2026 The Festival Bratislava Day 3

Here are the four players going through to Day 2 of The Main Event.

Here are the 15 players progressing through to Day 2 of The Hendon Mob Championships. Tal Moriel leads the way, and dual Main Event Winner Sebastian Kotowicz will come into Day 2 with a solid stack.

Harald Redl has fallen victim to the bubble in the €250 Open Face Chinese. 11 are now in pursuit of the title, including the Festival head honcho, “Franke”, Mati Pirn, and Riku Koivurinne.

Thor Morstoel hammered his opponents to take down the €550 Mixed Game Main Event – TORSES title and a score of €10,365. Morstoel is a Mixed Game specialist, and this is his first Festival Series appearance, cash, and win!

In December, Morstoel won the €550 8-Game Mix for €11,630 as well as the €550 2-7 Single Draw for €6,620.

Andras Matrai was in Fantasyland in the Open Face Chinese, whilst The Festival Founder, Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk, was assembling his board the usual way, receiving three cards at a time and discarding one.

Franke’s bottom board was looking to be drawing slim, as he bricked a straight draw and had two pair in the middle, which means if he didn’t make trips or better, he would foul and concede points to his opponent.

However, he was dealt the trips he needed to not foul, and had aces up top to qualify for Fantasyland. However, Matrai returned with a worldie of a hand: jack high flush on the bottom, broadway straight in the middle, and trips up top, to scoop a sizeable chunk of points from the Boss.

The most explosive tournament of the week is in play! Not enough bomb pots in the Bomb Pot feature tournament for you yesterday? No sweat, because this tournament means every hand is a bomb pot!

The game changes every level, and alternates between NLH and PLO. There is still plenty of time to register, as registration will close at 11.10 p.m. Come and join the 58 entrants that have taken to the felt, it will be a blast!

Thor Morstoel and Matteo Crapanzano are heads-up in the TORSES Main Event. Johnny Johansen and Sandeep Nene departed in third and fourth place, respectively.

25 OFC players are in contention for the first of two OFC titles this week. Amongst the field are OFC specialists Fabian Bartuschk and Krzysztof Kordus, Mixed Game enthusiasts Barrie Dear and Riku Koivurinne, as well as multiple Player of the Series Winner, Scott Kenyon.

Franke’s Flips is set to take place at the tables near the tournament registration area!

For just €25, you can flip your way to glory in a series of “stand and goes” in a quest to win a pair of Franke’s fabled flip flops and tournament credits! Come join in the fun!

Oh, and there’s a chance to win a package to Rozvadov worth €1,600!

Wouter Schuurbiers has departed the TORSES tournament during a hand of PLO8. He was the shortest stack at the table, and got it in pre-flop with A 2 3 3 versus Johnny Johansen, who had A Q K 4 . The runout of J J 8 K 9 sealed Schuurbier’s fate.

“Now I can’t even play the Open Face Chinese, I hate poker!” joked Schuurbiers as he departed the table. Michael Schmitz departed shortly after, leaving play four-handed. Below are the payouts so far.

For those in attendance and reading along at home, it seems wise to draw your attention to the first of two online events that will take place across the iPoker network.

Like the live edition of The Festival Series, there will be a wide range of games across a wide range of buy-ins, varying from €3-€100. A whopping €1,500,000 will be up for grabs from March 29th to April 13th.

Get involved when The Festival Series comes to a screen near you.

The Festival Founder Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk has taken many trips to Fantasyland in this afternoon’s Open Face Chinese tournament.

His last trip proved to be fruitful, as he made a queen-high straight flush on the bottom board, tens and deuces in the middle, and ace-king-jack up top. He returned to the table and scooped a substantial amount of points, gaining 15 for the straight flush alone.

One of his opponents mucked as they were drawing dead, as was Rajmund Marton, who had nines full of sixes on the bottom, king-queen-five-four-seven in the middle, and king-jack-eight on top.

The boss scooped the pot and declared that both players owed him “9,000” points.

Thor Morstoel has a commanding chip lead over the remaining field in the TORSES Main Event. Matteo Crapanzano appears to be his nearest rival, whilst Wouter Schuurbiers and Sandeep Nene have slipped down the counts.

Two tickets were guaranteed, but five were won by the time the tournament finished. Here is a look at who will be joining the High Roller field. Claudio Gehrs took the money prize, and Grzegorz Iskra just missed out on the cash and the €1,100 worth of ticket.

Antonios Onoufriou was the latest departure in the €550 TORSES. He was all in three ways in 2-7 Triple Draw, and he caught a king on the final draw to be sent to the rail in 7th place. Sandeep Nene was the beneficiary of the sizeable pot, as his 9-5-4-3-2 was good enough to win at showdown. Johnny Johansen was the third player in the pot, and he had a queen-low.

103 players have taken to the felt in 1/C of The Hendon Mob Championships, meaning this flight is on track to surpass yesterday’s total of 108.

Registration remains open until 7 p.m. Can’t make that flight? No problem, as the 1/D Turbo flight will be kicking off at 7 p.m., so there is still plenty of time to get involved in The Hendon Mob Championships.

Four players have ponied up the full €1,100 to enter the PLO High Roller. However, 6 players remain in pursuit of two tickets to the same event.

Reigning champion Graham Clarkson is in the satellite, looking to take the same route to victory as he did last time out in Bratislava.

The bursting of the bubble in the Mixed Games Main Event (TORSES) and the exit of Marc Gork in 11th, leaves ten players in contention for the title. Three of those still left in were already in the top 20 on the Player of the Series leaderboard. Wouter Schuurbiers is the highest placed of these, currently in 8th place on 41.5 points, while Barrie Dear lies in 19th on 29.5 points. Sandeep Nene in 20th is just behind Barrie, with 27.75 points. 

Both Wouter and Barrie are relatively short stacked, while Sandeep sits in mid-division with the largest stack of the three. A strong finish for any would see one of them leapfrog overnight leader Ivo Petkov into first place.

Nicolas Bokowski fell victim to the bubble in the €550 Mixed Game Main Event – TORSES. Since then, Marc Gork has departed in the first money spot, claiming a cash prize of €1,005. Barrie Dear’s stack is also on the shorter side, so he will need to spin it up in order to threaten the bigger stacks in the room.

Currently, Thor Morstoel appears to be at the top of the counts, and Matteo Crapanzano still has a sizeable stack.

Being used at this edition of The Festival Series for the first time is a new Player of the Series management tool, which includes more info and rankings that are not necessarily linked to the Player of the Series race. This helps to keep a track of things like who has cashed the most times, who has made the most final tables and who has banked the biggest payouts of the week.

As the week progresses we may incorporate a few of these into the event coverage, as the race for the Player of the Series picks up the pace. 

Scott Kenyon and Miles Rees have fallen early in the OFC, which has now seen 51 total entrants. Kenyon makes up two of these entrants, as the popular streamer has since rebought to give the tournament another shot.

He will be looking to make a second cash of the week, having finished second via ICM chop in the Half n Half last night.

Today is a key day for the Player of the Series race, with no less than five events concluding that count towards the leaderboard. The most significant of these is the Mixed Games Main Event with its unique TORSES format, which adds Sviten Special to the usual TORSE rotation, itself a derivation of the more familiar HORSE.

There are also four one-day events that will finish up, making Wednesday a significant day and one which could define the script for the remainder of the Series.

The five events that do finish up today are:

• Event 1 – €550 Mixed Games Main Event
• Event 18 – €250 Open Face Chinese Pineapple
• Event 19 – €1,100 PLO High Roller
• Event 22 – €125 Bomb Pot Madness (NLH/PLO)
• Event 23 – €125 NLH PKO Madness

The two ongoing tournaments that won’t reach their conclusions today are The Hendon Mob Championship and the Hold’em Main Event.

Bulgarian Ivo Petkov has assumed the top spot on The Festival in Bratislava’s Player of the Series leaderboard. He had been in 19th place after the first day of the competition, but victory in Tuesday evening’s €125 H.O.R.S.E added a further 38.75 points to his score and he now leads the way with 58 points.

For the updated leaderboard and the full story of who is in the top 10, check out the Day 2 Player of the Series article in the news section of the Festival Series Website.

Here are the 10 players who won their seat to the €550 Main Event. Amongst the qualifiers is Komil Khamidov, who will be looking to secure his second win of the week in the Series’ marquee Hold’em tournament. Last year’s Heads-up champion, Mladen Stojanovic, also made the cut.

The €250 Open Face Chinese is proving to be popular here at Banco Casino Bratislava. Currently, 42 players have taken to the tables to play this increasingly popular variant of poker.

In the field are Sascha Manns, Martin ‘Franke’ von Zweigbergk, and Matt Kelley, to name a few. Kelley was almost turned away at the border in Vienna due to a lost passport, and he made the journey from Bratislava exclusively for the Mixed Games.

To learn more about the rules and strategy of OFC, click here.

It appears from a visual count that Wouter Schuurbiers, Tomasz Glusko, and Matteo Crapanzano are atop the counts in the TORSES Main Event at the break.

17 remain, and only 11 will be paid. Amongst the recent departures are Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon, who has since hopped into the €250 Open Face Chinese, reigning PLO High Roller Champion Graham Clarkson, and last year’s Sviten Special runner-up Riku Koivurinne.

Friend of The Festival Dan Pilgrim and Olympic Park Casino’s Poker Director Jaan Vaabel are just two of the 16 players hoping to bink a ticket to this evening’s PLO High Roller.

Two tickets are up for grabs, plus a cash prize of €422 for third place. Registration remains open until 4:20 p.m. so these payouts could change.

Current Main Event Champion and back-to-back Festival Bratislava Main Event Champion Sebastian Kotowicz has taken to the felt for the first time this week. And it isn’t in the Main!

Kotowicz has entered the €250 The Hendon Mob Championships 1/C in an attempt to win a different Festival Series title. It would be no surprise to see the Polish national make a deep run in this event; his record at Banco Casino is exceptional.

Kotowicz has already cashed 8 times this year, seven of which came in Rozvadov, one in Campione. You can read about his previous success in Bratislava here, and relive his first Main Event win here.

The reigning champion of The Hendon Mob Championship, Ondrej Chlapek, is currently in the field of Day 1/C in pursuit of a successful title defense.

The Czech national bested a field of 467 entrants to win a career-best score of €19,346, which is his third-ever recorded live tournament cash!

Here are the payouts in the €550 Mixed Game Main Event – TORSES. Currently, 23 are in the field. Chip-leader Fredrik Zitting has been sent to the rail early, as have Kare Hallamaa, Jens Voertmann, Jari Maehoenen, Jyri Merivirta, and Rowan Harley.

For the aspiring High Rollers in the house, the €150 satellite to the PLO High Roller will have two tickets up for grabs, worth €1,100. The satellite will start at 2 p.m. and the PLO High Roller will kick off at 5 p.m.

Last time in Bratislava, Graham Clarkson took this route, emerging victorious and €13,700 richer.

The cards are in the air for the third day of Festival Series action here at Banco Casino Bratislava.

Currently, Day 2 of the Mixed Game Main Event – TORSES is in play. Fredrik Zitting comes into the day as the overall chip leader, but Antonios Onoufriou is hot on his heels. Below are the top 10 in the counts.

A field of 17 have taken to the tables in 1/B of the Main Event, all aiming to emulate Sebastian Kotowicz, our reigning Main Event Champion. 1/C of The Hendon Mob Championships are also in play, with 26 taking to the felt in pursuit of the beautiful glass trophy.

Good luck to all who are taking to the felt over the course of the day.