There are just 58 entries logged on the Day 1b board so far, but don’t be fooled – it was more or less the same here yesterday at this ungodly time, before the numbers swelled to 134 by the end of Level 12. Among the players who won the battle against their hangovers and made it here roughly on time are circuit stalwart Johan Goslings and last night’s Hendon Mob Warm Up runner up Simon Wilson. Also just spotted in the tournament area, although not yet seated at a table: the reigning Festival in Bratislava champion and all-round legend, Martin Mauthner (pictured above).
Meanwhile we apologise that for the next few hours at least we’ll be recycling yesterday’s photos, or attempting our own on an iPhone – our photographer Mairo is among the busload of people who’ve headed off to the pool tournament somewhere across town. We’ll be bringing you a lot of photos of people playing pool in the fullness of time.
Jozef Komorny managed to maintain his chip lead after that massive hand against Marcin Stachyra, and unsurprisingly ended the day in front on a chonky 181,800 – although he’s still a way behind Day 1a chip leader Pavol Melichar’s 223,000. However, everything could change tomorrow, as we see Day 1c play out from noon, followed by the turbo-format Day 1d at 10pm.
A total of 55 players made it through from today’s Day 1b, with a total of 132 entries recorded – please see below for full chip counts. We’ve so far had a total of 240 entries across the first two start days, meaning there’s a possibility of an overlay tomorrow if we fail to hit the 600 total entries for the €300,000 guarantee. Tell all your friends!
Meanwhile the €100 + €100 + €20 NLH Knockout event drew 124 entries, of whom 34 are still battling it out for a spot in the 15 places that pay out – we’ll have results for that as and when.
The €1,000 + €100 PLO High Roller attracted 12 entries, of whom eight still have chips – we have been assured that the final table will be streaming shortly, so keep an eye on our livestream page.
Elsewhere, the final start day of the hilarious and somewhat experimental Roulette Championship has attracted what looks like about 20 players, and someone’s put on some Russian hiphop to enhance the atmosphere. More on that later.
Elsewhere, a number of happy Festival punters were treated to dinner and wine tasting at an Italian restaurant by Franke “Festival” von Zweigbergk himself, and at 10pm there is a player outing to a cabaret bar that’s been hired out for the exclusive enjoyment of The Festival players. Make sure you download The Festival app to receive notifications about other activities and parties happening throughout the week.
We’ll be back on the tournament floor at noon tomorrow, when we’re expecting our final starting day to swell the Main Event field considerately. However, before that we need to go and inspect the very important matters occurring in the bar. See you there!
Michael Uguccioni has enjoyed some fine luck on the very last hand of the day, as Mihaly Jancso went all in and Daniel Prior, who’d been playing basically every hand for a while now, reshoved. “I need a camera!” Uguccioni cried out, tossing in the call and flipping his cards over. Your wish is our command! Sorry my iPhone was the only one to hand.
Jancso: 3 6 Prior: 8 8 Uguccioni: A A
Board: 5 A Q 4 J
With that we lose both Jancso and Prior, while Uguccioni will go into Day 2 as one of the bigger stacks on 140k or so.
We’ve reached the end of the level and now all players have to count their chips, put them into a bag, seal it and hand it over to the tournament director Gerard Serra. We will publish full chip counts within a bit.
Following Lina Olofsson’s blue cheese/pineapple/egg pizza yesterday, we bring you the latest in a series of baffling snacks being enjoyed (“enjoyed”) by players at the tables. Today: what appears to be a load of walnuts in some sort of brown liquid, served in a pint glass with a bread roll, grapes, and a side of cigarettes. We weren’t offered any this time so cannot attest to its deliciousness. If anyone has any further information, please let the bloggers know.
I arrived on the 5 K 6 and both Jozef Komorny (utg) and Marcin Stachyra (late position) had put over 10k each into the pot, although I got there too late to tell you who acted first. The turn was the 2 which both players checked, leading them directly to the river – the 9 . This time Komorny bet out 20k, forcing Stachyra into the tank – a call would suck up almost half his remaining stack. Nevertheless, after a few moments Stachyra called – only to make a sound like air escaping from a balloon when Komorny turned over 7 8 for the straight.
“I push all in on the turn, you call?” he asked, throwing his own hand into the muck.
“Of course,” said Komorny, possibly telling the truth – who knows?
“Oh my god,” lamented Stachyra, his face in his hands as he contemplated his remaining 24k with less than half an hour left of Day 1b. Meanwhile it looks as though Komorny is our new chip leader on over 190k.
Meanwhile we have reached the last level of the night for the Main Event. We might be a bit short of the boldly projected 200+ entries, but over 130 is still a very decent number and we’re more than confident to smash the guarantee tomorrow.
While the main event comes to a conclusion for today the side events are still running with the PLO Highroller being transferred to the TV table. It will be streamed within the hour.
Out with the best hand in a three-way-all-in: Gerd Mitteregger
We just witnessed a three-way-all-in on table 36. Three players with a somewhat shortish stacks found themselves all-in with the following hands
Jiri Horacek: 8-7
David Taborsky: A-T
Gerd Mitteregger: A-J
Mitteregger was the shortest stack and at risk of elimination with the best hand, and Jiri Horacek was very confident to spike something even before the flop was dealt. The dealer obliged and dealt a board of K-Q-8-9-6. The single pair for Horacek was enough to take down the pot and Mitteregger was sent home.
After a raise and a reraise Christina Solli was all-in with 8 8 against the Brit Leo Worthington-Leese who had her dominated with J J . With more than 50k in the middle it was a substantial all-in and the board ran out 3 Q 4 4 5 – no help for Solli. She left the tournament while Worthington-Leese is up to over 85k.
We’re now at that delightful stage in the day when cries of “Seat open!” are reverberating around the room with pleasing frequency. Lates to hit the rail is Per Lindqvist, who got it in with Q 9 for second pair and a flush draw on a J 9 7 flop. Martin Mauthner made the call with K J for top pair and a better flush draw, leaving Lindqvist drawing thin. Neither the 10 turn nor the Q helped Lindqvist any, but rather made Mauthner a straight, increasing the latter’s stack to over 90k.
Other players who have bitten the tournament dust recently include Attila Kuna, Charalampos Chatzithoma, Emil Karhu and Joni Helenius. Seventy-one players remain of 129 entries.
Ace-Jack-Off vs. Ace-Jack-Off all-in preflop – that’s a chop, right? Normally it is. But not always. Leif Jensen just got lucky when he was all-in with his last chips (a few big blinds) with A J against Peter Krisko’s A J . The board ran out 8 2 4 9 10 giving Jensen the better flush. He more than doubled up and has a bit more breathing now with 16k chips (which is still only 16 Big Blinds).
For some players the stacks are getting shallow enough to be in constant push fold mode. One of those players was Kamil Karhu who re-shoved over an open-raise from Carina Wald with A-T. His stack was small enough that Wald had an easy call with A-5. The board bricked until the river which brought a fatal five to seal Karhus Fate.
Day 1b is now officially bigger than Day 1a – we’re at 115 entries now, with 82 players still in possession of chips, and we fully expect that number to continue to swell until the end of the day. Players are on a 20 minute break and your faithful bloggers are about to head out to find some food, but in the meantime here are the biggest stacks we can see:
Aleksandar Tomovic – spiking straights on the river
It was only a couple of hands ago that the Greek Nikolaos Tsitos luckily doubled up with Q-9 against Aces. He was much less lucky this time we passed by his table.
On a flop of 7 6 5 he was involved in a big pot with Aleksandar Tomovic. There were 13k in the middle already and Tomovic bet 6k. Tsitos moved all-in for a total of 25k chips. Tomovic quickly called and turned over 8 7 for top pair and a straight draw. Tsitos had 9 9 for a better pair and a gutshot.
Turn: Q
River: 9
With Tsitos making a set Tomovic made a straight and raked in the massive pot while Tsitos was sent to the rails.
We were just to report on Michael Uguccioni and how he propelled into the chip lead with almost 5 times the average stack in the past level. But just as we were about to hit the “Post” button, he managed to lose a substantial portion of his stack to the Austrian Daniel Prior. Michael was all-in with 8-8, Daniel had Ace-King and spiked an Ace on the flop resulting in an 80k pot being shoved his way. Uguccioni is still among the chip leaders, but most likely no longer the biggest stack in the field. We will eyeball the biggest stacks during the next break (which will be in roughly 10 minutes).
Nikolaos Tsitos with the power to crack aces on the river
Aces are a rather tricky hand in Hold’em. You either win a small pot or you lose a big one. At least that’s what people say about this. Then of course you can do everything right with Aces and still lose more than half your stack. That’s what Jaako Kaeyhkoe just experienced.
On 9-6-2-7 Turn he called an all-in with A-A against Nikolaos Tsitos. Tsitos held Q-9 for a meagre top pair and was more than halfway out the main event. But he spiked a Queen on the river and doubled up to almost 30k. Meanwhile Kaeyhkoe is down to one third of the starting stack.
In very important news, we have just been informed that today is our very own Mauritz Altikardes‘ name day here is Slovakia – or at least his Slovak equivalents Móric, Maurícius and Maurus. Happy name day Mauritzcius! We imagine there’ll be proper celebrations later in the casino bar.
The chips seem unusually evenly distributed at this stage in the tournament (Level 5: blinds/ante 200/400/400, with 24 reentries) – I can’t see anyone with more than double the 36k average at the moment. Nevertheless, these are the biggest stacks currently in the Main Event:
Aare Haapsal – 70k Daniel Prior – 68k Aleksandar Tomovic – 63k Ylva Thorsrud – 60k Totti Lind – 60k
Meanwhile we’re close to the end of level 5 and thus have reached the half time for today. We’re up to 104 entries. We might not quite make the projected 200 for today, but more and more players are pouring into the Banco Casino. We’ll see what the next 5 levels have in store for us.
Over at Ylva Thorsrud’s table, Toivo Ojasoo has doubled through Petr Kubenka. It looked like the chips all went in on the flop.
Ojasoo: Q Q Kubenka: A K
Board: 7 Q K 6 4
Ojasoo is up to around 45k after that. Meanwhile Kubenka, who notable finished third for over €80,000 in the PartyPoker Millions in Rozvadov in his native Czechia back in 2019, has dropped to 28k, just below his starting stack.
In level 5 with a big blind of 400 several players are slowly approaching dangerous terrain. One of them was Dan Olin who had a bit more than 10k (one third of his starting stack) left. With 8 8 he opened from middle position and got two callers. The 5 4 2 flop looked innocent enough and he fired a pot sized bet with his overpair. Only one of his opponents, Ismo Kero, called the bet. With a J on the turn Olin fired once more. This time he put his remaining stack in. Ismo quickly called and turned over Q Q for the better pair. The river bricked and Olin immediately bought into the super satellite to try and win another main event ticket.
Adi Rajkovic has busted out after staking his whole stack on a flopped set of threes, but getting a called from Aare Haapsal holding top pair and a flush draw. The flush came in on the river, and Rajkovic is gone – for now, at least. We politely remind you that players are allowed up to two rebuys on every start day of this Main Event.
The following players have run out of chips in the last few minutes:
Daniel Riemer
Marc Escalante
Hanna Arnesson (pictured)
Dusan Sninsky
This doesn’t by any means imply we’ve seen the last of them though – players are allowed up to two rebuys on each start day, so anyone who’s got another €550 burning a hole in their pocket is more than welcome to buy straight back in.
I was hunting for big stacks in the Main Event during the break and as I noted down 53k for Ylva Thorsrud, the lady herself piped up behind me, “I had one big pot!”
Turns out Thorsrud opened to 500 under the gun with pocket nines and got a call from Kelly Limonova to her immediate left. They saw a Q-9-4 flop with two spades on it, and Thorsrud bet out 600. Limonova made it 1.5k, Thorsrud made it 4.5k, and finally Limonova went all in for 20k. Thorsrud called and Limonova revealed KQ offsuit which failed to improve against Thorsrud’s set of nines, putting Thorsrud up to a nice chunky early lead at her table and relegating Limonova to the rail. It looks like she’s bought straight back in though.
That’s a bear guarding Ylva Thorsrud stack during the break
The Main Events heads into the first break and we took the chance to eyeball some of the bigger stacks. Those are the chip leaders after the first 3 levels:
We’re up to 73 entries with 70 players currently seated in the Main already (shout out to Mattias Eklund and Dan Wald for doing their first bullet already!). At this stage, we’re very confident that today is going to dwarf yesterday’s 108-strong Day 1a field.
Beyond the Main Event, today’s schedule is absolutely packed with diverse events to suits every taste and every pocket.
At 3pm there’s another €30 + €5 supersat to the Main Event, and then at 5pm you have the choice of the €100 + €100 + €20 NLH Knockout or the €1,000 + €100 PLO High Roller event. At 6pm there’s the third and final start day of the €225 + €25 Blackjack Championship, and then at 9pm it’s your last chance to join the €225 + €25 Roulette Championship. If you’re still looking for action after that, at 10pm there’ll be Stand ‘N’ Go Texas Flips, at a variety of buy-in levels – plus don’t forget we’ve got 24/7 cash games going on downstairs in the casino.
Hanna Arnesson – one of the 3 women currently in the main event field
After yesterday ended with zero women making the cut, today looks a bit more promising – at least for now. Out of 60 runners there are 5 women in the field – Hanna Arnesson, Kelly Limonova, Carina Wald, Noelia Ivars and yesterday’s charity winner Ylva Thorsud.
…Incorporating highlights from Day 1a of the Main Event, Day 1b of the Blackjack and Roulette Championships, and Ylva Thorsrud’s glorious victory in the €8,000 Acroud Charity SNG.
As per yesterday, we’re starting today’s Main Event flight with a somewhat bijou field – just 37 at the moment, although we expect that number to swell significantly over the course of the day. Among today’s unfashionably early arrivals are Sviten Special finalist Hanna Arnesson and Twitch streamer Tommi “Gargamies” Heimonen. I also found last night’s Acroud Charity Tournament winner Ylva Thorsrud (pictured) outside smoking – she assured me that she has plans to play the Main today as well.
With 21 players Day 1B starts right on time. We will play 10 levels á 45 minutes today and finish around half past 8 pm. Late registration is open until the 2nd level of the 2nd day and players are allowed up to two re-entries per day.
Right now the tables are still devoid of dealers, chips and players. But this will change within the next minutes as Day 1B of the Main Event will start at 12:0 pm. After over 100 entries yesterday we expect more than 200 entries for this day and a lot of action at the tables.
While waiting for the players may be take the chance to remind you of our app once more?
The easiest way to stay up to date with everything that is happening in the casino (including starting times, delays, vital information and updates) is to use our app. You can find it in the App Store and Play Store via this link:
