The €250 Sviten Special is up to 67 runners with still around an hour of late registration still available. The players are visibly having fun with the exception of Franke, who has disappeared from the table for a couple of hours. Rest assured, Franke is OK, but he will need to do this from time to time as he attempts to win the Player of the Festival and has meetings with players and partners alike throughout the week.
Peter La Terra was busy building a monsterous stack with his shirt half off, a beer in front of him, and getting a massage. Meanwhile, Eva "Chic" Jiretorn also was back in her element enjoying the banter at the tables, while Allan Arjut also was enjoying the atmosphere.
We ran into first-time The Festival Series player Wouter Schuurbiers and noticed he was still on a starting stack. We thought maybe he re-entered as it was precise but he is still on his first bullet hoping for Sviten Special glory.
"What is this table? Malta?" Schuurbiers questioned with a smile pointing to the table next to him.
Schuurbiers lived in Malta for a number of years before recently moving back to his home country of Belgium. Two others that called Malta their home before moving elsewhere in Germany's Sascha Manns and Sweden's Totti Lind were at the table as was Gozo, Malta resident and Sviten Special author Martin Smith. Smith was at around 121,000 from his 30,000 starting stack, while Lind was also above 100,000. As we earlier mentioned, Lind is attempting to make history by becoming the first two-time winner of this event after shipping the record-breaking Sviten Special event during the last The Festival Series at Portomaso Casino in Malta.
We won't embarrass Manns about his stack but at least he is still on his first bullet of the event. This is better than Sviten Special enthusiasts Gia Carnestroem and Philippe Laval who were each on their second bullet along with the many players opting not to re-enter after hitting the rail with just 41 players in their seats (40 as Franke was still sitting out).
Meanwhile, Scott Kenyon, also known as PokerBrahs is continuing to stream this event on his Twitch channel to add even more excitement.
Best of luck to all of the Sviten Special players!
