While we’re busy covering all the action here in the casino, if you’re more interested in pure Main Event action and hand reports, make sure to check the live blog section over at PokerListings.com. Jason Glatzer is providing a detailed hand report and gives insights into the main event action as it unfolds.
Well wasn’t that the most glorious kind of chaos? Day 1c at The Festival in Bratislava Main Event attracted a jaw-dropping 280 entries and it was alternates-only for much of the day as the hordes of poker hopefuls filled every available table and snaked out into the bar. Every room is crammed with poker tables and every table filled with players, and we expect it to last on right through the night. We suspect the bar is doing a roaring trade as well.
Chip leader from today’s monster Main Event appears to be Attila Kuna – the monstrous 384,000 that’s listed on our chip counts is so massive, it did have us wondering ever so slightly whether it might be a typo, but actually he had a big stack throughout much of the later part of the day, and that does look like over 300k in the photo, doesn’t it? So, that puts him head and shoulders above the rest of the collective field so far – way ahead of Day 1b’s Ronald Zapantis on 278,000 and Day 1a’s Rickard Larsson on 256,000. Scroll very slightly down for full chip counts.
The 91 Day 1c survivors join the 51 from Day 1b and the 39 from Day 1a to swell the number of Day 2 qualifiers to 181 currently. The 280 entries from today together with the 305 entries from Days 1a and 1b brings the total field to 585, which means we are now well on our way to hitting that €500,000 guarantee. And what with tomorrow’s Day 1d expected to be even more swamped, if that’s possible (plus the traditionally more bijou turbo Day 1e yet to take place in the evening), there is no sign of the madness abating. God help us all. The tournament staff already all look like they’re going to cry.
Side events of course continue apace – tonight the HORSE and NLH High Roller will be playing down to a winner, and tomorrow we’ll see the conclusion of the Heads Up event, The Festival Queens ladies’ event, an Open Face Chinese event and the much anticipated Pokerlistings championship. A word of warning though – with Day 1d of the Main expected to be huge, there remains a possibility that the side event schedule may end up having to be modified here and there. Please stand by for more info. And if you’re planning to play the Main, do yourself a favour and get your registration in early otherwise you’ll be standing in a really long queue for ages – although you could always swing by the Flip n Go table while you wait. Flip your cares away there from 11am.
We’ll be bringing you sporadic updates from the various side events as and when they conclude, plus don’t forget you can watch the High Roller event live over on our Twitch stream. And do come join us in the bar – it’s lovely down here. 🍻
Here are the 91 survivors of Day 1c:
| Player | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|
| Attila Kuna | 384,000 | 154 |
| Hans Erlandsson | 263,000 | 105 |
| Wang Lu | 253,000 | 101 |
| Markku Tammisto | 219,000 | 88 |
| Fotios Ntamaris | 211,000 | 84 |
| Fronimakis Ioannis | 209,000 | 84 |
| Sergejs Cugainovs | 193,000 | 77 |
| Simon Ye | 184,000 | 74 |
| Giorgi Tqemaladze | 180,000 | 72 |
| Krzysztof Nowakowski | 168,000 | 67 |
| Jari Pekka Raettyae | 162,000 | 65 |
| Niklas Klein | 158,000 | 63 |
| Espen Gundersen | 150,000 | 60 |
| Tomas Likavsky | 135,000 | 54 |
| Sivan Mirani | 129,000 | 52 |
| Mario Mende | 128,000 | 51 |
| Panagiotis Oikonomidis | 122,000 | 49 |
| Andras Vaczo | 121,000 | 48 |
| Jouni Daniel Koivula | 117,000 | 47 |
| Robert Perelman | 117,000 | 47 |
| Julian Groenendijk | 116,000 | 46 |
| Dalil Masaud | 115,000 | 46 |
| Szerhij Danasevszkij | 114,000 | 46 |
| Peter Kamaras | 114,000 | 46 |
| Younes Jarir | 110,000 | 44 |
| Kalle Ly | 110,000 | 44 |
| Savvas Papadopoulos | 110,000 | 44 |
| Miroslav Zitka | 106,000 | 42 |
| Alexandros Fixmer | 103,000 | 41 |
| Viktor Kavestam | 102,000 | 41 |
| Hlynur Sverrisson | 102,000 | 41 |
| Johan Sundgren | 98,000 | 39 |
| Erik Zackrisson | 98,000 | 39 |
| Bartosz Gorski | 97,000 | 39 |
| Emmanuel Leghait | 92,000 | 37 |
| Gabor Peteri | 92,000 | 37 |
| Veselin Petrov | 91,000 | 36 |
| Karl Sundin | 91,000 | 36 |
| Carl Marken | 87,000 | 35 |
| Miroslav Juris | 86,000 | 34 |
| Dimitrios Nanos | 86,000 | 34 |
| Konstantinos Nanos | 86,000 | 34 |
| Erik Oestergaard | 86,000 | 34 |
| Dmitri Dudakov | 84,000 | 34 |
| Janos Szappanos | 83,000 | 33 |
| Robert Laskowski | 81,000 | 32 |
| Vlada Petrovich | 81,000 | 32 |
| Iury Wolf | 79,000 | 32 |
| Vojtech Paxian | 76,000 | 30 |
| Francisco Alonso Sierra | 73,000 | 29 |
| Dezso Varga | 73,000 | 29 |
| Leif Iversen | 71,000 | 28 |
| Paul Groven | 70,000 | 28 |
| Taras Khilko | 67,000 | 27 |
| Andrej Kocian | 67,000 | 27 |
| Morten Bremseth | 66,000 | 26 |
| Jozsef Dobos | 63,000 | 25 |
| Per-Helge Gaassand | 63,000 | 25 |
| Marthe Lyngvaer | 63,000 | 25 |
| Ole Johan Wasenius | 62,000 | 25 |
| Attila Tarko | 60,000 | 24 |
| Matheo Awde | 59,000 | 24 |
| Ruben Rahumaegi | 59,000 | 24 |
| Davit Mikhanashvili | 58,000 | 23 |
| Simo Klandy | 55,000 | 22 |
| Hans Hagberg | 52,000 | 21 |
| Paul Maguire | 49,000 | 20 |
| Elod Zsombok | 49,000 | 20 |
| Anastasios Pagonakis | 47,000 | 19 |
| Roberts Krigers | 46,000 | 18 |
| Kristoffer Boerrud | 44,000 | 18 |
| Slimane Mameche | 44,000 | 18 |
| Robert Puhr | 42,000 | 17 |
| Esko Timonen | 41,000 | 16 |
| Michal Jurgielewicz | 39,000 | 16 |
| Gaspar Perasovic | 39,000 | 16 |
| Bart Timmer | 38,000 | 15 |
| Dehlia De Jong | 36,000 | 14 |
| Mikolaj Domanski | 36,000 | 14 |
| William Dorey | 35,000 | 14 |
| Adam Jindra | 35,000 | 14 |
| Tornike Manvelidze | 35,000 | 14 |
| Michael Johansson | 32,000 | 13 |
| Attila Pergel | 32,000 | 13 |
| Hanna Kjellberg | 31,000 | 12 |
| Symeon Marvakis | 27,000 | 11 |
| Jussi Siika | 27,000 | 11 |
| Przemyslaw Zielinski | 27,000 | 11 |
| Semir Mete | 22,000 | 9 |
| Krystian Nalepka | 21,000 | 8 |
| Kristaps Krapans | 20,000 | 8 |
Play has now finished in the Main Event but as the hapless TD is currently in the process of starting yet another event and also looks as though he may have an aneurysm, it may be some time before we get chip counts for the remaining 91 or so survivors. In light of that, the blog team will now be relocating our office downstairs to the casino bar, and we’ll have you all the info as soon as it’s been processed. Please stand by.
The Main Event is now in the last level of the day, we still have 104 / 280 players left and there are a bit over 30 minutes on the clock.
Meanwhile, the next big Main Event satellite is running right in front of our eyes with 130 players, there are flips on the floor outside, H.O.R.S.E. and Half-and-Half is happening in the adjacent room while the Ashoka casino area downstairs plays host to the High Roller.
We’re up to almost 600 main event entries and expect absolute mayhem tomorrow. But for today we’re waiting for the players to finish and the dealers to professionally count their chips.
We counted some more chips during the final break of the day:
| Player | Counts | Blinds |
|---|---|---|
| Alexandros Fixmer | 145,000 | 121 |
| Mario Mende | 120,000 | 100 |
| Sergejs Cugainovs | 115,000 | 96 |
| Markku Tammisto | 110,000 | 92 |
| Adam Jindra | 110,000 | 92 |
| Wang Lu | 105,000 | 88 |
| Tornike Manvelidze | 100,000 | 83 |
| Emmanuel Leghait | 100,000 | 83 |
| Karl Sundin | 100,000 | 83 |
| Hans Erlandsson | 100,000 | 83 |
| Miroslav Juris | 100,000 | 83 |
| Attila Kuna | 95,000 | 79 |
| Fabien Niederreiter | 95,000 | 79 |
| Younes Jarir | 90,000 | 75 |
| Simon Hemsworth | 90,000 | 75 |
| Hanna Kjellberg | 90,000 | 75 |
| Hans Hagberg | 90,000 | 75 |
| Marthe Lyngvaer | 90,000 | 75 |
| Mario Galic | 85,000 | 71 |
| Savvas Papadopoulos | 85,000 | 71 |
| Petter Fjerstad | 85,000 | 71 |
| Andras Vaczo | 85,000 | 71 |
| Vlada Petrovich | 80,000 | 67 |
| Michel Leibgorin | 80,000 | 67 |
| Marian Flesar | 80,000 | 67 |
| Kristaps Krapans | 75,000 | 63 |
| Konstantinos Nanos | 75,000 | 63 |
| Julian Groenendijk | 75,000 | 63 |
| Francisco Alonso Sierra | 75,000 | 63 |
| Jozsef Dobos | 70,000 | 58 |
| Veselin Petrov | 70,000 | 58 |
| Panagiotis Oikonomidis | 70,000 | 58 |
| Niklas Klein | 70,000 | 58 |
| Konstantinos Ntamaris | 70,000 | 58 |
| Morten Bremseth | 70,000 | 58 |
| Dalil Masaud | 70,000 | 58 |
| Gabor Peteri | 65,000 | 54 |
| Vojtech Paxian | 65,000 | 54 |
| Jouni Daniel Koivula | 65,000 | 54 |
| Martin Szecsenyi | 65,000 | 54 |
| Elod Zsombok | 65,000 | 54 |
| Attila Tarko | 65,000 | 54 |
We are starting to experience luxury problems for a tournament organizer: very many players. Loads of them. Myriads. Legions! For our players this right now means queues.
We know this will be worse tomorrow. We’re trying our best to get everyone in as quickly as possible, but expect Main Event waiting lists and longer queues during the day. If you want to play the Main Event, we suggest you grab a seat today, if possible. Registration is still open and we have three more levels of play. Alternatively, make sure you come in early tomorrow.
We haven’t paid too much detail to individual hands this day (you should check Jason Glatzer’s live blog over at PokerListings for that) but while strolling through the tournament area we witnessed a double up and thought we’d slowly start getting into more serious hand reporting mode.
We came by Attila Pergel’s table. The young Hungarian was down to half the starting stack and found A K in late position. Before him, Jussi Siika open-raised to 1,600 with 10 10 and Pergel moved all-in for roughly 16k. Siika insta-called but his tens did not hold as the dealer fanned Q 7 5 K A , giving Pergel two pair and a timely double-up.
It’s 6pm here in Bratislava and we’re only just starting to see the odd empty table or two in the Main Event area – Day 1c has so far attracted 269 entries, of whom 175 are currently seated. For much of the day it’s been alternates-only as we’d completely maxed out the available space (and dealers) in the tournament area.
In light of this, although nothing has yet been announced, we’re issuing a tentative warning to anyone hoping to play Day 1d tomorrow: get yourself registered early. And for anyone hoping to play the Pokerlistings Championship at 1pm – well, we’re going to have to wait and see about that. If tomorrow’s Main Event field is anything like today’s, we won’t be at all surprised if the Pokerlistings event, and indeed a number of other side events, end up being postponed or worse. Watch this space.
Emmanuel Leghait seems to have been the beneficiary of a 20k+ pot, and his stack is now at a roughly chip-leading 150k. I didn’t catch the the action, but the board read 5 2 7 Q 9 when Leghait checked the river. His opponents Veselin Petrov and Konstaninos Nanos both checked behind, and mucked when Leghait revealed Q 5 for two pair.
Petrov is still above average after that on 70k; EPT veteran and serial winner of various other tournaments Nanos is down below his starting stack though on 27k.
With the 187/262 Main Event players just heading back to the tables for Level 7, another event is just beginning. The €1,100 NLH High Roller has already garnered 30 entries, meaning the €30,000 is already met. Players registered so far include the UK’s Dave Clark and Dutch haircare enthusiast Mateusz Moolhuizen. Rebuys are allowed, and we expect the prizepool for this one to turn hefty. Good luck, all.
After six levels of play our participants went on a hard-earned 30-minute break and snuck a peak at their chips. Here are the ones that appear to have the most chips right now:
| Player | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|
| Wang Lu | 130,000 | 217 |
| Miroslav Juris | 120,000 | 200 |
| Marian Flesar | 120,000 | 200 |
| Sivan Mirani | 100,000 | 167 |
| Jari Pekka Raettyae | 100,000 | 167 |
| Markku Tammisto | 94,000 | 157 |
| Kristaps Krapans | 91,000 | 152 |
| Emmanuel Leghait | 89,000 | 148 |
| Johan Sundgren | 85,000 | 142 |
| Gabor Peteri | 82,000 | 137 |
| Morten Bremseth | 82,000 | 137 |
| Veselin Petrov | 81,000 | 135 |
| Savvas Papadopoulos | 80,000 | 133 |
| Martin Szecsenyi | 80,000 | 133 |
| Simon Ye | 77,000 | 128 |
| Borbely Kovacs | 75,000 | 125 |
| Petter Fjerstad | 72,000 | 120 |
| Jozsef Dobos | 69,000 | 115 |
| Attila Kuna | 65,000 | 108 |
| Simon Hemsworth | 64,000 | 107 |
| Paul Groven | 63,000 | 105 |
| Tornike Manvelidze | 60,000 | 100 |
| Paul Maguire | 56,000 | 93 |
| Heikki Siitari | 50,000 | 83 |
| Gaspar Perasovic | 40,000 | 67 |
Andreas Hoglund and his team compiled an awesome video recap of yesterday’s action at The Festival. Enjoy:
We understand that it’s now one in, one out in the massive Main Event 1c flight. No more tables can be opened if there’s to be enough space left for the sides, so it’s alternates only for the moment. The clock is currently showing 244 entries and rising.
Not to worry if you haven’t managed to secure your seat yet though – there are three more starting flights to go, and reg will stay open right into Day 2, until the end of Level 14.
The fourth level of the day just ended and we have 235 players in the system. This brings the total amount of entries to 540. More players are lining up for the Main Event and the next side events will start at 5 pm. The question now is, will we see 300 entries today? Probably!
While strolling through the area we found some fantastic chip and card protectors on the tables, Which one is your favourite?
Our photographer Mairo “EstonianWeirdo” Toom was making his rounds in the Main Event area and took pictures of our players:
The players are on the first break of the day and we took the opportunity to count some of their chips.
The numbers are rough eye-balled estimates, but it appears that we have (at least) two players who managed to more than triple their starting stack in the first three levels.
| Players | Chips | Blinds |
|---|---|---|
| Sivan Mirani | 107,000 | 357 |
| Riben Rasmussen | 105,000 | 350 |
| Younes Jarir | 82,000 | 273 |
| Simon Ye | 80,000 | 267 |
| Jian Luo | 61,000 | 203 |
| Almir Koljenovic | 60,000 | 200 |
| Anastasios Pagonakis | 59,000 | 197 |
| Karol Petocz | 59,000 | 197 |
| Markku Tammisto | 56,000 | 187 |
| Michel Leibgorin | 56,000 | 187 |
| Iury Wolf | 55,000 | 183 |
| Csaba Illes | 54,000 | 180 |
| Nika Agirba | 54,000 | 180 |
| Marian Flesar | 54,000 | 180 |
| Dmitri Dudakov | 53,000 | 177 |
| Jari Pekka Raettyae | 49,000 | 163 |
| Kurt Bjoernhaug | 45,000 | 150 |
| Kristaps Krapans | 43,000 | 143 |
After 60 minutes, we have surpassed the 150 entry mark and the main event area (called room “London”) is almost full now. Late Reg is open the entire day, we have another two starting flights tomorrow and for the first two levels, we also allow re-entries. This is the blind structure for today:
| Level | Small Blind | Big Blind | Ante | Time | Starts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 100 | 100 | 40 min. | 12:00 | |
| 2 | 100 | 100 | 100 | 40 min. | 12:40 |
| 3 | 100 | 200 | 200 | 40 min. | 13:20 |
| Break | 20 min. | 14:00 | |||
| 4 | 100 | 300 | 300 | 40 min. | 14:20 |
| 5 | 200 | 400 | 400 | 40 min. | 15:00 |
| 6 | 200 | 500 | 500 | 40 min. | 15:40 |
| Break | 20 min. | 16:20 | |||
| 7 | 300 | 600 | 600 | 40 min. | 16:40 |
| 8 | 400 | 800 | 800 | 40 min. | 17:20 |
| 9 | 500 | 1,000 | 1,000 | 40 min. | 18:00 |
| Break | 20 min. | 18:40 | |||
| 10 | 600 | 1,200 | 1,200 | 40 min. | 19:00 |
| 11 | 800 | 1,600 | 1,600 | 40 min. | 19:40 |
| 12 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 2,000 | 40 min. | 20:20 |
Today the Main Event area fills up much more quickly than yesterday. The first level isn’t even over and we’re up to 121 entries already.
Unlike the two days before, we also have casualties during the first level – two players are already out. As our PokerListings colleague Jason Glatzer remarked: “The people are being more jammy today!” We like that!
Meanwhile, outside there’s still a queue with more people wanting to get in the Main Event.
Here’s our own Andreas Hoglund, preparing the daily recap video.
During the shuffle up and deal announcement, we also announced the next Festival Stop. The Festival Series is going to Nottingham and will be played in the famous Dusk Till Dawn Pokerroom which is run by Rob Yong.
We’re super happy and excited about this new stop – our first in England. The next Festival will run from Feb 13 – 19 and offer the same €550 Main Event plus all the various Casino Championships, the Festival is famous for.
With 80 players on the screen, we just announced shuffle up and deal. There’s a queue outside with players waiting to sign up for Day 1c, so we expect the player numbers to increase further within the next minutes.
It’s a wonderful morning in the Slovakian capital with the sun shining and temperatures expected to reach 20 degrees today. While other people might enjoy the outside, we will enjoy our little poker tournament in the confines of the Banco Casino today.
And why shouldn’t we? After three days with massive action already, we expect hundreds of players over the course of this day to try their luck in one of the very many events we’re having on the menu today. In a bit under two hours, the Main Event will start and almost a dozen other tournaments are scheduled to run as well.
This is today’s schedule:
| 12:00 | MAIN EVENT DAY 1C – 12 Levels €500,000 gtd. | 500+50 | 2x per flight | 30k / 40 |
| 13:00 | Heads Up Texas, CAP 32, Day 1 | 225+25 | No | 10k / 25/20 |
| 13:00 | H.O.R.S.E. | 225+25 | 6 lvls | 25k / 30 |
| 17:00 | Half ‘n’ Half (Texas & PLO) | 110+15 | 4 lvls | 20k / 20 |
| 17:00 | NLH High Roller €30,000 gtd. | 1000+100 | 8 lvls | 100k / 30 |
| 19:00 | Satellite to Main Event 5x €550 Main Event tickets gtd. | 50+10 | 8 lvls | 10k / 20 |
| 20:00 | PLO 4/5/6 Cards (7 Max) | 225+25 | 6 lvls | 25k / 20 |
| 20:00 | Cash Game Challenge €2/2 NLH | 250 | ||
| 21:00 | Matching Visions Slots Tournament | 225+25 | No | – |
| 21:00 | NL Surprise (package to next Stop added) | 225+25 | 6 lvls | 15k / 20 |
| 22:30 | Cash Game Challenge €2/2 PLO | 250 | ||
| 00:00 | Blackjack Championship Final | Closed | Closed | – |
We will follow the casino action over the entire day.
If you read a detailed Main Event live blog, check out our sister site PokerListings where Jason Glatzer is providing detailed Main Event coverage.
