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Molenaar Goes Far as Final Day Chip Leader

Molenaar: chip daddy

Well that was one long, long day at The Festival in Bratislava. We started the day with somewhere in the region of 460 players - the exact number unknowable, as entries/re-entries continued right on through the start of play and on into Level 14 and the first break. By the time the Main Event officially became a freezeout, a total of 1,271 entries had been recorded, bringing the total prizepool to €603,725 - well above the €500,000 guarantee. It was determined that 160 places would pay out in amounts ranging from €605 to €126,650, and the bubble proved a lengthy affair, conducted across two floors and lasting for nearly two hours. Eventually, American player Andrew Puglisi busted in the unluckiest spot, getting absolutely nothing (although he was still enthusing to anyone who'd listen in the bar afterwards what a marvellous time he's had here this week).

Once in the money, the usual rapid-fire bustouts saw the field quickly whittled down to a sufficiently small number to fit in the Ashoka room which also houses the TV table. The bursting of the bubble also signalled the start of the Twitch stream, today's chosen table featuring Mateusz Moolhuizen and George Sandford joined in the comms box by Moolhuizen's other half and Main Event bustee Dehlia de Jong.

The plan had always been to play down to two tables, and by all the poker gods, that's what our Main Event players were going to do, no matter how long it took. They were well into Level 26, and on the wrong side of 1am, when the elimination of Sandeep Nene in 17th place signalled the end of Day 2, and time for a brief sojourn before the final day begins at 2pm. Chip leader at the death was Michel Molenaar - as he had been for some time, in fact, after snatching the lead from Peter Kamaras. He goes into the final day with 5,775,000 of the total 38 million chips in play. Sascha Manns is among the players still in, albeit with a more modest stack; Day 1b Ronald Zapantis is also still going strong. Two women are still in contention too - Norwegian poker legend and prolific streamer Ylva "Jevakim" Thorsrud, and relative newcomer Gerianne Dijkstra of the Netherlands, who already cashed in the Win the Button event this week in Bratislava, are both sitting on respectable stacks. Full chip counts are posted below.

Across the casino complex, the side events continued apace. The PLO and NLH Freezeouts drew 72 and 87 runners respectively; both events are down to their final tables as we type. The Texas €30k Gtd event continued the general theme this week of guarantees being smashed - it's so far attracted a whopping 415 entries so far, which translates into a minimum €47k prizepool and rising. They'll be playing that long into the night and we expect to be announcing a winner some time around breakfast. Away from poker, Ian Vertefeuille (who also placed in the Blackjack Championship) won Franke's Flip Flops leaderboard for a package to our next event, and the Gambling Cabin Sportsbook events were won by The Festival's own Franke von Zweigbergk (high roller) and Arved Kloehn (low roller). Don't forget, you can view results for all completed events here.