream alive of going back-to-back.

But he’s over 40 points adrift of Nalepka and will have to go deep and cash in both of the final two events to stand a chance of retaining his title. He will likely have to win one of them to do it and is up for the challenge! Good luck Franke!

The Top 50 After Sunday

The Festival Series blog will be covering the outcome, as well as the conclusion of the Main Event. Good luck to all, may the cards be with you!

Please note that all leaderboard scores are unofficial, all results will be re-checked at the end of series before the Player of the Series is officially declared.

As the blogger did not make Day 3 of the Main Event, the blog will return in full swing for the final day of Festival Series action. See the action and drama from the Main Event on The Festival Series Instagram @TheFestivalOG, on the Facebook page The Festival Series, and on YouTube.

That’s all for now, folks. Until next time.

Here are the chip counts of the final two tables in the Main Event. It’s a Slovakian podium going into the final day, as well as the reigning Bratislava Main Event champion, Sebastian Kotowicz, and Gabriel Rymar, who won The Festival Series Main Event and the Bratislava Deepstack back in 2023. The Blogger managed to cash in 21st, with half the winnings going to The Festival Founder Martin ‘Franke ‘ von Zweigbergk, as he won the ticket in the flips yesterday. Below are the counts.

Here are some recent bust-outs of those in the money in the Mystery Bounty.

It’s cold outside, and the freezout tournament seems aptly named. Here are the payouts. A total of 24 remain of the 44 that entered.

Arsenal beat Spurs 4-1 at the Emirates, and Villa came from behind away at Leeds to win 2-1. Getafe and Atletico Madrid are tied 0-0 at halftime. Gronigen and PEC Zwolle played out a 2-2 draw under heavy snow in the Netherlands. Slovan Bratislava won 3-0 against Dukla Michalovce in the ice hockey. Union Berlin won 1-0 away from home against St Pauli.

There is still one game to play, the Milan Derby, and that kicks off at 8.45 p.m. CET.

Here are the counts in the Main Event. Maximilian Meier leads the way. Two Bratislava Main Event Champions, Sebastian Kotowicz and Gabriel Rymar remain in contention to become dual Main Event winners. A certain member of The Festival Team is still in with 262,000. Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk, The Festival Founder, has 550,000.

The only Mystery Bounty tournament is underway, and 119 remain of the 141 total entrants that have taken to the felt. The blog may be slightly neglected today, as the blogger made Day 2 of the Main Event through the Turbo flight last night.

Good luck to everyone playing today.

Representing the home team and overtaking Gabriel Rymar and Sebastian Kotowicz at the top of the chip counts, is Boris Zeleny. He will return to play Day 2 at 3 p.m. as the chip leader, unless one of the players from this morning’s Hyper-turbo flight bags a stack bigger than 1,430,000.

Zeleny has accumulated $124,138 in earnings from live tournaments according to TheHendonMob.com, and is looking for his first cash of the week at Banco Bratislava. He plays almost exclusively in Slovakia, and only one of his career cashes has come outside his homeland. His first cash also remains his biggest single score, as he finished second in the €4,400 No Limit Hold’em at a WPT Event in Bratislava back in 2009. He has secured his first Festival Series cash, having made Day 2 in the week’s marquee Hold’em event, the €550 Main Event.

Here is a rundown of the results of yesterday’s action that was missed as the blogger was occupied with finding a stack for Day 2 of the Main Event, courtesy of The Boss, Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk.

€125 NLH €15,000 GTD

The side events have been incredibly popular this stop, and the €125 NLH proved to be good value for players as a field of 172 took to the felts across the tournament floor at Banco Bratislava. The generous guarantee was eclipsed by over €3,000, and the title went to Finland. Teemu Leppalelahti took the win and a bumper payout of €4,367, a great ROI from a €125 tournament. Below are the payouts in full. Isac Ekstrom gained his first cash of the week, and POS leaderboard front-runner gained yet another cash.

€250 PLO Masters

The €250 PLO Masters attracted 83 total entrants into the four-card streets, and Swedish national Serguei Palomera took down the title and €5,141 for the win. The Hendon Mob Championship runner-up Asterios Kokompelis made his second final table of the week, and Marc Gork made his third, having final tabled the €550 T.O.R.S.E.S. and the €250 Sviten Special. Below are the payouts.

€250 8-Game

A field of 94 Mixed Game enthusiasts took to the tables in the €250 8-Game. Matteo Crapanzano cashed once more in the Mixed Game streets, having won the €125 H.O.R.S.E. earlier in the week. Imre Leibold took down the win, besting former EPT Champion Christer Johansson heads-up for the victory.

With just two days to go and only eight ranking events left to be completed, the Player of the Series race is still wide open. Ville-Matti Keränen has slightly increased his lead over his nearest rivals and is now 16.25 pts clear, having earned 129.25 from just seven events played. On Saturday Ville-Matti played just two events, cashing in 12th place in Event 39, the €15k Guaranteed No Limit Hold’em. 

In joint second place now are Keränen’s Finnish compatriot Ville Hakala and Fedor Stadtrucker, who both have 113 points and are 1 point ahead of the mysteriously named “Bambi” who has 112 pts. Will he push on for the win or get stopped in his tracks, like a deer caught in headlights?

Hakala has now played in three times as many ranking events as the leader and is still poised to take control of the race, but he needs to spend more time in the queue for payouts than the one for buying-in. On Saturday the two-time Player of the Series runner-up fired in every event possible, but failed to cash in any of them.

Fedor Stadtrucker improved his chances by taking 3rd place in the 8-game, earning himself 29.5 points and jumping up from 5th to a share of second place at the top of the table.

Two other players, Krystian Nalepka (104.25) and Miles Rees (102.5), have accumulated scores of over 100 points, with seventh placed Vitalli Shcherba not far behind on 96.25 pts. With twelve players within 50 points of the lead, the race is still wide open, as a good finish in the Main Event could send one player well clear.

Leaderboard Contenders Still in the Main Event

There’s still one more flight for the Main Event, but already four of the players in the top 20 have bagged stacks for Day 2. Fifth placed Krystian Nalepka has the biggest stack of these contenders, sitting on 454k. Giorgo Mevlupishvili, who is in 16th place on the leaderboard has 353k, while 20th placed Leo Hourtoulle returns with 269k. Sneaking into Day 2 with just 94k is 11th placed Vlva “Jevakim” Thorsrud, who is very likely to be streaming her Day 2 efforts on her Twitch channel. 

Will one of these players kick-on by going deep in the Main Event? They could be joined by other leaderboard contenders, as many are sure to play in the final Main Event hyper-turbo flight, which begins at 10am.

Franke Hanging On

Martin “Franke” von Zweigbewrgk is still not entirely out of contention, but with just 67.5 points, currently in 23rd place, he will need to go deep in more than one event to have a chance to defend the title he won in Malta. His 8th place finish in the European Chicago Championship helped keep him in with an outside chance, if he has a strong finish to the series.

Player of the Series Top 100 After Saturday

There are five events that will be completed on Sunday, with the final three taking place on Sunday. It could go down to the wire! Follow the action throughout the day on The Festival Series blog, which Patrick Cole will attempt to keep updated, while also taking his seat for Day 2 of the Main Event at 2pm this afternoon. Best of luck to all!