2025 The Festival Malta Day 6

Signing off for tonight, in preparation for the final day of the Festival Series here in Malta. Additionally, might’ve won the sportsbook. Isac Ekstrom has won the Slots Tournament for €685, adding to his cash in the PLO 4/5/6.

Catch you later.

Ville Keranen has become a dual Festival Series Winner, taking down the 10-Game, besting a field of 58 total entrants, and Eriks Gedroics heads-up. Ben Sweetman and JJ Hazan were despatched by Kernanen in a three-way pot, as they both became short. Below are the payouts.

A field of 43 are left in the PLO Bomb Pot Madness Double Special Round of Each with No Limit Hold’em. A total of 141 people have entered the event. Below are the payouts.

If anyone fancies a spot of karaoke, head down to the karaoke party at the Beer Garden. I was there, and Scott ‘Pokerbrahs’ Kenyon sang a beautiful rendition of Snow (Hey Oh) in the downstairs bar. Go get involved, the place is busy, and the vibes are immaculate.

Leading the final five in the 10-Game is JJ Hazan. Sviten Special Weekend Main Event winner Ville Keranen is behind him whilst T.O.R.S.E.S Main Event runner up Ben Sweetman is currently playing short-stack duties. Here is the line-up and seat draw in full.

Out there in the vast expanse of life the universe and everything, there is a feasible and conceivable universe where the blogger wins the sportsbook on the tiebreak. I have picked 19 total goals across the seven fixtures, and Milan currently leads Udinese 3-0. This score line was not called by anyone who participated. Current leader Fabio De Francesco had the fixture as a draw, and the correct scoreline being 1-1.

A field of 58 have entered the Bomb Pot PLO Madness Round of Each here at the Portomaso Casino in Malta. Peder Behr, Ingela Charlez and Isac Eckstrom are just a trio of notables and Festival Friends in the field battling it out for the title in this unique to The Festival event. The action promises to be explosive!

Head on down to the casino gaming floor downstairs for the unique to the Festival Slots Tournament. Feeling lucky today? Register to see if your luck is in! Registration closes when the tournament starts at 9 p.m.

Thomas Eckerstorfer was the unfortunate victim of the bubble in the 10-Game. Sean Godley and Grzegorz Iskra have departed recently, and now only seven remain in the field battling it out for the one and only 10-Game title. Below is the lineup and seat draw.

Here are the payouts from 41st place to 17th.

Owen Sammut has been stacked in 17th place, meaning the Main Event field are now bagging and tagging their stacks for when play resumes tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. sharp.

Sammut was short-stacked in the big blind, and was dominated by Julius Jelenius. Sammut had K J and Jelenius had A K . Ace-high was good across the 7 10 Q 5 10 runout. Below are the chip counts in full.

Here are the current standings in the Sportsbook Tournament.

On five points are: Andreas Hugosson, JJ Hazan, Damiano Nigri, Melvin Schroen, Andreas Hoglund.

Six points: Ville Hakala, Victor Gil Den Houting.

Seven Points: Patrick Cole (aka the blogger aka me), Markus Volk, Wouter Schuurbiers.

Eight Points: Fabio De Francesco.

Currently, Manchester Utd lead 2-0, courtesy of goals from Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro. Chelsea went down to 10 men early after goalkeeper Robert Sanchez committed an assault on Bryan Mbuemo.

The field has thinned at a rapid pace for Day 2 of the Main Event. Currently, 18 remain in the field of 84 that started the day. Here are the approximate counts of the remaining players.

Reg has closed in the 10-Game. Here are the payouts with 26 left of the 58 total entrants.

Here are the final scores from the first round of sportsbook games.

Brighton 2-2 Tottenham

Burnley 1-1 Nottingham Forest

West Ham 1-2 Crystal Palace

Real Madrid 2-0 Espanyol.

Andreas Hoglund is currently tallying up the scores of the players in the field. They will be posted on the blog in due course.

Spurs have drawn level courtesy of an own goal from Jan Paul van Hecke. Burnley and Nottingham Forest remain level at 1-1. Jarrod Bowen has pulled one back for West Ham but trail 2-1 thanks to Tyrick Mitchell.

Real Madrid are 2-0 up. Kylian Mbappe fired in Madrid’s second goal from the edge of the area, having been teed up by Vinicius Jr.

Here are the updated counts from the Main Event. The field has thinned drastically, and only 28 remain. Play for the day will cease when 16 remain, which will be the final two tables.

Over in La Liga, Real Madrid have gone ahead thanks to Eder Militao, who collected a pass from Fede Valverde from outside the box before putting it in the top left corner.

Spurs have dragged one back thanks to Richarlison, who converted a chance from a corner kick just moments ago.

Spurs are now two 2-0 down to Brighton. Yasin Ayari has doubled their advantage. Elsewhere, Jean-Phillipe Mateta has put Crystal Palace 1-0 away from home to West Ham. West Ham, a famous team in East London, have had a torrid start to the season, and it only looks to be getting worse for Graham Potter’s side.

In the sportsbook tournament, there have been three early goals. Brighton currently lead Tottenham courtesy of a calm and collected finish from Yakuba Minteh.

In Burnley v Nottingham Forest, Forest took an early lead through wing-back Neco Williams. Jaidon Anthony scored to draw Burnley level with 20 minutes on the clock.

Here are the payouts and the field in the sportsbook tournament. Only three will be paid. Best of luck to all that participate.

Ahead of the 1/C Mystery Bounty here at the Portomaso Casino in Malta, here are the six progressing players from yesterday’s flight and the chip counts.

Of the 84 that started the day, only 41 now remain in pursuit of Main Event glory. Below is the table of the fallen players from the start of play today.

Time is running out to enter the sportsbook tournament. Register at the tournament registration desk, take the ticket to Andreas, fill in the form he gives you, and return to him by 3 p.m. sharp.

Here are the counts at the first break of the 10-Game. Yurii Rassamakin was the first and only elimination of this tournament so far.

Thomas Degimbe has the most of Jose Gomes’ stack in his possession having won a monster pot in a blind v blind situation. Gomes opened to three times the big blind from the small blind. Degimbe called.

He called a bet of 125,000 on A Q 3 before calling another barrel from Gomes on the 2 turn, this time for 400,000. Gomes then moved all in on the 10 river and Degimbe called with ace-queen. Gomes had king-deuce suited.

Today is the busiest day on the schedule by far, Christmas for poker players attending this Malta instalment of The Festival Series. If today is Christmas, that must make yesterday Christmas Eve; it’s still a good day, but the real gifts get unwrapped today.

Yesterday saw winners in the first Open Face Chinese tournament, Big O, and a new Queen was crowned in The Festival Queens event. Let’s have a look at what happened across the floor yesterday.

Open Face Chinese

A field of 56 total entrants took to the felt in the first of two Open Face Chinese tournaments that will take place this week. The Open Face Chinese field was packed full of familiar names and faces here at the Portomaso Casino in Malta. Rozvadov POS runner-up Ville Hakala, Rozvadov OFC High Roller Winner Fabian Bartuschk, Razz Big Bounty runner-up Fabio De Francesco, T.O.R.S.E.S Champion Barrie Dear, PLO High Roller Winner Simeon Tsonev and 8-Game Winner Sander van Wesemael.

Barrie Dear was a big stack in the tournament for a decent period of time throughout the play, but he ended up falling short of the money and being the victim of the bubble. Ultimately, it was the Rozvadov OFC High Roller Winner Fabian Bartuschk who took down the title. He bested The Boss Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk heads-up after a lengthy, swingy duel heads-up. Below are the payouts. For more information on how to play this interesting variant of poker, click here.

The Festival Queens

It was ladies night at the Portomaso Casino and a new Queen was crowned. The field garnered 25 total entrants, three of which belonged to Hendon Mob Final maker Celine Nyland. She fired three bullets but couldn’t find the money.

Due to the small field, when the ladies reached the final table, they still were not in the money. Only six were to be paid, and it was Roberta Memoli of Italy who missed out on the payouts. She jammed her short-stack from the button with queen-jack off suit, and ran into the ace-queen offsuit of Karin Krantz in the big blind. She was then the next to depart.

Ultimately, it was Denise Fusciardi who took the crown. She bested Cristina Balsamo heads-up in a face-off that lasted for around 45 minutes. Fusciardi had a substantial advantage over Balsamo when heads-up play was reached. Below are the payouts.

Big O

In the one and only Big O tournament, which is 5-Card PLO Hi-lo, Joakim Olin walked away with first-place money, and will receive a beautiful trophy courtesy of our talented in-house artist Modernoise. He bested Soner Vanelderen heads-up in the small hours of this morning. The tournament attracted 100 total entrants.

Also finding the money was Rozvadov Mystery Bounty winner Mariya Todorova, as well as Martin Smith, author of Pot Limit Sviten Special: A European Version of Drawmaha. Below are the payouts.

Main Event

The Day 2 field has been finalised, and the counts are in. Jose Gomes has bagged the biggest prize of the 666 total entrants who have taken to the tables at Portomaso over the last five days. He sits clear at the top of the counts, with his nearest rival having 400,000 less than him. 8-Game Winner Sander van Wesemael and former Festival Series Malta winner is also in the top 10, as well as Victor Gil Den Houting, who is in pursuit of a second title.

What’s Next?

Today is jam-packed with action of all varieties: from the sportsbook tournament, to the 10-Game, the Main Event, to the slots tournament in the evening. 1/C of the Mystery Bounty will be in play in the evening, as will the best tournament of the week – the Bomb Pot PLO Madness (round of each Holdem and Omaha). To see the full schedule, click here.

That’s all for now, folks. Stay tuned to thefestival.com for the blog, and social media channels for everything and anything Festival related.

Until later on.

Here is some information about tomorrow’s sportsbook tournament.

This 125 buy-in event is distinctly unique to The Festival Series. Registration opens tomorrow morning and players will need to register at the tournament desk as per usual. The betting is open from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Players, bring your tickets to Andreas Hoglund (pictured above), who will be sat at the flip table located in the foyer just before the tournament area.

The games will be a selection from the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A. The games will be announced to players when they find Andreas and pass him the ticket and fill out your selections by pen and paper, like being in an actual bookies.

Those who have won a ticket to this event should be registered in the system and can collect the tickets from tomorrow morning.

Here are the payouts in the Main Event.

The field has officially been assembled. Here is the line-up, chip counts and seat draw for Day 2 of the Main Event. This is officially the biggest Festival Main Event in Malta, and all with no guarantee! Jose Gomez leads the way in the counts and has come here all the way from Mexico. The total entrants stand at 666, the number of the Beast, and the prize pool sits at around €300,000.

There were just two qualifying events that concluded on Friday at The Festival in Malta. The first of these was the €250 Open Face Chinese, one of the longest single day events on the schedule. By the time they reached the final three, both Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk and Ville Hakala were still in the mix. 

Ville Hakala busted in 3rd place and Franke took the runner up spot. Both went on to enter the final starting flight of the Main Event, but neither progressed to Day 2. By outlasting his rival, Franke has extended his lead at the top of the table from 6 points to 9 points, moving up to an impressive 148 point total. Hakala is on 139 points and these two are well ahead of third placed Barrie Dear, on 112pts. 

Barrie Dear also went deep in the Open Face Chinese, but bubbled, hurting not just his wallet, but his chance of staying in touch with the top two on the leaderboard. The players in positions 4, 5 and 6 remain unchanged since Thursday’s update and none of them added any further points to their totals. Kare Hallamaa skipped the OFC and the Big O, instead opting to play in Day 1e of the Main Event, but failed to make it through to Day 2. 

The only significant new entry in the top ten is Fabian Bartuschk, winner of the OFC. He moves up from 33rd place to 7th on the leaderboard, on 81 points. The other qualifying event that took place on Friday was the €125 Big O (PLO8), which was won by Joakim Olin. Last year Joakim won the Seniors event, which was a back-to-back victory, as he had also previously won the Seniors at The Festival in Rozvadov. 

None of the top ten players in the race have made it to the second day of the Main Event, with the highest placed player left in being Sander Wesemael. He sits in 19th place on the leaderboard and bagged the 6th largest stack from the opening flights of the Main Event. However, even if he wins the Main Event, he will still be trailing the top two and he won’t have much opportunity to play any further side events if he does go deep. 

There are just seven events left that count towards the Player of the Series race, which is by no means over. The top two may be well clear, but anything can still happen. Last year Scott Kenyon had a vast lead, but the improbable happened and he was pipped to the post by a strong finishing Alexsiy Baranovskiy. 

A sober Franke is a formidable force at the tables and he will be hard to stop, but will he hold on to take down the title of Player of the Series?

Player of the Series Top 25

Read More: Full details on how the leaderboard points are awarded for the Festival in Malta

There are four events concluding on Saturday 20th September that count towards the leaderboard:

• €350 10-Game at 12.30pm
• €125 Sportsbook tournament at 1pm
• €125 Bomb Pot Madness at 8.30pm
• €125 Slots tournament at 9pm

Follow the action throughout the day on the live blog and The Festival’s social channels.

Read More: The Festival in Malta Player of the Series Leaderboard Standings After Day 5
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Read More: The Festival in Malta Player of the Series Leaderboard Standings After Day 2