Frank Visser Makes Up for Bubble in OFC With a Victory in PLO/PLO8
It was another busy day at The Festival Series Malta at Portomaso Casino with Aaron Kupin, Beate Etim, Frank Visser, Salvatore Ritrovato, and Guido Stanzione all winning titles.
Read on to learn more about what events they won and more:
Aaron Kupin Brings OFC Title to Florida
Aaron Kupin traveled out to Romania where his girlfriend is originally from all the way from his home state of Florida. He was looking for some poker action and saw all the mixed games on offer at The Festival Series Malta and decided to check it out. He has been having fun all week long but shared that OFC is his favorite game. It appears he has a lot of practice based on his success on Day 5 of The Festival Series Malta.
Kupin eliminated the final two players on the bubble in the €250 OFC Event and then zoomed ahead to win the €2,880 to bring the OFC trophy back to the USA.
The OFC attracted 28 entries to create an €8,206 prize pool. Here is a look at the payouts:
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aaron Kupin | €2,880 |
| 2 | Thibaut Yoccoz | €2,016 |
| 3 | Kornel Kielbik | €1,440 |
| 4 | Teemu Hietala | €1,050 |
| 5 | Maksymilian Gora | €820 |
Beate Etim Wins The Festival Queens Ladies Event
Beate Etim defeated Christel Haller heads-up to win the €125 The Festival Queens Ladies Event for €1,760. Kairit Leibold, Adriana Bernardo, and Angelica Andersson also made the money.
The event attracted 47 entries to create a €4,963 prize pool. Congrats to Beate and all of the players that cashed in The Festival Queens.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beate Etim | €1,760 |
| 2 | Christel Haller | €1,340 |
| 3 | Kairit Leibold | €1,050 |
| 4 | Adriana Bernardo | €480 |
| 5 | Angelica Andersson | €333 |
Salvatore Ritrovato Wins Texas Surprise After Five-Way Deal
The €125 Texas Surprise attracted 131 entries to create a €13,834 prize pool. Salvatore Ritrovato won the event for €2,230 after agreeing to a five-way deal with Alfredo Cuti, Kei Yaegashi, Leonard White, and Vadim Gercev. The other four players mentioned each received an equal prize of €2,130.
This is not all as it was announced before Day 2 of the Main Event that Ritrovato also won a ticket to the €250 Mystery Bounty Tournament and that same ticket will be awarded to the bubble boy of this event in Juuso Parviainen also will be awarded a ticket. In other words, there is a surprise within a surprise as the Mystery Bounty tournament is all about surprises on Day 2 when the bounty envelopes are opened.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Salvatore Ritrovato | €2,230 |
| 2 | Alfredo Cuti | €2,130 |
| 3 | Kei Yaegashi | €2,130 |
| 4 | Leonard White | €2,130 |
| 5 | Vadim Gercev | €2,130 |
| 6 | Niko Korhonen | €550 |
| 7 | Marko Nynynen | €410 |
| 8 | Kai Muller | €320 |
| 9 | Ingela Charlez | €250 |
| 10 | Ismo Kero | €250 |
| 11 | Ja Iversen | €250 |
| 12 | Shane O’Dwyer | €250 |
| 13 | Stuart Griffith | €200 |
| 14 | Aleksiy Baranovskiy | €200 |
| 15 | Andreas Sanden | €200 |
| 16 | Alessandra Cuntro | €200 |
Frank Visser Makes Up for OFC Bubble By Winning PLO/PLO8
Frank Visser is one of the players here at The Festival Series Malta for the mixed games. He appeared disappointed after he bubbled the OFC event but made it for it in a big way. Visser defeated Ali Oznesil heads-up to win the €250 PLO/PLO8 for €2,220.
The event attracted 64 runners to create a €6,758 prize pool. Here is a look at all of the payouts:
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Frank Visser | €2,220 |
| 2 | Ali Oznesil | €1,430 |
| 3 | Leif Iversen | €990 |
| 4 | Scott “Pokerbrahs” Kenyon | €675 |
| 5 | Daiele Marchesani | €500 |
| 6 | Christopher Pajeso | €388 |
| 7 | Julien Teissedre | €305 |
| 8 | Kenneth Kull | €250 |
Guido Stanzione Wins the Texas Friday Midnight Madness (€2,250)
Mantas Petrauskas Wins Yesterday's the Cash Game Challenge
Earlier this week, Lithuania’s Mantas Petrauskas won the €250 Heads-Up tournament for €2,480. He will be highlighted again tonight after winning the most in the €5/€5 no-limit hold’em Cash Game Challenge with a profit of €1,624 good for 324.8 big blinds.
This is still a galaxy away from the €6,300 for 3,150 big blinds won by our very own Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk in a €2/€2 pot-limit Omaha Cash Game Challenge earlier this week.
| Date | Game | Winner | Amount | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 15 | €2/€2 NLHE | Hugo Loustrau | €416 | 208 |
| May 15 | €2/€2 PLO | Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk | €6,300 | 3,150 |
| May 16 | €2/€2 NLHE | Tobias Bollman | €610 | 305 |
| May 16 | €2/€2 PLO | Jack Holland | €637 | 318.5 |
| May 17 | €2/€2 PLO | Martins Geiba | €1,008 | 504 |
| May 18 | €2/€2 PLO | Adam Briggs | €560 | 280 |
| May 18 | €2/€2 NLHE | Adam Briggs | €532 | 266 |
| May 19 | €5/€5 NLHE | Mantas Petrauskas | €1,624 | 324.8 |
Sami Korpula Leads the Franke's Flip Flop Challenge
The Franke’s Flip Flops has been going on all week long and tomorrow will be the final evening of flips starting at 9 p.m.
Players enjoy rake-free flips while also competing on the Franke’s Flip Flops Leaderboard. The winner of the leaderboard will be crowned the Franke’s Flip Flops Challenge. That honor also comes with a frame pair of Franke’s actual flip flops he has been wearing all week and a package to The Festival Series Bratislava at Banco Casino from Nov. 27 to Dec. 3.
Until today, there were several players tied at two flips each. But that quickly changed tonight with 14 flips run today. Sami Korpula made the most of the biggest day for the flips by winning three flips putting him in the lead with one more day of flipping to go with five flips won.
Meanwhile, Rolf Bechstrom won three flips today as well. However, he is still two behind Korpela after previously not appearing on the leaderboard. Joseph Jackson is tied with Bechstrom after winning two flips tonight as well.
If for some reason, the leaderboard ends with a tie, one final flip will take place to see who the champion will be among the tied players. Here is a look at the full leaderboard through Friday:
| Player | Flips Won |
|---|---|
| Sami Korpela | 5 |
| Joseph Jackson | 3 |
| Rolf Bechstrom | 3 |
| Svein Olav Edisaeter | 2 |
| Ave Lepik | 2 |
| Alexandru Talica | 2 |
| Marita Magi | 2 |
| Ian Vertefeuille | 1 |
| Tom Delaine | 1 |
| Marek Liiv | 1 |
| Valmar Runk | 1 |
| Eirik Hamre | 1 |
| Daniel Hong | 1 |
| Lisbeth Sunde | 1 |
| Annika Haaviste | 1 |
| Peter Jancso | 1 |
| Sean O’Donnell | 1 |
| Mairo Toom | 1 |
| Melvin Schroen | 1 |
| Toivo Ojasoo | 1 |
May 20th Schedule
Today is another big day with it starting off with a bang with both the Main Event and The Hendon Mob Championship progressing to their second day. The Hendon Mob Championship is down to 15 hopefuls in the money and will play down to a winner while the Main Event is planned to play down to 16 players. Late registration for the Main Event will still be open for the first two blind levels of the day but the five opening flights attracted 579 entries with 181 players finding a bag.
Laila Hawaszedeh will kick things off in the captain's seat after bagging 382,500 from her starting stack of 30,000. Oystein Brenden was too far behind with 369,000, while Adam Briggs was the only other player over 300,000 in chips with 329,500. Day 2 will feature 45-minute blind levels instead of the 40 minutes featured during most of the opening flights.
There are plenty of other events on tap today including the €125 Sportsbook Tournament and the two-day €250 Mystery Bounty. Here is a look at the entire schedule:
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 12 p.m. | Event #8: €550 Main Event Day 2 |
| 1 p.m. | Event #35: €250 The Hendon Mob Championship Day 2 |
| 1 p.m. | Event #42: €125 Sportsbook Tournament |
| 2 p.m. | Event #43: €250 PLO Freezeout |
| 6 p.m. | Event #44: €250 Mystery Bounty Day 1 |
| 8 p.m. | Event #45: €10/€10 NLHE Cash Game Challenge |
| 10:30 p.m. | Event #47: €10/€10 PLO Cash Game Challenge |
| 11 p.m. | Event #46: €125 PLO Midnight Madness |
