Welcome one and all to the live coverage of the second Festival Weekend of the year from Estonia's glorious capital city of Tallinn. Held at the beautiful Olympic Park Casino, the opening day of this midweek weekend is an eclectic selection of Festival favourites, with something for all players.
The day kicks off with none other than Sweden's favourite mixed game variant, Sviten Special. The €350 buy-in is sure to attract the best Sviten players in the world to Olympic Park Casino in Tallinn over the day, kicking off at 1:30 pm. Levels run for 30 minutes a pop, and players have unlimited re-entries for the first 10 levels. Last time The Festival Series came to Tallinn, it was a weekend stop, and it was Ville Keranen who took down the trophy in the Sviten Special Main Event for €2,500.
The Main Event will get underway with 1a at 2 p.m. The €555 Hold'em Main Event is the biggest and best tournament in the two-card streets over the five-day affair, and this time it's a mystery bounty format. The weekends have been the place for experimentation, with The Festival Weekend Vilnius Main Event being a PKO. Levels run for 30 minutes each, and players have unlimited reentry options until the end of level 12. Play will cease when 12.5% of the field remains per flight, and all progressors will be in the money.
The €150 Blackjack tournament will kick off the evening session, starting at 7 pm local. The blackjack tournaments have grown in popularity over the stops, with The Festival Rozvadov edition attracting 81 total entrants. Of course, in the highest test of skill that week, The Festival Founder Martin "Franke" von Zweigbergk took down the title and the trophy.
The evening will finish with two more side events, the first of which is a €200 NLH Crazy Pineapple, which starts at 8 p.m. local time. This Hold'em variant involves three cards, with one of the three from each player's hand being discarded after the round of flop betting. Jaroslav Stulhofer is the most successful Crazy Pineapple player at The Festival Series. He won back-to-back Pineapple titles at The Festival Bratislava in December 2025 and in March 2026.
PLO 4/5/6 will finish off the first day of play from 9 p.m. The last winner of a PLO 4/5/6 at The Festival Series was Deniss Lebedevs, who took down the title in Rozvadov, as well as finishing second to Jens Vörtmann in the 10-Game Mix.
Action and plenty of laughs are inbound; stay tuned to the live blog, social media pages on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube for all things The Festival.
Despite the action officially kicking off today, The Festival Series broke new ground by hosting the first-ever outdoor poker tournament in Estonia! Click here to find out more.
