2025 The Festival Rozvadov Day 9

The Festival Series here in Rozvadov saw the last two non-turbo flights to Day 2 of the series marquee event run at King’s Resort in the Czech countryside – the €550 Main Event. Melvin Schroen’s favorite tournament, the Razz Big Bounty (€100 Bounty) was cancelled, then put “back on the menu” yesterday afternoon, and the first High Roller took place in the shape of the €1,100 PLO.

Main Event Field Takes Shape – Passes 850 Total Entrants

The two flights that ran yesterday proved to be the busiest yet of this Festival Series so far, with 1E seeing 229 total entrants and 1F gaining 163 total. The tables below offer a comparison between the entries this year and last year.

Main Event Numbers 2024

Main Event Numbers 2025

So far, three players have progressed with a seven-figure stack. In fourth place, with just shy of the one million mark, is Romanian national Marius Alexandru Gicovanu (pictured above), who bagged 973,000.

His Hendon Mob profile is one of, if not the biggest, in the field, with over $2,000,000 in recorded live tournament cashes. Gicovanu also featured in the €1,100 PLO High Roller the very same afternoon, but he was one of the first to depart from the small field event in the four-card streets.

Razz Big Bounty (€100 Bounty)

The only Razz tournament took place yesterday, after a cancellation which came around five minutes after the tournament was due to start due to a lack of entrants. It appeared that the would-be players weren’t in the building yet. A group of Finnish players, including Kare Hallamaa and Ville Hakala made their way down to the floor and registered their interest in Melvin’s favorite tournament.

As players gathered, the tournament was put back on the schedule and started a little later in the day. A small field of 54 total entrants was made up of 32 unique players.

Jon Thannhauser was the unfortunate victim of the bubble, and only three players would make the money due to the small field and the big bounties. He did come away with a few of the €100 bounty tokens, so his effort wasn’t completely in vain.

The tournament did see a big winner. Stefan Petri claimed the €702 first-place prize, plus a staggering 21 bounty tokens, taking his overall tally to just shy of €3,000! Runner-up Enrique Bergemann claimed eight bounty tokens plus €421, making it a German 1-2 in the tournament. Below are the payouts.

Razz Big Bounty Payouts

€1,100 PLO High Roller

The first High Roller of the series attracted a field of 30 at King’s Resort yesterday afternoon. Leaderboard first and second Kare Hallamaa and Ville Hakala took to the felt but couldn’t find the money, and Richard Koppel was the bubble boy.

Allan Arjut continues to have a brilliant Festival Series after notching his first ever tournament win here, which came in the €125 PLO Knockout on Day 5.

He banked €8,415 for a career-best score for his second-place finish, and will have shot up the leaderboard rankings with this deep run. The winner was “Gold Fisch”, who racked up a score of €11,220 for his effort. The payouts can be seen below.

The final hand played out like this. Arjut had AKK3 vs AAxx. The players took turns potting and repotting until Arjut was all in and at risk.

He flopped a boat on K22. The turn changed nothing but “Gold Fisch” was saved by an Ace from space on the river to lock up the title.

PLO High Roller Results

Schedule Today 15.6.25

Three events concluded on Saturday at The Festival in Rozvadov, but there hasn’t been much change at the top of the leaderboard. Kare Hallamaa from Finland still has a 52 point lead over compatriot Ville Hakala, with neither player cashing in further events. 

The only significant mover on the table is ChippingLeaks, whose 2nd place in the PLO moves him up from 8th to third, but that’s 77 points adrift of the leader.

But, it’s still not over and with two high roller events on Sunday, plus the Main Event still to finish (which will award 86 points to the victor), Kare can still be caught. Will Kare Hallamaa hold on to take the title, or will there be a last minute upset? Stay tuned to The Festival Series blog to find out…

Rozvadov regulars Rachid El Yaacoubi, Siarhei Narozhny, who has recorded multiple cashes here at The Festvial series, and Szymon Politowski are just some amongst the 59 strong field still going here in King’s Resort in Rozvadov.

Only 12.5% of the field will progress in the final non-turbo flight to the marquee tournament of the series – The Festival Main Event.

When the recap is released tomorrow afternoon, you will find out who will progress to Day 2 and the results of the first High Roller, the €1,100 PLO.

The total 229 entrants has become 29, and only 28 can bag for Day 2 here at King’s Resort in Rozvadov and secure a min-cash.

Five remain and four will be paid in the PLO High Roller. Leaderboard first and second Ville Hakala and Kare Hallamaa have been eliminated before the money in sixth and seventh but both will pick up leaderboard points for their efforts.

Fabian Bartuschk, Allan Arjut, Josef Dvorak, Vasilis Nikolas, and Richard Koppel remain in the field, all vying for the title.

Stefan Petri wins Melvin’s favorite tournanemnt – the Razz Big Bounty, besting Enrique Manfred Bergemann for a score of €700 plus around twenty bounty tokens worth €100 a piece. Bergemann had claimed eight bounties.

EyDuBrot and PATELLA are heads-up for the title in the Razz Bounty.

Jos Thannhauser has bubbled the Razz Big Bounty here at King’s Resort in Rozvadov. He was by far the shortest stack of the four that remained. Here are the three payout places, not inclusive of bounties.

Here are the four payout places in the PLO High Roller.

The Razz Big Bounty is down to its final 4 players. Only 3 will be paid due to the Big Bounty nature of the tournament and the 54 total entries the tournament attracted. “EyDuBrot” appears to have the most bounties at the table by a considerable margin, but it is “PATELLA” who leads the waty in chips.

The PLO High Roller has 15 player remaining and only 4 will get paid. Finnish nationals Kare Hallamaa and Ville Hakala remain in contention for additional leaderboard points and a first and second title, respectively.

The Ladies event was unfortunately cancelled earlier this evening due to a lack of entrants.

The Main Event 1E saw 229 total entrants and at the time of writing 47 remain, with 12.5% of the field finding the money and progressing to Day 2.

The Main Event 1F has attracted 136 total entrants thus far, and 101 remain. Registration remains open until 11.55 p.m. local time.

The €200 €30k GTD Friday Texas Hold’em has been in play for an hour and has seen 124 total entrants. Registration closes at 11.55 p.m. local time.

Come and join the Festival Team (who are full of beer and meat) on the lawn outside the front of King’s Resort in Rozvadov. We are playing Molky and there are cans of beer!

The team is going for dinner, so there will be no blog posts for an hour or so!

Be back later!

A field of 10 have taken to the felt in the first High Roller of the series, the €1,100 PLO High Roller. Amongst the small field is Romanian national Marius Alexandru Gicovanu, who has recorded $2,135,209 in live tournament earnings.

He has bagged three six-figure scores in Rozvadov, including two wins (€111,350 and €115,350) and one second-place finish (€164,961). Can he add a first Festival title to his impressive resume?.

Rozvadov regular Rachid El Yacoubi is in the field here at King’s Resort in the Czech countryside. He will be looking to add another big score to his tally, and a first The Festival Series win to his resume. His current recorded Hendon Mob earnings sit at around €760,000, and all five of his biggest scores have come here in Rozvadov, including two deep runs in WSOPE bracelet events last October.

He won the €250 Italian Poker Open for €100,000 in 2021, finished 3rd in the €1,650 6-Max WSOPE Bracelet Event for €53,500 last October and banked €48,700 in the €10,350 WSOPE Main Event Bracelet event at the same series last year.

Paul-Adrian Covaciu has taken to the felt to be a part of the €500,000 guaranteed Festival Series Main Event here at King’s Resort in Rozvadov. The Romanian national has racked up $1,321,788 in live tournament earnings so far.

His best cash came in a very familiar venue: King’s Resort in Rozvadov. He scored $330,734 for a 5th-place finish in the €10,350 WSOPE Main Event in 2022. His second-best cash of $102,665 also came in Czechia, in the €5,300 Main Event at EPT Prague in the same year. Can he add a first Festival title to his collection?

Day 1E has proved to be a hit here at The Festival Series at King’s Resort in Rozvadov. The €550 buy-in tournament has seen a total of 216 entrants, and 131 remain in the field. The number will continue to grow for the next couple of hours as registration remains open until the conclusion of Level 10, so there is still plenty of time to get involved. Below is a table of the numbers so far.

The field size currently stands at three entrants for the €1,100 PLO High Roller here in Rozvadov. However, the Satellite to the PLO High Roller remains in play, with 16 left in the field battling it out for a ticket.

Of the 16, only 8 will win a ticket, with 9th place securing a cash of €524 for their efforts. Friend of The Festival Allan Arjut aka “ChippingLeaks” remains in contention to qualify for the first High Roller of the Festival.

Check out the highlights from Day 8 of the Festival Series from here in Rozvadov! Shot by Nekita (@hellsjesus on Instagram) and edited by Aleks (@pljuw on Instagram). Drop the guys a follow!

At 4 p.m. local time today, The Festival Series 2025 hosts its first High Roller tournament of this installment here in Rozvadov.

The €1,100 PLO High Roller offers players 25-minute levels and unlimited entries for the first 8 levels. As always, play responsibly and only risk what you can afford to lose. The starting stack will be 100,000 and the blinds commence at 200/500 with a 500 big blind ante.

A total of 184 entrants have been made in The Festival Main Event so far, and 129 remain in the field. The total number should easily pass the 200 mark within the next hour. Will you be joining the field here at King’s Resort in Rozvadov?

Following another deep run in which Kare Hallamaa finished 3rd in the Deuce to Seven event, the Finn has now opened up a significant lead in the Player of the Series race. Despite having a big lead, he can still be caught, as the Main Event is the one that awards by far the most points to the top few finishers.

Top 20

We’ve now expanded the table to show the top 20 players, as we enter the latter stages of the Festival in Rozvadov. 

How Are Player of the Series Points Calculated?

So how does this leaderboard work? I can almost hear some of you thinking this as you’re reading it. For the complete rules on how the leaderboard works, there’s an article on the main site that explains it all, but here’s a brief rundown. 

Qualifying Events

• Only tournaments that are open to all count, therefore no leaderboard points for cash game challenge, Festival Queens or the Seniors
• Satellites do not count either

Participation Points

• Players get points for simply taking part, but these can only be earned once per tournament, you don’t get extra points for extra bullets.
• The amount of participation points is based on the buy-in of the event, the full breakdown is in the article linked above.

Base Points

• Players “in the money” are awarded base points, with 25 awarded to the winner, 20 for second, 18 for third etc.
• But if there is a deal, the points awarded to those involved in the deal are frozen and all are awarded the points earned by the player in the lowest finishing position in the deal, e.g. if three players, make a deal, they all receive the points awarded for a 3rd place finish.

Multiplier

• A multiplier related to how many entries there were in the tournament is applied to the base points.

Total Point Per Event = (Base Points x Multiplier) + Participation Points

Fresh off his success in the record-breaking Hendon Mob Championship, Haik Tougu has joined the field of 130 in The Festival Main Event Day 1E. There have been 162 total entrants thus far, and registration remains open until 6.45 p.m. local time.

A field of 113 total entrants has already hit the tables at King’s Resort in Rozvadov, and it isn’t even the third level yet! Here is a table of the numbers from the previous flights in this Festival Series.

Social media extraordinaire Lemon Poker took to Hospitality hosting duties yesterday here in Rozvadov. Check out a selection of photos taken by our resident “EstonianWeirdo” Mairo Toom.

As the blogger finally emerges this morning and is working on the recap, here is a hand history from last night’s Texas Turbo Friday Madness involving The Festivals’ very own Melvin Schroen.

The blinds were at 1,000/2,000 with a 2,000 big blind ante. Schroen opened from the cutoff to 4,200 and was three-bet by the button to 10,000. The blinds folded, and Schroen called.

He check-called a bet of 6,500 on the flop of K 10 J before the Q was checked around. The 9 put a straight on board, and Schroen checked again. The button then bet 15,000, and after some deliberation, Schroen folded.

He found the money, finishing in 23rd place for his effort, and was coolered in the process. He open-jammed approximately 13 big blinds from under the gun with Kings and was called by the big blind, who was playing a stack of around 15 big blinds. He made the call with fives, and a five in the window sealed Schroen’s fate and sent him up to his hotel room for the night. Unlucky lad!